1.6 billion online… and now get ready for the next billion, courtesy of the mobile web
While hundreds of millions of consumer reviews are already zipping around cyberspace, prepare for a deluge of truly biblical proportions. And a deluge of review innovations, too. Some numbers:
•1.6 billion consumers are now online, and the majority of them have been online for years. They're skilled bargain seekers and ‘best of the best’ hunters, they're avid online networkers, and they're opinionated reviewers and advisors.
•On top of that, many more consumers in emerging markets are eager to jump into cyberspace with two thumbs: according to a UN report, there are now more than four billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, two-thirds of which are in developing countries. Even if only a third of those phones get online access in the future, the next billion online users are on the horizon.
•And for future contributors and viewers, especially those that are born to the web, for whom contributing and sharing is a given, reviewing will be a way of life forever..
The reviewing masses will increasingly be enticed to review (and share):
•Product ratings and reviews provider Bazaarvoice’s ShoutIT app enables reviewers to have their reviews effortlessly appear on their Facebook, Digg or Delicious pages as well, while Netflix has hooked up with Facebook to allow users' reviews to be shared on their profile pages.
•Members that post a review on Epinions are rewarded with so called Eroyalties credits, which are in turn are based on an ‘Income Share’ program. The Income Share pool is a portion of Epinions' income, and is split among all authors based on how often their reviews were used in making a decision (whether or not the reader actually made a purchase). Reviewers then can redeem their Eroyalties credits in US dollars.
Meanwhile, big players in the review arena are aggregating, white labeling and syndicating like crazy, causing existing reviews to pop-up in multiple places. A snapshot:
•TripAdvisor, which boasts close to 25 million reviews and opinions on more than 490,000 hotels and attractions, while attracting 25 million+ monthly visitors, earlier this year signed syndication deals with VisitBritain.com, easyJet Holidays and its sister site Hotels.com.
Meanwhile, travel site Raveable now provides a comprehensive view of hotels across the United States by aggregating and summarizing more than 35 million reviews of some 55,000 US hotels.
•UK based comparison shopping service Shopzilla just teamed up with PowerReviews.com, a provider of customer reviews, to add product reviews to its product and price comparison service.
•Bazaarvoice recently signed a deal with UK retailers Debenhams and Asda to include customer reviews on their sites.
•Meanwhile, Sears Holdings, the retailer, launched its own review sites: MySears.com and MyKmart.com.
•Google’s new Rich Snippets program allows the search engine to now display product rating, review count, and actual review text direct in Google search results.
In fact, expect this to be the biggest ‘(R)Evolution’: universal search for products, brands, services and anything else consumers are interested in will turn up aggregated, relevant reviews almost by default, tagged and non-tagged, pulled from review sites (niche and massive), from blogs, from Twitter, from Facebook, from YouTube, and so on.
•Let’s not forget about more compelling formats for reviews: a revealing video says more than a 1,000 photos, and thus the proliferation of videocam phones, including Apple's new iPhone 3G S which includes video functionality, geo tagging, and direct upload facilities for YouTube and Mobile, will be yet another push for video-reviews to take off.
•Reviews are also making their way to the 'real world': aforementioned Bazaarvoice now works with UK retailers Argos and Halfords to feature customer reviews in paper catalogs (Argos alone reaches 17 million UK households with its catalogs).
More ‘real world’ developments (with a virtual twist): expect plenty of augmented reality-meets-reviews examples to pop-up soon. Here are two to get you started:
•Local review site Yelp boasts the first iPhone app with augmented reality. Users can put their iPhone camera in front of a restaurant, with Yelp’s reviews then overlaying their real-world views. (Source: Mashable).
Meanwhile, GraffitiGeo, a mobile service that allows users to share brief reviews of restaurants, is working on a similar iPhone app. More info at TechCrunch
Source: trendwatching.com
While hundreds of millions of consumer reviews are already zipping around cyberspace, prepare for a deluge of truly biblical proportions. And a deluge of review innovations, too. Some numbers:
•1.6 billion consumers are now online, and the majority of them have been online for years. They're skilled bargain seekers and ‘best of the best’ hunters, they're avid online networkers, and they're opinionated reviewers and advisors.
•On top of that, many more consumers in emerging markets are eager to jump into cyberspace with two thumbs: according to a UN report, there are now more than four billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, two-thirds of which are in developing countries. Even if only a third of those phones get online access in the future, the next billion online users are on the horizon.
•And for future contributors and viewers, especially those that are born to the web, for whom contributing and sharing is a given, reviewing will be a way of life forever..
The reviewing masses will increasingly be enticed to review (and share):
•Product ratings and reviews provider Bazaarvoice’s ShoutIT app enables reviewers to have their reviews effortlessly appear on their Facebook, Digg or Delicious pages as well, while Netflix has hooked up with Facebook to allow users' reviews to be shared on their profile pages.
•Members that post a review on Epinions are rewarded with so called Eroyalties credits, which are in turn are based on an ‘Income Share’ program. The Income Share pool is a portion of Epinions' income, and is split among all authors based on how often their reviews were used in making a decision (whether or not the reader actually made a purchase). Reviewers then can redeem their Eroyalties credits in US dollars.
Meanwhile, big players in the review arena are aggregating, white labeling and syndicating like crazy, causing existing reviews to pop-up in multiple places. A snapshot:
•TripAdvisor, which boasts close to 25 million reviews and opinions on more than 490,000 hotels and attractions, while attracting 25 million+ monthly visitors, earlier this year signed syndication deals with VisitBritain.com, easyJet Holidays and its sister site Hotels.com.
Meanwhile, travel site Raveable now provides a comprehensive view of hotels across the United States by aggregating and summarizing more than 35 million reviews of some 55,000 US hotels.
•UK based comparison shopping service Shopzilla just teamed up with PowerReviews.com, a provider of customer reviews, to add product reviews to its product and price comparison service.
•Bazaarvoice recently signed a deal with UK retailers Debenhams and Asda to include customer reviews on their sites.
•Meanwhile, Sears Holdings, the retailer, launched its own review sites: MySears.com and MyKmart.com.
•Google’s new Rich Snippets program allows the search engine to now display product rating, review count, and actual review text direct in Google search results.
In fact, expect this to be the biggest ‘(R)Evolution’: universal search for products, brands, services and anything else consumers are interested in will turn up aggregated, relevant reviews almost by default, tagged and non-tagged, pulled from review sites (niche and massive), from blogs, from Twitter, from Facebook, from YouTube, and so on.
•Let’s not forget about more compelling formats for reviews: a revealing video says more than a 1,000 photos, and thus the proliferation of videocam phones, including Apple's new iPhone 3G S which includes video functionality, geo tagging, and direct upload facilities for YouTube and Mobile, will be yet another push for video-reviews to take off.
•Reviews are also making their way to the 'real world': aforementioned Bazaarvoice now works with UK retailers Argos and Halfords to feature customer reviews in paper catalogs (Argos alone reaches 17 million UK households with its catalogs).
More ‘real world’ developments (with a virtual twist): expect plenty of augmented reality-meets-reviews examples to pop-up soon. Here are two to get you started:
•Local review site Yelp boasts the first iPhone app with augmented reality. Users can put their iPhone camera in front of a restaurant, with Yelp’s reviews then overlaying their real-world views. (Source: Mashable).
Meanwhile, GraffitiGeo, a mobile service that allows users to share brief reviews of restaurants, is working on a similar iPhone app. More info at TechCrunch
Source: trendwatching.com
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario