Life should be a Bigger Deal
Welcome again to our 3 Bells Newsletter. Every week, we share 3 things that mattered.
And ring 3 bells for you.
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It has become regarded as a truism that email is dead. Or dying. But is it?
Certainly, people rage against their cluttered inboxes all the time. By some estimates, we spend a quarter of our working lives just doing email. We hate it. Consumers in general and Gen Y in particular seem to have migrated to messaging platforms en masse, and enterprises are now quickly taking up alternative communications products like Slack and Basecamp.
And yet, the number of emails sent in the world is actually projected to rise to 2017. David Pierce thinks that reports of the death of email might be greatly exaggerated. Email still has a place in working life - it just needs to get smarter. After all, we need a universal platform for official communications, and email provides a useful audit trail. Messaging, though quick and fun to use, is much more ephemeral. Pierce thinks the future of email may lie in products like the new Outlook mobile app (I use it myself) which smartened up email by providing order and easy gestures. And what if future email apps are powered by artificial intelligence, so that events flagged in emails automatically get put in your calendar, important documents like plane tickets are automatically saved in your travel app, and routine replies are generated by the app for approval? Will you still hate email?
Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg / Flickr
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Despite being useful, email is hated because it's difficult to use and overwhelms people. It potentially does not need replacement, just a smart makeover. What about your product? Is it declining simply because you aren't focusing on ease of use? Wise up.
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The price of oil keeps plunging. So what?
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There is much gloom in the air in 2016 around the price of oil. Some think the collapsing price will drive the world into recession. But will it?
In late 2014, analysts were gung-ho about oil when it was at $100 a barrel. Then it underwent a precipitous fall to $50, and forecasters began their usual benefit-of-hindsight justifications, but confidently asserted a bounce-back. In early 2106, with prices breaching $30 per barrel, some have even started talking about doomsday scenarios of $10 and under...
Time to calm down, I think. There have been major demand adjustments, and major games being played by key suppliers like Saudi Arabia. There has indeed been pain felt: oil-dependent economies like Russia are in free-fall; giant oil companies like Shell have seen their shares plunge; and countries like Kenya with recent finds are having to leave the oil in the ground. And yet there is great benefit to the world from a low oil price: import bills are slashed because of lower petroleum costs; currencies are benefiting from the saved foreign exchange. The price of oil will end up where it will once the dust around true supply and demand settles down. And we may indeed be seeing only the opening skirmishes, for in the long term the world is moving steadily away from petrol-driven transport.
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Are you subject to external price shocks? Don't ever bet your business on a price that you can't even control. Smart operators reduce dependency on single products over time, and move ahead of the market when a long-term decline can be seen. Don't wait for the shock to hit.
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WhatsApp goes for business
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In issue #6 of this newsletter I told you about Facebook creeping into the workplace. And now WhatsApp is not far behind.
Have you ever paid the $1 annual charge for WhatsApp? No, I didn't think so. WhatsApp is hugely successful - it is the default messaging app in much of the world - but it is extremely difficult to monetise. There is supposed to be a $1 charge - but it's hardly ever applied. This is something most people find out on the web after a few failed attempts: that it's very difficult to charge the end-users. Even a tiny charge can lead to a big drop-off; and in any case there is too much friction in processing web payments, particularly in emerging markets. Founder Jan Koum is insistent he won't allow adverts on his app - so what will he do, and will parent Facebook keep paying the bills?
He announced last week that WhatsApp is getting serious about making businesses pay. This makes sense: WhatsApp's ubiquity makes it very attractive to businesses as a direct communication channel. Let's see how this pans out.
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Very few can charge consumer users of internet products any money at all. If that's your game, you'll have to think of the implications of 'free' - how to offer value to other parties to pay for the service; or using the web for reach and brand-building and charging for related services.
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