In today's world, the way in which users are interacting with information and with each other is changing rapidly. People are connecting to the internet with a host of new devices and are accessing content or information in new ways. Over the years since internet has emerged in the early 1990s, people have now developed online lives, where routine daily tasks involve the internet. Yet through this change, some exemplars have emerged in the realm of 'online services' which provide that unique customer experience that users seek and keep them coming back, despite a host of competitors and little to no switching costs. In the social media realm, there is Facebook which has clearly dominated over competitors such as MySpace. Online gaming is led by Zynga, the maker of FarmVille despite PlayFish and Pogo and many other online game sites. When most people of online music, they turn to Pandora rather than offerings from Last.fm and Slacker Radio. And online information and community sites such as Wikipedia, Blogger, and LinkedIn are ruling over content mills, Typepad and Wordpress, and Bebo.
Key Questions:
What makes these key offerings work and why are they sticky? Is there something that explains their success? How is the user experience managed? How is the user experience designed, and are there key elements of each leading offering that are common among 'winning' platforms? How do they overlap: for example, Zynga and other online gaming companies use Facebook as a platform. What is the customer experience of each - relating to the customer experience framework we have studied in class? How are customers acquired? How are they managed? How are users retained? Have these online services been able to create higher switching costs than that of other less popular offerings? How much do these companies understand of their user base that is allowing them to target other customers and develop other appealing offerings? What are the broader implications of our growing connection to online services and what could the future hold? For instance, will it be a winner-take-all market for each type of offering or will multiple offerings co-exist?
My Interest in this Topic:
I am intrigued with how much our lives are being conducted online and how rapidly this phenomena is changing in today's world. As someone who remembers the late 1990's internet bubble and crash, it seems there is some element of what is going on today that parallels that period. However, there is likely much that is different and it is possible we are not going through internet bubble cycle 2.0 at this point. I hope to understand why or why not this may be occurring and what has changed since that time. This topic is also personally relevant to me because I hope to find a job at one of the leading online service providers. I think that by conducting the research for this paper that I will learn a great deal about the industry and the strategy behind the engaging customer experience that has been created by each company.
As I think about my interest in this topic and my future career, I consider that if I were required to write an MBA dissertation, that this would be my topic.
Resources:
My research resources include learning from one of the leading experts in online marketing today, Seth Godin, through his book and ongoing personal blog. I also will analyze the corporate blogs of today's leading companies in this realm, Google, Facebook, and Pandora. Additionally, I will look at leading tech site articles devoted to the topic, such as the CNN Tech article listed below.
Seth Godin, Tribes, 2008
Seth Godin's Glog
CNN Tech, Why the no-fun 'FarmVille' is so popular, Sept. 28, 2010
Pandora Corporate Blog
Google 10 Things Corporate Philosophy
Facebook Corporate Blog
1 comment:
Jason - Great topic. I think you'll really enjoy this. Two references I have off the top of my head are "The Web is Dead" article from Wired magazine and you might want to skim through the book, Groundswell (we're going to read a chapter or two for class after spring break). Also, Fortune did a good article about Facebook killing Google - lots of interesting stuff in there, as I remember. Seth Godin is great, just be sure your paper does not just reiterate his pronouncements (i.e., don't make a "The Gospel According to Seth) - it's easy to do because he writes interesting & provocative stuff. Otherwise, just let me know if you want to chat along the way.
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