I was reading this piece of news today that got me very interested from a business point of view. Essentially, I’m sure most people are aware that there are a ton of people who use sites such as Youtube to share funny videos or even to the point where some people have made a career out of it. As well, Youtube has a system and policy where companies and studios can request that its copyrighted material be taken off if it is being used without permission. A simple example would be someone uploading a full movie as is which is technically not legal. So like that rightfully the studio can request that the content be removed.

As you may be aware, many times when you visit Youtube there are ads that you see. Usually this is a result of the person who uploaded the video partnering up with Youtube to serve ads which of course means they generate revenue from it. As you can imagine, many people like say a music artist would say no way you are making money off of our work and so often videos get taken down as a result.

However, some companies have opted to do it another way. Instead of saying they are going to take down your uploaded content that has its copyrighted material in it, they will instead just stop you from being able to profit from it. So in this case, whereas normally the revenue of the ads on the video would go to the person that uploaded the video they will now go to the company who is claiming copyright to it.

In many ways it makes sense. However, what’s interesting in this scenario I thought is that when it comes to video games a lot of these video creators try to do things such as commentary over the game that they play in an effort to make it unique. As mentioned, some people make a very good living this way. For those wondering why anyone would even watch such a thing, in many ways I guess think of it like people who find it interesting to watch other people play poker.

Just for curiosity sake I decided to upload a video to find out exactly what it is like. I basically just recorded a gameplay clip from the game and then uploaded it. Sure enough, you are then told as seen here that the content in your video matches that of the owner:

As mentioned above, some companies opt to simply remove the video completely. Instead, as seen here the company wishes the video to remain but as a result you will have advertisements in your video which they will profit from:

So the debate here that I thought that was interesting is how many people expressed actions like these discourage your users to make more videos about your product which is in a sense free advertising through social media. It’s kind of a tricky subject in this case I thought. For example, like for myself I can see why you would want to be extremely harsh if it was a movie as in those cases once people say watch the movie then they have no real need to actually buy it which means a loss in revenue. In a scenario like this though I would think regardless of how many times you watch someone else playing a game, you still need to actually buy it to get the intended experience. So if anything it is like free advertisement to encourage people to buy your product.

The other issue I was thinking of is that enforcing restrictions like these creates a perception that people are doing their job for you in terms of marketing and advertising in a forceful way. It’s like saying instead of thanking one for being a user/fan while helping to spread the word of the product they decide that you must pay them for the right to do it.

While you can probably go on for hours debating about things like “fair use” and how you could get around stuff like this, it kind of brings up the question where if you run a business and was in this scenario would you just allow your fans to do things like commentary videos without restriction as you feel the word of mouth advertising is great? Or do you feel that it’s better that you somehow directly profit from it as in the end you feel you will make more money that way?

Yesterday there was a provincial election here where the scenario was was portrayed by the media and various pollsters that the party in power is going to get the boot with the second strongest party becoming the new leaders. For months everyone predicted that it was going to swing this way. However, as it turned out in the actual votes yesterday the party that was expected to lose actually won in a big way. This created a lot of questions as to what the heck happened and how so many people got it wrong.

One of the main points was how the party that won used negative ads whereas the other party tried to stay with the positive route. Based on the results people were then saying if you really want to get ahead then showing the negative side of your competition is a lot more effective than trying to be the good guy.

I was really thinking about that as this is one of those things you would say that is a horrible thing to do and will make you look worst in the long-run. However, so many times like in these cases it’s the negative stuff that sticks into people’s head. It’s almost like saying if you don’t take some kind of jab at the other person in that fashion that you are more likely to lose.

Probably the biggest topic about of this was how everyone relied on companies that polled the public in regards to who they would vote for as if their results were definite. This resulted in one party scrambling as the underdog and the other side feeling comfortable about its position. In fact, it seemed like one party was so confident that they won they went all out in getting like a victory video all edited in preparation for the victory.

Kind of embarrassing and risky to simply rely on what other people assume is going to happen based on selective polling huh? Thinking of all the times where even businesses rely and make decisions based on these kinds of information. I suppose at the end of the day you can listen to all the experts in the world. But in the end anything can happen and opinions are just that for the most part and you need to be prepared for anything.

I have always heard of how many times there are fake job postings where the person advertising for the job is illegitimate as their sole purpose is to simply collect resumes and information which they then sell to like a telemarketer. Nowadays, it seems like people have evolved a bit by putting fake job postings where they ask that the applicants must endorse their companies through their social media sites in order to be considered for the position. I tried to look for one too see how common it is on like Craigslist and this was a typical example I saw:

As you can see here, this organization is asking people to Like their Facebook page in order to see the apparent job details and as well to even be considered. As you can imagine, essentially they are trying to make their page look as if a ton of people are supporting them. Sadly, it actually works on a lot of people and in this case they have been getting a lot of people to do it. In the past I have even seen advertisements where employers say that in order to be considered for a position you need to first share their company pages through your social media accounts and you must have X number of friends/followers.

This may sound really silly, but it obviously works for people to do it huh? In many ways it is no different than say a money making scheme that targets people who are desperate and gullible to find a get rich quick opportunity. While of course that doesn’t rule out the possibility like a company may be doing some kind of recruiting, you wouldn’t work for free usually and so it makes no sense to start promoting a business until you are on the payroll, so to speak.

I was reading various articles today on how in the states the proposal to force online retailers to charge an online sales tax seems to be passing through fairly quickly. For those that are not aware, apparently this originated as a way to make it more fair for brick and mortar stores as many times products are cheaper online as a result of them not having to charge taxes.

Maybe it’s just me, but even when I shop at places like Amazon I always get charged taxes here. So to me this doesn’t really make much of a difference. What I do notice is that not all online retailers here charge you for things like an electronic recycling fees whereas most brick and mortar stores do. Another thing that was interesting was how some people were saying it was unethical to shop online since it is almost like you are breaking the law for not paying tax on the purchases.

Overall, again I personally don’t see this being too big of a deal. It must be a pain for like a small business though if you were used to not having to charge taxes and this would mean even say an Ebay seller would now have to register and collect taxes.

Today I was talking to a person who’s business is very seasonal where all of his customers usually come around this time of year when the weather gets hot. The interesting thing was because he knows he will get more customers he tends to price his products higher as well. At first I was asking if this was simply due to a supply and demand scenario which made sense to me. However, he said no as it was simply based on the notion that for some reason people are willing to pay the higher prices as during this time of the year if they want to buy something then they will. Therefore, he may as well get more profit.

I was just thinking that must feel a little strange. For example, imagine doing something like offering an E-book where you originally sold it for a certain amount and because you know there is going to be an influx of customers then suddenly you increase the price. Like in this case, it didn’t really require you to do anything more or less. This is one of those things where probably a big shot would say you would be silly not to increase the price if you knew people will pay for it anyways.

However, I tend to think at this day and age information and can easily be found and if people are more aware of a company’s pricing tactic like this that the negative publicity from that is probably not going to be worth the few extra dollars you made. Unless this wasn’t exactly a long term business as you are simply looking to get in and out really fast I suppose. I personally think in a situation where if it doesn’t have anything to do with say an increase cost in doing business that your pricing should be fairly consistent as I know from a consumer point of view the word of mouth can end up costing the business more sales if people perceive it as like price gouging.