Comments for Tim Kilroy's Blog

Comment on Bernard Moon Got It Wrong About Amazon by timkilroy

timkilroy — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:23:28 +0000

Here is an interesting statistic that shows just how much better Amazon’s model is…and how the face of retail will continue to evolve – over the last 4 years, Best Buy’s top line increased by 40%…pretty great. But net income dropped by 7%…ugh…more dollars, less money. Amazon, up 131% top line…very nice. But wait, here comes the kicker…net income up 142%! More dollars and more money. So, the big box guy grows more slowly and has profit that is 7% lower than it was 4 years ago. Amazon is firing on all 8 cylinders…

And as it transitions to a company that sells content as well as products, we should see profit accelerate…

Comment on Bernard Moon Got It Wrong About Amazon by Bernard Moon (@bernardmoon)

Bernard Moon (@bernardmoon) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:17:39 +0000

Thanks, Tim. For me, it’s a matter of perspective. While Amazon has dominated the book category, it’s still a smaller retailer than Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy (Wal-Mart: $421 billion in revenues, Target: $67 billion, Best Buy: $50 billion, Amazon: $34 billion). So while Amazon has been successful entering new areas of ecommerce, it still has a ways to go compared to the Big Box retailers. Maybe not you, but others have responded to my article and speaking as if they see Amazon as the big retail gorilla while it’s the opposite in terms of revenues.

While I emphasized the tax issue for the article, I also know that companies such as Wal-Mart are finally getting focused on their ecommerce efforts so 2012 and beyond will be interesting to see how Amazon responds not only to the tax issue but more focused competition.

As I wrote in my comments in my article, I believe Bezos is incredibly smart and has been hedging Amazon’s core ecommerce operations and has purposely expanded into new markets like the presentation you shared points out.

Comment on Tim is in a rage… by 12 For ’12 – A Look Ahead at 2012 « Tim Kilroy's Blog

12 For ’12 – A Look Ahead at 2012 « Tim Kilroy's Blog — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:58:12 +0000

[...] Obama Wins Re-election in a Landslide: Not wishful thinking on my part, but even as the GOP seems to coalesce around Romney as of this writing, they don’t believe that he really is one of them. Resources turn from the White House to Congress and the partisan stalemate becomes even worse. GOP will win in 2016, falsely benefiting from a torrid economic rebound starting in late 2014. Washington gridlock will be worse than ever previously experienced, and I will be in a rage. [...]

Comment on JoePa-Terminate by Charlott Medick

Charlott Medick — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:13:05 +0000

I will say this first; I am saddened to hear about the Penn state scandle. It is so hard to believe that a coach could do those things to his players for all those years while his superiors ignored it. I understand that the players now as well as some of the schoool community are taking the coaches side, but I can’t be anything but mad that something was not done sooner.
I guess as long as the team keeps winning and the money keeps flowing in then there is never a problem. It is such a sick thing if you really think about it.

Comment on The Trouble With Search… by timkilroy

timkilroy — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:44:49 +0000

Josh, you are spot on. Prensentation of a mammoth data set (Spotify music) is inevitably difficult. and when overwhelmed with choices, people invariably start to gravitate towards things that they recognize. We are, after all, masters of pattern recognition (which is why you can see faces where they don’t exist). Discovery is amazingly hard. To algorithmically capture the delight of a new discovery is amazingly complex (unimaginable for me, frankly), but in order to truly tame the internet, we need to have the equivalent of a guide, the benefit of an experienced friend. I am not sure if we have the capacity to do that today, but mammoth data requires mammoth thinking. Google is an incredible, learning machine. They mistake happy users with clickthroughs and low bounce rate. Those users may not be happy, but rather beaten down.

I want an engine that understands me. Is that too much to ask for?

Comment on The Trouble With Search… by Josh Tretakoff

Josh Tretakoff — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:20:06 +0000

This is a similar problem I’ve been having with the hot music service, Spotify. At first, I was gobsmacked. All my music, every album I can think of, all right there? I gorged. And then I realized I was listening to different albums from artists I was already familiar with. I wanted to expand my tastes. I tried some of my friend’s playlists, but they did not match any of my tastes. I tried some of Spotify’s suggestions and, while good, they were infrequent.

In the end, I found myself going back to Pandora, for it’s ability to tailor to my tastes, and help me discover new music. It also allows you to set up stations based on concepts, like your example of the gift concepts. And I have purchased more music as a result of the discovery engine.

On the iPhone, I see a similar trend. I use Google Reader for my news reading. Unfortunately, voracious reading means I frequently exhaust the feeds. Now, an app called News360 lets you plug in your interests, and customizes the new based on your preferences, pulling in multiple data sources. Result? A discovery of more news content that I click to, and am exposed to their ads, generating revenue.

Discovery engines are definitely tricky. You mention filters, and that usually becomes an example of what many discovery engines become. You need some way to be able to expose people to new content, without making them feel they are missing out on their core content.

Comment on Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who is watching the watchers?) by The Trouble With Search… « Tim Kilroy's Blog

The Trouble With Search… « Tim Kilroy's Blog — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:59:07 +0000

[...] personalization becomes a self-reinforcing algorithm which makes your world smaller. I wrote about filters earlier, and I strongly recommend Eli Pariser’s book, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet [...]

Comment on Why Search Matters by The Trouble With Search… « Tim Kilroy's Blog

The Trouble With Search… « Tim Kilroy's Blog — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:59:03 +0000

[...] few weeks ago, I wrote about why search matters (and the answer is pancakes). Last year, I wrote about all of the things wrong with [...]

Comment on JoePa-Terminate by Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:04:48 +0000

I cannot believe ANY of the student body at Penn State would support JoePa & it’s disgusting!! think about if ur sibling was a victim

Comment on Carpe by Comforters for Cancer « Tim Kilroy's Blog

Comforters for Cancer « Tim Kilroy's Blog — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:13:43 +0000

[...] the heels of my recent health event that reminded me firmly that there is an end to this life, I want to touch on a cause that is [...]