Saturday, November 15, 2008

Pay for Performance..What a simple idea!

Pinstorm is the Reddest Herring!:
"Indian firm chosen among “Asia’s Hottest” three times in four years.

Pinstorm, the world’s leading pay-for-performance digital marketing firm has been selected by Red Herring Magazine to their list of Asia’s 200 Hottest companies for 2008. This is Pinstorm’s third appearance in the list, having graced it earlier in 2005 & 2006. Pinstorm has the distinction of being perhaps the only firm in the world to be selected thrice in four years.

The Red Herring Award is bestowed by Silicon Valley-based Red Herring magazine after evaluating the business model, analysing profitability forecasts, and assessing the management team.

Mahesh Murthy, Founder, Pinstorm said “Colour us red with joy. We first won when we were barely 20 people working out of one office. Today we are over 120 from 7 offices in 6 countries - and it’s a thrill to know that the world sees us just as hot as ever. Our pay-for-performance model is revolutionizing advertising both on the search and display fronts - and we hope to continue this hot streak for a long time to come”, Mahesh Murthy added."

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Google (GOOG) Is Benefiting From the Wal-Mart Effect

StreetInsider.com - Piper Jaffray
"October 17, 2008 9:14 AM EDT

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster commented on Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) after better-than-expected earnings results from the seach giant after the close, saying the company is benefiting from the 'Wal-Mart' effect that consumers will be searching more for bargains in tough economy.

Munster said, "The bottom line is the "Wal-Mart" effect in combination with our research which suggests advertisers are shifting from non measurable (display) to measurable (search) advertising, leads us to believe Google is positioned to resist the economic slowdown over the next year. While the Google results showed the September quarter was intact, investors could have lingering concerns that business slowed in the month of September. However, Hal Vairan, Chief Economist at Google, speculated on the earnings call that Google could benefit from a "Wal-Mart Effect" in the tougher economy, which leads us to believe that while not immune to economic slowdown, Google's business is resistant to a slowdown. The company described the "Wal-Mart" effect as consumers searching more for bargains due to a tougher economy. We believe it is reasonable that such an effect exists and note that it supports our thesis that advertisers will continue to buy keywords on Google because the customers will continue to be there."

Wal-Mart looks to Chinese cities in hinterlands | Seattle Times Newspaper

Seattle Times Newspaper:
"LOUDI, China — Maoming, Wuhu and Loudi.

They're Chinese cities so far in the boonies that Lonely Planet doesn't even bother to mention them in its popular travel guide. But Wal-Mart has found them as part of the company's aggressive push into China's smaller markets.

China's economic growth is rapidly spreading out from the main cities like Beijing and Shanghai into the hinterlands, where the middle class is taking off. In a report last year, the consulting firm A.T. Kearney said 75 percent of the middle market is expected to be in tier-two and tier-three cities by 2017.

These cities are 'small' only by the standards of a country with 1.3 billion people. For example, Wuhu in eastern China has 2.3 million people, and Maoming in the south has 6.8 million, providing a strong consumer base as incomes rise."

Wal-Mart Wins, Everybody Else Loses

from TrafficCourt:
"Sales at department stores and specialty retailers are in free fall. They are cutting staff, discounting merchandise and closing stores to survive. But even as the financial turmoil strangled discretionary spending at many stores, it sent struggling consumers into the arms of Wal-Mart — and left it, the world’s largest retailer, poised for a blockbuster Christmas.

“In my mind, there is no doubt that this is Wal-Mart time,” H. Lee Scott Jr., the company’s president and chief executive, said recently at a meeting of analysts and investors in Wal-Mart’s hometown, Bentonville, Ark. Referring to the discount chain’s founder, he added, “This is the kind of environment that Sam Walton built this company for.”"

Wal-Mart + CD Sales

AC/DC Charts Despite Wal-Mart Exclusive

"Fans have only three ways to buy AC/DC's Black Ice album: Wal-Mart, its sister chain Sam's Club or ACDC.com. But that hasn't stopped the CD from selling like gangbusters, with over a million copies sold in its first two weeks domestically.

Columbia Records says it has shipped over 5.3 million copies of the album worldwide to date, making this the number one album in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Argentina, Canada and Spain in addition to the US"