Commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield reports that rents for retail spaces on Causeway Bay rose 34.9 percent year-over-year, to $2,630 per sq. ft. In contrast, rents on Fifth Avenue rose only 11.1 percent, to $2,500 per sq. ft. That growth rate was below the average for the U.S. retail market overall, which posted a 16.3 percent year-over-year increase in rents.
Fifth Avenue remains the most expensive retail street in the Americas, however. It’s followed by Times Square, with average rents of $2,100 per sq. ft.; Madison Avenue, with average rents of $1,100 per sq. ft. and East 57th Street, with average rents of $1,100 per sq. ft. Rounding out the list is Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles; North Michigan Avenue in Chicago; Union Square in San Francisco; Iguatemi Shopping in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Post Street in San Francisco and Bloor Street in Toronto.
Meanwhile, commercial real estate services CBRE reports that U.S. cities that will see the greatest growth in retail rents over the next two years will include Denver, Colo.; Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; New York and San Francisco. CBRE researchers estimate that retail rents stateside are currently 14 percent below their pre-recession level and won’t reach their previous highs for another five years.
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Hong Kong's Causeway Bay
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island is a heavily built-up area of Hong Kong, located on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, and covering parts of Wan Chai and Eastern districts. The Chinese name is also Romanized as Tung Lo Wan as in Tung Lo Wan Road. The rent in the shopping areas of Causeway Bay is ranked as being one of the most expensive in the world, near that of London's Sloane Street and New York's Fifth Avenue.
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New York City's Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the center of Manhattan Island in New York City, New York. The section of Fifth Avenue that crosses Midtown Manhattan, especially that between 49th Street and 60th Street, is lined with prestigious shops and is consistently ranked among the most expensive shopping streets in the world. Fifth Avenue, and adjoining streets, are home to Macy's, Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf Bergman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Cartier's, Tiffany & Company, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Barney's of New York, and FAO Schwarz, just to name a few. For several years starting in the mid-1990s, the shopping district between 49th and 57th Streets was ranked as having the world's most expensive retail spaces on a cost per square foot basis. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Fifth Avenue as being the most expensive street in the world. Some of the most coveted real estate on Fifth Avenue are the penthouses perched atop the buildings.
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COMMENTARY: For my money, New York City's Fifth Avenue cannot be beat. I had the distinction of spending four days in Mid-Town during a business trip to The Big Apple, and stayed at a boutique hotel at the corner of 45th Street and 6th Avenue. Just down the block was the Museum of Modern Art, Fifth Avenue and the world famous Rockefeller Center was right across the street. I remember taking a leisurely stroll on Fifth Avenue and witnessing first-hand some of the best department stores and boutiques. I am not a shopper, but was very impressed.
I have not been to Hong Kong for a very long time, but it is definitely one of the greatest cities of the World. A lot has changed and Causeway Bay is one of those areas that has been developed into one of the top retailing areas of Hong Kong, with prices to match.
Apparently, investors have checked in with Foursquare and don’t like what they see.
Foursquare is looking to raise another $50 million round of funding, but potential investors are hesitant to throw more money into the company due to concerns about Foursquare’s slowing user growth and monetization strategy, according to a report inThe Wall Street Journal.
Dennis Crowley, Foursquare CEO and Co-Founder (Click Image To Enlarge)
The Journal reports hearing from sources that the social media startup is expected to generate a paltry $2 million in revenues this year — a small fraction of the $153 million in revenues Facebook generated in its fourth year from ads. To be fair, Foursquare only rolled out its first revenue-generating product — promoted updates for businesses — earlier this year, but the latest revenue figure suggests that the startup’s business model still has a long way to go to prove itself.
Meanwhile, Foursquare’s VP Jon Steinback acknowledged to the Journal that user growth is slowing. The social network has more than 25 million registered users, but just 8 million monthly active users. To date, there have been 3 billion check-ins on Foursquare.
Foursquare went from raising $20 million at a valuation of $95 million in 2010 to raising a$50 million round at a valuation of $600 million a little more than a year later. Since then, the company’s valuation has reportedly increased to more than $700 million.
In the aftermath of the Facebook IPO, however, investors appear to applying more scrutiny to hyped Internet startups with large valuations, including Foursquare.
COMMENTARY: If you've been following my previous posts about foursquare, you already know that I don't think very much about foursquare, their CEO Dennis Crowley, or location-based social networks as a matter of record. In fact, I think the entire LBSN category is headed for a train wreck and said so much in a previous blog post dated April 13, 2011.
So when I heard that Foursquare was looking for additional investors, but had generated a paltry $2 million in revenues so far in 2012, I just had to chuckle. I don't know where foursquare came out with that valuation of $700 million, but if you do the math, this works out to 350 times revenues, which is a ridiculou number, when you consider that Facebook at the time of its IPO commanded a multiple of 26. No wonder investors are taking a close look at Foursquare or are very hesitant of investing in a company lacking a successful business model.
I feel especially bad (NO, I don't) about foursquare's investors, especially Andreessen Horowitz which I mentioned in a blog post dated June 27, 2011, when they invested $50 million in foursquare. At that time, foursquare had reached 10 million users. Today it has 25 million users, but only 3 million, or roughly 12% are active.
In the above blog post, here's my concluding comment:
"I sure wished that foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley would make things a big more transparent and level with us once and for all and tell us how much revenue they have generated. As long as location-based social networks continue their silent about their revenues, it forces bloggers like my self to predict that location-based social networks are headed for a train wreck."
Now that's what I call prophetic, and that train wreck is about to happen.
Courtesy of an article dated November 21, 2012 appearing in Mashable
Global Smartphone Market Share by Operating System by Quarter - By Share of Global Unit Sales - Q3 2009 through Q3 2012 - Gartner for Business Insider Intelligence (Click Image To Enlarge)
If the smartphone market were merely a "gadget" market, this wouldn't matter. Apple still has tremendous scale, and as its devoted fans often observe, it still arguably makes the best smartphones in the world. As a result, Apple is still the dominant player in the "premium" segment of the market, winning the hearts, minds, and wallets of rich consumers who have $600 to spend on a phone (or, more relevantly, carriers who will subsidize their phones).
But the smartphone market isn't just a gadget market. It's also a platform market. (Third-party companies build products and services that are built on smartphones.) And platform markets tend to standardize around the platform with the most market share, because it's easier and cheaper to build products and services for only one platform. Thus, in smartphones, platform market share matters.
More than 1 billion people worldwide now have smartphones.
These "golden 1 billion," not coincidentally, are the people who have most of the world's money. The next 6 billion smartphone buyers, meanwhile, don't have much money. So, for them, the price of their smartphone is going to be extremely important.
And, as yet, Apple doesn't offer low-priced smartphones that these folks can afford.
Kai-Fu Lee, a former Googler who now runs startup incubator Innovation Works in China, described the key dynamics of China's exploding smartphone market in a recent LinkedIn post.
The Chinese smartphone market is growing spectacularly quickly: From an installed base of about 50 million phones last year to a staggering 500 million by the end of next year.
Importantly, this explosive growth was triggered in part by the launch of affordable $100-$200 Android smartphones.
As in other areas of the world, Apple is a premium brand in China. But most Chinese can't afford to shell out $500 for a phone. And the Chinese wireless carrier business is not built around subsidies, the way the U.S. and European carrier businesses are.
So even though Apple is enjoying huge growth in China, it's missing out on the truly explosive growth segment of the market: Mainstream Chinese consumers.
Originally, China's market developed more slowly because of two reasons. First, usable 3G networks took much longer to develop than other countries. Second, there are few subsidies in China, so users had to pay one or two month's salary for an iPhone or Android. These inhibited the growth.
But both issues have changed. Broadband wireless is now over 58%, and smart phone prices have dropped to about $100 for an acceptable Android phone, and about $200 for a full-featured Android phone. Smart phones are now spreading like wildfire.
About a year ago, there were less than 50M users, basically affluent or tech savvy users who were willing to pay $500 for a phone and $30 a month for 3G. But now, students, young white collar, and even blue collar workers are swarming into the smart phone market!
The same thing is happening in India, another vast and burgeoning smartphone market. In India, though, Apple isn't even a strong "premium" brand, because it doesn't have the distribution system it has in China. Samsung and other Android vendors are cleaning up in India, while Apple tries to figure out how to sell $500 phones to people who don't make that much money in a month.
Apple's dominance of the "premium" segment of the smartphone market has allowed it to become the most profitable company in the world.
But the "premium" segment of the market is maturing, and the next phase of explosive market growth is going to come from lower-priced phones.
As Apple surrenders more and more market share to Android, meanwhile, it risks becoming an "also-ran" development platform. If that happens, the value of Apple's "ecosystem" will drop, and even the company's position in the premium segment might become threatened.
Apple isn't helpless here, but it also can't have everything.
If Apple wants to defend, much less grow, its market share relative to Android, it's going to have to offer low-priced phones.
If it offers low-priced phones, however, its profit margin will almost certainly drop.
Defending market share is much more important to the company's long-term value than maintaining a particular profit margin, so this shouldn't be a tough decision for Apple. But it may cause some angst among the company's investors.
COMMENTARY: China now leads the world in smartphone activations.
Up until February 2012, the U.S. was the leader, claiming around 22 percent of the world’s Android and iOS activations. But between February and March 2012, China eclipsed the U.S. and now accounts for almost one quarter of smartphone activations globally.
This new data comes from mobile analytics shop Flurry, which in 2011 identified China as a mobile contender to watch out for and showed that Chinese consumers’ app sessions were growing by 870 percent during the first three quarters of 2011.
Now, Flurry is showing year-over-year growth between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012 at 1,126 percent — that’s for app sessions from Chinese consumers’ smartphones.
Here’s a chart showing overall smartphone activations for China and the U.S.:
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Since the U.S. has more longevity in smartphone consumption, Flurry still estimates that the U.S. has twice as many active smartphones as China. However, Flurry exec Peter Farago notes in the company’s report,
“With China now activating more devices per month than the U.S., this means that the gap is closing between the two countries in terms of installed base. Not only is China already the second largest app economy, but also could eventually overtake the U.S. as the country with the largest installed base of smart device users.”
China will be 2x the US smart phone market in a year! Only two years ago, China was a laggard with a tiny portion of the US. What happened?
Originally, China's market developed more slowly because of two reasons. First, usable 3G networks took much longer to develop than other countries. Second, there are few subsidies in China, so users had to pay one or two month's salary for an iPhone or Android. These inhibited the growth.
But both issues have changed. Broadband wireless is now over 58%, and smart phone prices have dropped to about $100 for an acceptable Android phone, and about $200 for a full-featured Android phone. Smart phones are now spreading like wildfire.
About a year ago, there were less than 50M users, basically affluent or tech savvy users who were willing to pay $500 for a phone and $30 a month for 3G. But now, students, young white collar, and even blue collar workers are swarming into the smart phone market!
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The figures above shows all numbers are off the charts -- Android activations, real usage of applications, broadband usage, and penetration into less developed areas. This year, there will be an installed base of 250M smart phones. Next year, there will be an installed base of 500M smart phones!
Right now, Samsung is the leader in smartphones in the Chinese market; however, as 4G LTE service comes to that area, the iPhone may see huge growth. Another vertical to watch in China is tablet adoption, especially as iPad adoption heats upthere.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), China is poised to displace the United States as the number one smartphone market worldwide in 2012.
Although China is only expected to surpass the U.S. by a very slim margin, Wong Teck Zhung, a senior market analyst with IDC's Asia/Pacific Client Devices team, warned in the report,
"There will be no turning back this leadership changeover."
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Along with increased competition in the region, IDC attributed Android smartphones priced below $200 and other low-cost smartphones as key drivers for growth of the smartphone market. Teck Zhung added:
Emerging domestic vendors will be another important engine of smartphone growth as giants Huawei, ZTE, and Lenovo continue to ramp up with big carrier orders due to their willingness to produce customized handsets. International players such as Samsung and Nokia are also expected to drive volume at the low end with cheaper smartphones.
Beyond this year, IDC researchers predicted that India and Brazil will enter the top five country markets for smartphone shipments by 2016, primarily thanks to the increased shift from featurephones to smartphones as 3G networks are built out in these regions.
Rest assured, the IDC acknowledged that mature markets such as Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States will continue to see their smartphone markets get bigger.
After all, a recent Nielsen study found that nearly 60 percent of all new cell phones sold in the U.S. are smartphones. Another report from Google in January found smartphone usage amongst consumers in the United Kingdom has jumped from 30 to 45 percent over the course of 2011.
Nevertheless, the rate at which they are growing is not expected to keep up with emerging markets.
Courtesy of an article dated November 21, 2012 appearing in Business Insider and an article dated March 15, 2012 appearing in ZDNetand an article dated March 21, 2012 appearing in VentureBeat and an article dated November 21, 2012 appearing in Business Insider
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is finally winning the battle in mobile ad campaigns, according to the latest analyst report by Cantor Fitzgerald. The social networking giant has gradually improved its mobile platform engagement statistics, while the desktop platform continues on a downward trend. Facebook Inc still ranks above Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), and AOL Inc. (NYSE:AOL) in terms of engagement to the user.
In a report published Monday, Cantor Fitzgerald analysts Youssef Squali, Naved Khan, and Kip Paulson, CFA reiterated Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) at Buy, with a price target of $28, citing growth in the company’s mobile platform campaign. On the same day, Piper Jaffray analysts maintained their outperform rating on the stock, despite lowering the price target, and also cited improvement in mobile platform as one of the driving factors to their reiteration.
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The desktop platform has experienced a continuous decline over the last three months since July, while the mobile platform engagement has been growing gradually, since March. In October, the two platforms were tied following a decline of about 3.1% on the desktop side month-over-month. The total time spent on the PC based platform stood at 52.8 billion minutes in the U.S.; Nonetheless, the analysts noted that the overall engagement improved by about 1.4% sequentially. The analysts wrote.
“We believe time spent on mobile devices should comfortably exceed PC usage by year-end,”
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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) continues to lead the engagement charts. The social media giant ranks at the top followed by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), respectively, while AOL Inc. (NYSE:AOL) is placed bottom. The analysts did not mention where the likes of Twitter and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Bing are positioned.
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The analysts wrote,
“Facebook is leading the field for total minutes spent on the platform, according to October U.S. mobile engagement data from ComScore Mobile Metrix”.
According to statistics Facebook time spent metrics increased by 6.4% month-over-month, to 52.1 billion minutes in October-12. On the contrary, AOL sites fell 11% while Google and Yahoo! sites remained flat. The data also included tablet usage, which is currently likely the fastest growing component, noted the analysts.
Monetization Campaign Gathering Momentum
Facebook has started reaping the benefits of its ad monetization campaigns. The analysts pointed that the company is now collecting approximately $3 million per day worth of revenues from its sponsored stories ad campaign. This equates to about $1 billion annual revenue.
The social, networking company launched several other monetization campaign over the last two months (September and October), which could spur its revenues further. These new, compelling opportunities include Offers (introduced in September), Facebook AdExchange (or FBX, rolled out in September), Gifts (announced in late September), Promoted Posts, and Mobile App-install ads (both launched in October).
The analysts wrote, “these new ad formats and offerings represent compelling opportunities, especially considering that newer ad formats in the news feed can have 8+ times the engagement of the right hand side ads and 10+ times ad recall”. The added that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is an attractive stock as the company is still early in the optimization/targeting/monetization phase.
At the time of this writing, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock was trading at $22.89 per share, down $0.03, or a 0.13% decline from yesterday’s close.
COMMENTARY: In a blog post dated October 30, 2012, I pointed out that Facebook could have a potential desktop revenue problem as more users switch from their desktop computers to their mobile devices to access their Facebook accounts. Whether Facebook can rampup mobile ad revenues quickly enough to makeup for the potential drop in destop ad revenues remains to be seen. Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter in a research note following the company’s third-quarter report said.
"There remains the question of whether Facebook can continue to ramp up mobile advertising fast enough to make up for the decline in desktop revenue. If not, Facebook could have a problem."
Mobile advertising is still in its early stages of development and brand marketers are still trying to decode how best to approach this new medium. Furthermore, the mobile ad sector is a "penny business" and you have to sell millions and millions of ads to generate significant mobile ad revenues, and competition among brands to reach the consumer through their mobile devies could create inventory issues, which could in turn negatively impact Facebook just at a critical time when they are trying to monetize mobile.
Although Facebook reported it generated $150 million in mobile ad revenues during its Q3 2012 earnings call report (see my blog post dated October 24, 2012), several analysts believe that competition in the mobile space will eventually begin to slowdown, probably sometime in 2014, and Facebook and other social networks relying on an ad-supported revenue model, will experience a slowdown in mobile as they have in desktop.
Courtesy of an article dated November 20, 2012 appearing in ValueWalk and an article dated September 26, 2012 appearing in Abmuku.com
From perceived barbarity to 'the fastest growing sport in the world', UFC has come a long way - but it wasn't easy.
UFC 148 - Middle weight champion Anderson Silva defends his title versus his longtime nemesis Chael Sonnen (Click Image To Enlarge)
On the afternoon in July just before one of the biggest mixed-martial-arts fights of 2012, a group of Ultimate Fighting Championship employees take up positions in the 103 degree heat of a parking lot outside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. UFC president Dana White just tweeted their location. White is giving away 20 $1,200 tickets to UFC 148, headlined by a rematch between Brazilian middleweight champion Anderson Silva and his American nemesis, Chael Sonnen. Any fan who shows up within 20 minutes with a can of UFC-branded Edge shave gel will be entered into a ticket raffle.
Chael Sonnen tries to fend off a furious striking attack by UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Anderson won the match in round 2 after the referee stopped the fight. (Click Image To Enlarge)
UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva mercillessly pounds challenger Chael Sonnen as he lays on the mat during UFC 148 (Click Image To Enlarge)
UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva walks away with hand raised in victory after the referee stopped the fight with Chael Sonnen during UFC 148 (Click Image To Enlarge)
UFC 148 was the rematch of an August 2010 fight between these two fighters that went late into the fifth round when Anderson was able to surprise Chael with a triangle choke hold with two minutes left in the fight. Up until that point, Chael had dominated the fight, taking Anderson to the mat in all five rounds, and maintaining control from the top, but never able to finish off the champ. Here's a YouTube video (in Portuguese) of the UFC 148 fight between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and his challenger and long-time nemesis Chael Sonnen. Hurry, before its taken down by UFC.
Minutes later, a horde bursts from the casino--mostly men in the UFC's coveted 18- to 34-year-old demographic, but women, too, in a dead sprint. They stampede toward the UFC team, grooming products in hand. These are the ones who buy the UFC's pay-per-view shows, which blend wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and other combat styles into an action-packed, often-bloody sport known as mixed-martial arts, or MMA. They buy apparel and merchandise. Above all, they buy into a UFC lifestyle that celebrates everyone's inner warrior.
Comparison of Sports Demographics for 18-to-34 Year Old Age Group (Click Image To Enlarge)
Percentage of Male vs Female Fans by All Sports (Click Image To Enlarge)
White likes to say.
"Fighting is in our DNA."
It's an easy sell. But that dismisses a larger achievement:
The UFC turned what was essentially a no-holds-barred spectacle banned throughout the country into a sanctioned sport with mass appeal.
MMA is now one of the country's fastest-growing sports.
The UFC has become one of the world's most valuable sports franchises, with annual revenue approaching $600 million, according to one of its owners--and a worth, if you believe the smoke signals, of more than $2 billion. That's more than the New York Yankees, more than the New England Patriots, more than Real Madrid. And there's seemingly more to come.
All Sports - Comparison by Total Number of Fans - 2007 through 2009 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Avid Sports Fans - Comparison of Total Number of Fans - 2007 through 2009 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Percentage of Avid vs All Sports Fans (Click Image To Enlarge)
In 2011, the UFC signed an unprecedented $700 million deal to air fights in prime time on Fox, the goal being to turn fringe fans into "casuals" and casuals into hardcores. Fight sports have been extremely rare on prime-time network TV since the 1980s.
Now the UFC is at a critical juncture. It could join the country's major sports leagues--an ascension fueled by big profits, network TV acceptance, and aggressive international expansion. Or, the UFC could mismanage its growth--by fatiguing fans with too many events, failing to resolve labor tensions with fighters, or simply overreaching. And, of course, there's an inherent question the UFC is finally large enough to confront: Is this sport too violent to thrive in mainstream America?
A visitor to White's office in the headquarters of Zuffa, the UFC's parent company, will encounter a yakuza member having sex with a young woman. The giant Nobuyoshi Araki print hangs on a wall next to a giant print of Mike Tyson's bull neck, which isn't far from a giant print of a gorilla holding a gun. A partial list of the room's other contents: a painting that blares "Pay attention, motherfuckers!"; copies of the Old and New Testaments carved into the shape of pistols; a $380,000 print of a naked Stephanie Seymour hanging over the toilet. The showpiece, however, is against the back wall inside a glass case. "Check this out," White says, hovering reverently over the case. "I bought it from a museum in Dallas." It is a fossilized sabertooth tiger skull. It cost $160,000.
The UFC Executive Team (Click Image To Enlarge)
By contrast, Lorenzo Fertitta, the UFC CEO and White's best friend, has a Basquiat hanging in his adjacent office. He won't talk about the painting unless prompted. Fertitta and White met in high school. As different as they are, they complement each other nicely: White's streetwise yin to the pensive yang of Fertitta, a New York University business-school grad who focuses on strategy.
Dana White, left, and UFC business partner Lorenzo Fertitta. | Photo by Gus Van Der Most (Click Image To Enlarge)
Fertitta says, waving his muscle-bound arm past a window down West Sahara Avenue.
"I grew up in a housing development just over there."
Fertitta and White didn't start the UFC. That happened in 1993, with a group of businessmen and martial artists who wanted to pit different fighting styles against each other--to see if, say, a practitioner of the "Hawaiian art of bone breaking" could beat a barroom brawler. (Answer: no.) A few years after that, Fertitta, White, and Fertitta's older brother Frank III were taking classes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a fighting style that had come to dominate the early UFC. They met several of the company's fighters, and White was the first to spot opportunity: He ran a small business managing fighters and signed two of the UFC's, Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell.
But when White and Fertitta attended UFC 27 in New Orleans in September 2000, they were stunned by the empty arena and the anemic marketing. Fertitta says.
"There was no buzz at all. We're literally sitting in the front row and I'm going, 'This has gotta be one of the worst-run businesses. What is missing here? There could be much more to this.'"
The UFC was a victim of its own gore. In its early days, there were no weight classes, no time limits, and only two banned moves: eye gouging and biting. Fighters could surrender (and still can, by tapping out), but promoters played up the death-match atmosphere. That prompted Senator John McCain to successfully petition governors around the country to ban MMA. McCain also pressured cable companies to take the sport off the air. Although the UFC adopted better rules--creating about 30 fouls, such as throat strikes and head butting--it was too late: The company was near bankruptcy. A month after White and Fertitta's New Orleans visit, it went up for sale.
White persuaded Fertitta and Frank III (known as "Three Sticks"), who now runs the family casino business, to take a chance. The Fertittas plunked down $2 million and gave White a 10% stake in the company; in exchange, he took over running day-to-day operations. Now they looked crazy. But Fertitta had served on the Nevada Athletic Commission, which oversees boxing, a sport deep into its nosedive by 2001. He says.
"We felt like we had a better product than boxing. It was the next evolution. But it was as much about the brand as anything."
The new owners began an arduous process of rehabilitating the company's image by further increasing safety measures and working with states to lift their bans. But news coverage was slim, and pay-per-views didn't sell. By 2005, the UFC was $44 million in the hole, and the Fertittas were covering expenses from their personal accounts. They decided to take one more chance.
All fight photos from UFC 150, in Denver. Erik Perez celebrates breaking the bantam- weight record for fastest knockout, defeating Ken Stone in 17 seconds. | Photograph by Benjamin Lowy (Click Image To Enlarge)
World Wrestling Entertainment provided inspiration. Fertitta and White had pored over its public filings when they first bought the UFC. Now they copied the WWE's model. Fertitta says.
"[WWE] had mastered the ability to use television to suck people into a story line."
And story lines fueled pay-per-view buys. So the UFC came up with one of its own, tailored to the reality-TV boom of the time: They envisioned a show about a group of fighters living together as they duke it out for a contract.
Fertitta says.
"We met with ABC, NBC, Fox, MTV, Spike--I mean, literally everybody. And everybody turned it down."
So the UFC produced the show on its own for $10 million, gave it to Spike for free, and spent another couple million on ads and billboards. The Ultimate Fighter became the highest-rated show outside of WWE to ever air on the men's network. More than 2.5 million people watched the first season finale between fighters Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. As Fertitta and White left the arena that night, Spike execs grabbed them and drew up a deal on the back of an envelope for two more seasons of the show, plus other programming. The UFC quickly went on to pass the WWE--and HBO boxing--in pay-per-view audience.
To appreciate the economic system that Fertitta and White have since fostered, stop by its regular UFC Fan Expo. This one is at the Mandalay Bay, in advance of UFC 148, where fans wander by exhibitors with funky names such as Muscle Eggand Sweet Sweat. They buy apparel from TapouT, which pulled in more than $200 million in 2009 (the last year it offers data) by plastering its logo all over UFC fighters and riding MMA's rise. Large brands are here too--Topps trading cards, Bud Light, and Dodge.
You don't get sponsors at that level without big-time stars, and the UFC is constantly working to humanize cauliflower-eared men who break noses for a living. Fertitta says.
"Our culture is that you interact with the fans. If you're not willing to do that, you can't be on the roster."
That's why heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos--a 6-foot-4-inch, 238-pound Brazilian superstar--arrives early for his autograph session at the expo, his demeanor as unthreatening as an oversized accountant's. This weekend, he's one of more than 50 of the company's 442 fighters in town to glad-hand.
UFC Title Holders as of November 20, 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)
As part of their duties, fighters also stop by the EA Sports tent to pose for the game maker's cameras. It's a live stunt with a purpose--the images will be used in EA's 2014 UFC game. Video games address a key obstacle for the UFC: The sport's intricate, on-the-ground combat wrestling moves can be hard to appreciate, so future fans need schooling. says Bryan Johnston, the UFC's chief marketing officer.
"As these kids start playing the game, they start understanding fighting very well because of in-game tutorials."
UFC Notable Fighters as of November 20, 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Once fans are educated, the UFC wants to turn them into paying viewers. It already has a robust pay-per-view system; a successful event can notch 700,000 buys at around $50 each. (This is also why the UFC partnered with Xbox Live, which, with 40 million subscribers, is one of the largest pay-per-view platforms in the world.) The UFC stages at least one pay-per-view a month and, during each event, airs a few preliminary fights on Facebook and a few more for free on cable TV. These might scoop up some casual viewers one night, but the real prize is in the future: A broad base of fans won't have to pay to see the UFC's lower-tier fighters. If those fighters graduate to pay-per-view events, the fans are more likely to follow.
Using free content to hook viewers is nothing new. But the UFC's 2011 partnership with Fox is. The seven-year deal gives the UFC an unparalleled platform from which to recruit new fans. (Fox, for instance, promotes UFC fights during NFL broadcasts.) And there's a hierarchy to the content that's consistent with the way the UFC grooms talent. The Fox-owned Fuel TV--the cable baby of the bunch--generally airs cards with lesser-known fighters. Another Fox property, FX, is the teenager, showing events with more established fighters. And Fox prime time is the daddy, airing cards roughly on par with the UFC's elite-level pay-per-views.
It's been a learning experience. The first Fox show, last November, was a one-hour live event built around a single fight. After some seemingly interminable throat-clearing from commentators, dos Santos knocked out his opponent in just one minute and four seconds to win the heavyweight title. (Championship fights can go for five five-minute rounds.) The limited action left fans disappointed and Fox wondering how better to showcase fights, which can be hard to predict.
Now the Fox shows are well planned; each has four fights, with commentary in between. If a bout ends in a quick knockout, Fox can plug the gap in airtime with one of the preliminary fights. The shows air about once every three months.
How many new fans can the UFC make this way? It's too early to tell. The first Fox event drew 5.7 million viewers, but that number has slipped since. A Fox show in August drew 2.4 million (though it was up against the Olympics). Still, the network seems excited by the potential. says Eric Shanks, president of Fox Sports.
"We're going to go through a wall for them and they're going to go through a wall for us, and that's a rare thing in the sports business."
An American audience isn't the UFC's only stated prize. A global one is, too--and here, the company is making inroads that the NFL and others might envy. White often crows that MMA will soon be "the biggest sport in the world," and you can see why he's excited: UFC programming now reaches more than half a billion homes in 175 countries and in 22 languages.
The UFC has border-hopped since 2007, first into Europe and Canada, then Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, and the Middle East. The next step is both simple and excessively difficult. Any international fan knows it: "We need a [local] hero," says Puerto Rican journalist Angel Cordero. He runs a site called The MMA Truth that caters to a Latino audience, and he is convinced his boxing-obsessed homeland will embrace MMA--but only when Puerto Ricans can root for one of their own.
Brazil is the UFC's model country, a place with a tradition of martial arts and local heroes, none of them bigger than Anderson Silva, one of whose fights drew 32 million local viewers. The UFC has put on four live events in Brazil since 2011. It also went back to its American playbook--launching a Brazilian version of The Ultimate Fighter, which was a smash hit, generating the same level of social media buzz as Brazil's 2010 presidential elections. MMA is now challenging to be the No. 2 sport in this soccer-crazy country.
Here, the UFC sees a formula.
First, it studies web and social media traffic, and talent scouts track where in the world fighters are being produced. If a particular region looks promising, UFC envoys start educating local government agencies about safety and rules. (Severe injuries are rare, although a handful of people have died in unregulated amateur MMA fights and the sport is too young to know whether a concussion problem exists.) Then the UFC reaches out to local broadcasters, seeking deals in which the company provides free content, packaged for TV. In return, the carrier must agree to position the UFC as tentpole programming and air it exactly as provided. Marshall Zelaznik, the UFC's director of international development says.
"If you are selling a can of Coke, you want it on every shelf. In our world, every shelf means a free-to-air broadcaster."
In India, for example, the UFC has partnered with the popular TV network Multi Screen Media, which airs a daily 9 to 11 p.m. UFC show on its sports channel. "India has traditionally been a one-sport nation, which is cricket," says Man Jit Singh, Multi Screen Media's CEO. "Our research pointed out that the young people in India are tired of their parents' game. They are not watching a five-day test match. They want a fast-moving sport."
As TV ramps up, the company returns to its old trick: a reality show. Much as it did in America, the show identifies and incubates a new generation of stars that could rise in the UFC and prime a country for a live event. And as with other international versions, The Ultimate Fighter: India, airing on Singh's network in 2013, will culminate in a live UFC card, most likely in Delhi or Bombay. After that, Indian fighters will have a chance to progress from local shows to bigger-ticket events, as will fighters in other parts of the world: The UFC plans to launch regional promotions in both Asia and Latin America that will eventually feed burgeoning stars to the pay-per-view shows.
At his UFC Hall of Fame induction speech in July, Tito Ortiz--a former Mexican-American champ, one of the first Latino heroes, and one of those guys White signed up to represent back when the UFC was foundering--summed up the company's attitude on international expansion: "Soccer, basketball," he said, his fist raised. "We're coming after your asses."
This summer, a different kind of rumble broke out in the UFC: Dana White versus his light heavyweight champion, Jon "Bones" Jones, who was scheduled to defend his belt at UFC 151, two months after the Vegas event. With about a week to go, Jones's opponent pulled out of the fight with a torn knee ligament. Injuries are common in fighting, and the UFC usually just plugs a replacement into the card. But Jones refused to take on the new opponent, Chael Sonnen, claiming he didn't have enough time to prepare. That led to a UFC first: It had to cancel the event.
White ripped into Jones and his trainer, Greg Jackson, whom he called a "fucking sport killer." He labeled Jones a "guy a lot of fans don't like" and savaged his decision as "selfish, disgusting." Hard-core followers, who take their cues from the UFC boss, turned on Jones, blaming him for the demise of a card that White branded as "the event Jon Jones and Greg Jackson murdered." No need for a publicist to point out that you won't see Roger Goodell behaving in this manner. Or Bud Selig. Or, typically, David Stern. But the barrage was normal for White, who could fill a chapbook with the boorish remarks he's made on the job.
The Jon Jones fiasco does, however, raise a more persistent, less navigable problem. In White and Fertitta's UFC, fighters are expected to be company men or face exile. But as the sport's stature has grown, its most famous fighters have gained a bit of the leverage possessed by other sports' stars. A handful of UFC fighters have big sponsorship deals--Jones signed with Nike this August, welterweight king Georges St-Pierre has a deal with Under Armour, and Silva is with Burger King--and fans demand to see them in action. In years past, White might have booted Jones from the UFC. But all the UFC president could do now was move his fractious fighter to the next card. Then, to capitalize on the scandal, he booked Jones and Sonnen as opposing coaches in The Ultimate Fighter's upcoming season. The two men will fight on April 27.
All fight photos from UFC 150, in Denver. Kuiper hits Hamman hard. At another point, Hamman's hamstring tore when Kuiper kicked it. | Photograph by Benjamin Lowy (Click Image To Enlarge)
Seen from a higher altitude, the revolt carried a positive message for fighters, who grumble discreetly about having to give up too much to the UFC. MMA is, perhaps, moving gradually closer to an equipoise where the people getting punched in the head, at least at the top level, can claim more control over their careers.
"There's always going to be a point in time when a sport grows enough, and the revenue streams are sufficient, that the talent and the promotion or the league management is at loggerheads. But those are good problems to have."
In other sports, these problems have led to unionization. While the possibility has been bandied about, the fallout from UFC 151 shows that an MMA union isn't imminent. Instead of supporting Jones in his decision, many UFC fighters openly bashed him for not doing White's bidding or costing them paydays (although the UFC ended up paying many of the fighters on the canceled card).
The UFC claims it has created 50 millionaires and multimillionaires among past and present fighters. Elite fighters can make $250,000 or more per bout, but most athletes currently don't come near that. Entry-level fighters may net about $6,000 to $10,000 a fight (the winners double that), but may only be able to compete two or three times a year. Performance-based bonuses are paid for feats like spectacular knockouts, but those tend to go to more-established fighters. A select few also have contracts that guarantee an undisclosed but substantially more lucrative cut of the UFC's pay-per-view revenue. Life is good at the top.
Publicly, fighters will only acknowledge this one truth: Before the UFC made MMA so profitable, most of them may not have made a living at all. But still, in most major sports, revenue is split roughly 50-50 between athletes and owners. The UFC claims it now approaches that level, but a controversial 2012 ESPN investigative report estimated that fighters receive only around 10% of revenue.
White and Fertitta boilerplate their way out of interviews about athlete pay. But fighters' agents are beginning to talk--itself an indication that the balance may be shifting. As more money pours into the UFC, the pressure to spread the wealth and allow athletes more control could mount, perhaps to a combustible stage. The manager of a current UFC champion says.
"When this blows up, It's a matter of when, not if."
Not all of the UFC's problems stem from labor relations. Some of the organization's biggest stars have recently retired or been sidelined with injury. Others have yet to rise to fill the void, leading to thin fight cards as the UFC puts on more and more events. Many fans now accuse the UFC of propping up one big bout with a lot of less-consequential ones, which could be why pay-per-view revenue is slipping: It declined last year by 26%, to $310 million, according to financial research firm SNL Kagan. And pirate sites are always live-streaming those pay-per-view events, forcing the UFC into attack mode: The company shuts down hundreds of streams, and sues those who host them. Ed Muncey, senior VP of digital, who spends fight nights scouring the web for pirates says.
"It's whack-a-mole, no doubt."
But credit the UFC for this: It has come a long way from the New Orleans fiasco that White and Fertitta attended in 2000. Inside the arena at UFC 148 in Vegas, their success is on display. Many of the UFC's 231 employees--the company is still quite lean--are hard at work, determined to deliver yet another great show. Shanks, the Fox exec said.
"These are smart guys. They're not going to cook their golden goose."
All fight photos from UFC 150, in Denver. Hamman on the ground, after losing by technical knockout. | Photograph by Benjamin Lowy (Click Image To Enlarge)
During the first half of the fight card, White holes up in "the lab," a designated room where he churns out tweets with Kristin Adams, the UFC's 29-year-old social media manager. ("My Twitter baby," he calls her.)Having newly come of age, the UFC used social media to grow interest in MMA before the mainstream press showed up.White urges his athletes to tweet, even giving bonuses for those who attract the most followers. The UFC boss has 2.3 million Twitter followers of his own; compare that to the NFL's Goodell, who has 330,000. And tonight, the UFC is trying out a new tool--a Radian6 social media monitoring system that looks like it's on loan from NORAD. Its six screens, arrayed in a semicircle, allow for real-time monitoring of almost any online conversation about the UFC. Even in Iraq, people are talking about the fights. Another screen shows real-time tweets sorted by number of followers; atop the board are Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, MC Hammer, Mandy Moore, and Channing Tatum, who is in attendance, and all of with whom White has cultivated relationships.
Eventually, White takes his seat among the cage-side celebrities, near Fertitta. The best friends sit by each other at almost every fight. They live down the street from one another. Employees sometimes catch them in the Zuffa offices stretched out on a couch, watching tape together, batting around fight lingo. Tonight, they're all smiles.
This is the kind of Saturday that all the preparation and planning builds to, the kind of night the UFC will need more of next year. The event sells nearly 1 million pay-per-views and does almost $7 million at the gate, setting a new record for an MMA event in Las Vegas. Seven million Americans watch. So do 19 million Brazilians, and nearly 48 million people around the world.
In the octagon, at the end, Anderson Silva needs only one opening. It comes in the second round, when his opponent, Chael Sonnen, misses a spinning backfist and falls to the ground. The serpentine Silva, whom White calls the best MMA fighter ever, is known for his sudden, venomous counterstrikes, and he unspools a knee to Sonnen's chest. The fight ends quickly. The Brazilians in the audience begin dancing. They'll dance through the night.
COMMENTARY: It's undeniable just how quickly the management team of Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta have turnaround UFC from an MMA fighting business that was on the verge of going out of business through hard work, creativity and dedication.
If you stop to analyze the reasons for the UFC's amazing success, here's what you will find:
UFC is competing in a blue ocean. UFC has redefined the sport of mixed martial arts by combining boxing (or striking) and different types of martial arts (kickboxing, vale tudo, American wrestling, luche libre, shootfighting and Brazilian jui-jitsu, to name a few). This has created a whole new level of excitement and resulted in the creation of legions of rabid MMA fans throughout the world.
UFC has brought rules and business organization to a sport that was known for having few rules, and a reputation as having fights more indicative of a bar room brawl and without weight classifications. It was not uncommon for a 165 lb fighter to fight a 220 lb fighter. UFC has instituted rules similar to those of WWE (professional wrestling) and established weight classifications similar to those in boxing (flyweight to super-heavyweight classifications).
UFC has created a sports culture where its fighters are required to interact with its fans. You will regularly see UFC fighters signing authographs, meeting, shaking hands with and posting for pictures with fans before and after UFC fight events and other sports venues.
UFC uses social media as a way to promote its fighters and fight events. Fighters are encouraged to have their own Twitter or Facebook page. They post regular updates on Facebook and Tweet to keep their fans informed and engaged on a regular basis, not just during fighting events. UFC offers its fans a huge arsenal of free content that includes videos and images on all the major social networks (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). Dana White's free ticket giveaway promotions are legendary and status updates on each fight as they happen, and its rabid fans will do just about anything to get their hands on a free ticketo a major fight event.
UFC has signed the best MMA fighters in the world, and its competitors cannot compete with its stable of fighters. UFC fighters are signed to exclusive contracts and everyone is asked to "tow the line" and drink the UFC Kool-Aid. Although there have been some fighter disputes with UFC management, UFC holds most of the cards. The fighters really don't have anywhere else to go where they can make that kind of money and fight the best competition at some of the best fighting venues.
UFC has established a Las Vegas connection, regularly holding fighting events in some of the larget venues in Sin City (Mandalay Hotel and Casino and MGM Grand Hotel and Casino). It's competitors cannot compete with these venues because they do not have the big name fighters, and are often relegated to smaller venue in outide of Vegas.
UFC has mastered the art of the promotional Buzz. UFC builds up fan enthusiasm for each major fighting event with regular Facebook updates and Facebook tweets, and depends on the power of word-of-mouth generated by its fans to get the word out about fighting events and promotions. Fighting venues are known for having sexy chicks and well known celebrities at each fight like top boxing events.
UFC's management team of Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta really love what they are doing and united in the mission of making UFC the greatest and mot successful sporting business.
Courtesy of an article dated November 18, 2012 appearing in Fast Company
Foxconn factory locate in Shenzhen, China (Click Image To Enlarge)
10,000 Foxbots have been deployed so far, with plans to install 30,000 by the end of 2012, with 200,000 more to come before 2013.
Foxconn, the Chinese electronics manufacturer that builds numerous mobile devices and gaming consoles, has been in the media lately because of labor issues, complaints over working conditions, rumored riots, and even suicides, all occurring in the past few years as demand for smartphones and tablets is skyrocketing.
While consumers began to complain in response to media coverage over working conditions, prompting Apple to hire an audit of the factories, Foxconn’s President Terry Gou had another idea for dealing with labor concerns: replace people with robots. In fact, last year Gou said that the company would be aiming to replace 1 million Foxconn workers with robots within 3 years.
It appears as if Gou has started the ball in motion. Since the announcement, a first batch of 10,000 robots — aptly named Foxbots — appear to have made its way into at least one factory, and by the end of 2012, another 30,000 more will be installed.
30,000 industrial robots like this one will be installed in Foxconn factories by the end of 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Though little is really known about these new bots, the rate of robot installation thus far is much lower than Gou’s original claim; however, the evidence suggests that it is difficult to know exactly what is going on in the factories and what is coming down the pipe. On top of that, these robots are manufactured in house, meaning that little information about them needs to be shared with the outside world in marketing reports, for example.
The FoxBots that have been installed apparently are designed for simple, yet precise repetitive actions common for simple manufacturing robots (lifting, selecting, placement). When it comes to automated factories, robots that can perform these tasks aren’t really anything new. But one look at the photo of the robot and it’s clear this isn’t just a simple machine, but a similar type of robotic arm to those used in assembly lines of automotive manufacturers.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Company parent of Foxconn has 270,000 workers at its sprawlng complex in Shenzhen, China. The complex stretches 1.9 miles x 0.75 miles. The complex includes factory buildings, restaurants, bookstores, hospital, basketball courts and swimming pool. (Click Image To Enlarge)
That means more sophistication might be possible with these bots alone or in tandem.
As part of the investigation into conditions inside the factory, a few camera crews have been given access. As we reported back in April, you can see for yourself what conditions appear to be like:
According to a translated page from the Chinese site Techweb, each robot costs between $20,000 to $25,000, which is over three times the average salary of one worker. However, amid international pressure, Foxconn continues to increase worker salaries with a 25 percent bump occurring earlier this year.
It’s worth noting that you can see automation is already part of the manufacturing process at Foxconn, but the new Foxbots are aimed to not merely complement factor workers, but replace them. As the world’s largest manufacturer of electronics, this move wouldn’t be happening unless the robots were ultimately cheaper than human beings.
If Foxconn ramps up the robot rollout, it’ll be interesting to see what the worldwide response is. While there are those who worry that the rise of robots will bring about the end of work as we know it, others see the Foxconn working conditions as violating human rights, and therefore, might welcome robotic replacements, if it means that conditions for the remaining human workforce could improve.
Because Foxconn employs 1.2 million workers, robot replacements both solve worker problems and create them. It should come as no surprise then that many manufacturers are watching the situation at the company closely.
Foxconn will replace plant workers like this with robots beginning in 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)
An important statistic from the International Federation of Robotics is that the number of operational robots in China increased by 42 percent from 2010 to 2011 (close to 75,000 robots), an unprecedented growth in the 50-year history of robots. At that rate of adoption, it would be 2019 before there were 1 million robots in all of China, but odds are that the use of robots is only going to increase as the pendulum that led to the economic boom in China swings back in the other direction.
In the end, we all know that the future of manufacturing is all about robots. It’s a question now of how fast the transition will occur and whether governments, businesses, and organizations will be able to adjust with the shifting workforce and economies.
During this time of flux, many are looking for leaders to take the lead. Whether Foxconn proves it can correct its current problems with robots or digs an even deeper hole by its displacement of a large workforce will play out in the immediate future.
COMMENTARY: If you've been following my posts, I have reported the latest developments surrounding Foxconn International. Foxconn International apparently believes that replacing its factory workers is the solution to their numerous labor problems. They just gave their plant workers a straight across the board 25% increase in response to Apple's demands that they improve worker morale and productivity. All of this in pursuit of the allmighty dollar -- Apple makes well over 30% profit margins on its iPhones an iPads, and they didn't want that disturbed.
It's going to be very interesting just how Foxconn's plant workers will react when they are summarily replaced by a Foxbot. The vast majority of Foxconn's plant workers are young Chinese workers from the countryside. This is the first time that they've been in the big cities, and working for a company that produces Apple's magical devces is considered quite prestigious. They are not likely to rock the boat and complain about the sweat shop working conditions at Foxconn's plants for fear of losing their jobs.
The body of evidence that Apple's overseas vendors operate sweatshops, treat their plant workers like slaves and polluting the environment on a monumental scale is overwhelming and can no longer be disuputed. In spite of rampedup plant inspections by Apple and claims of improved working conditions, it appears that nothing has really changed. This overwhelming evidence should give Apple evangelists pause for concern and swear not to buy another Apple product ever again. Join me in this crusade. Swear by these words: "I will never buy another Apple product again."
This infographic pretty much lays it all out for you to see.
Click Image To Enlarge
Courtesy of an article dated November 15, 2012 appearing in Robotics Trends
Saturn V rocket on the launching pad - Official NASA photo (Click Image To Enlarge)
Nowadays, Kickstarter has evolved into a platform for launching big ideas and even bigger businesses. But for Paul Sahre, the crowdfunding platform is about launching a model Saturn V rocket his late father lovingly built 40 years ago. After months of preparation, the rocket never deployed its chute and instead crashed to the ground. It was never flown again.
It’s a powerful story of the Sahre family that resonated with the crowdfunding audience as captured in this color photo from 1969 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Through a Kickstarter campaign, Paul Sahre is continuing a storyline from his youth (Click Image To Enlarge)
Sahre writes on his Kickstarter page.
“It struck me that this was the first time I remember seeing him fail at ANYTHING. It reminded me of a time when our fathers were omnipotent; when any dispute with the kid down the block could be settled with ‘I’ll ask my dad.’”
Now, Sahre plans to try again. He’s going to build and launch a Saturn V of his own alongside his children and family. He’s already bought a vintage kit off eBay, and through Kickstarter funding, he’ll be documenting the experience in a photobook and short documentary video. The goal? To recreate a place and time in both his life and our society.
The idea isn’t just an opportunity to rewrite history in the present …
… but for Paul’s children to get to know a grandpa they never met (Click Images To Enlarge)
Sahre tells me.
“It’s easy to forget but there were seven missions to the moon over a four-year period between 1969-1972. It was a collective experience unlike anything happening today. All my friends wanted to be astronauts and many of them were into model rockets. My dad was an aerospace engineer (but his specialty was flight simulators). He built his 1/100 scale Saturn V and made it an event so we could relate in some small way to what we were watching on the TV every night.”
His father spent months building the rocket (or “years” according to his mom), photographing the progress all the while. But when the rocket failed to deploy its chutes, the photos stopped and the story ended. Sahre wants to continue with his photobook where his father left off.
A 40-yr old Centuri Saturn V rocket kit like the one Paul Sahre's father launched was found on eBay (Click Image To Enlarge)
The sheer amount of details make it a specific memory to be sure. Not everyone’s father was an aerospace engineer. Not everyone’s father built toy rockets. But there’s something about Sahre’s story--maybe it’s the golden age of the Space Race, maybe it’s every man’s quest to understand his father, maybe it’s just the extreme sincerity behind the whole project--that’s resonated with the crowd. Sahre’s family project has already exceeded its $14,000 goal, and there are still a few days left to back it.
Sahre says.
“The project is really about shared experiences and the nature of memory. And about loss of course. Why do certain things stay with us? And how do these experiences form the future you? Why do I remember this particular event with such clarity 40 years after the fact? And what effect might a do-over have on that memory?
“While I don’t necessarily expect answers, I like the idea of re-enacting this event, engineered by my father, for my two sons who never knew their grandfather. And seeing if i can make this experience stick for them.
“Or maybe I just simply miss my dad and this is a way to collaborate with him. Either way, I think he would have liked the idea of giving it another try.”
COMMENTARY: Click this link to view a list of YouTube videos about CBS NEWS Coverage of the launch of Apollo 11 (Parts 1 through 11). The video series is narrated by CBS News correspondent and icon Walter Cronkite. For your convenience, I have included Part 1 below:
I remember the launch of Apollo 11 to the Moon very well. It was a historic event, something you did not want to miss. People throughout the world were glued to their TV sets to watch the launch including the historic landing on the Moon, and witnessing U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong's memorable words: "That's one small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind."
I think the Saturn V Relaunch project is a wonderful and fun idea and 507 Kickstarter donors thought so too, and they generously donated $19,753. This easily exceeded the goal to raise $14,000. I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of happy amateur rocketeers and families with young children when they receive their Saturn V rocket kit. Congrats to Paul Sahre for conceiving it, designing the Saturn V rocket parts for the kits, and posting it on Kickstarter.
He’ll rebuild a Saturn V model rocket his dad had built over 40 years ago (that crashed when it was launched) (Click Image To Enlarge)
Courtesy of an article dated November 13, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design
Just because a house is pre-fabricated doesn’t mean it’s easy to move. But Connect Homes’ innovation is to make them fit in shipping containers, so high-end green design can end up anywhere on the planet.
Pre-fab homes have found a new wave of enthusiasm among eco-minded architects and home builders: It’s a cheaper way to bring sustainable features to the masses. But talk with architects Gordon Stott and Jared Levy, and they’ll tell you that the biggest challenge green pre-fab manufacturers face isn’t the design, but getting those homes around the world. Their company Connect Homes expects to change that, by being the first pre-fab home builder to take advantage of shipping containers as a mode of global transit, allowing them to inexpensively reach consumers anywhere in the world.
Connect Homes Connect 5.2 is a pre-fabricated single-story home with 1,600 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths (Click Image To Enlarge)
Connect Homes' Connect 5.2 pre-fabricated home interior living room and kitchen area (Click Image To Enlarge)
Connect Homes' Connect 5.2 pre-fabricated home has two bedrooms with a webar and laundry area between both of them (Click Image To Enlarge)
As an architect at high-end pre-fab pioneer firm Marmol Radziner in Los Angeles, Stott says he worked on “really crazy complicated homes that were really beautiful,” including the first pre-fab house to ever be featured in GQ and other magazines. They were alsoreally expensive--anywhere from half a million to 2 million dollars.
Connect Homes' Connect 7.3 is a pre-fabricated single-story home with 2,240 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths (Click Image To Enlarge)
Connect Homes' Connect 7.3 living room and kitchen (Click Image To Enlarge)
Radziner recalls.
“While we’re doing all this, were getting calls from around the world. There was a global demand for modern green homes.”
Interest was high especially for green homes that could be done for about a third of the price of the luxury homes Marmol Radziner was known for. But it was a demand that couldn’t be met by their Los Angeles operations. Gordon Stott says.
“There’s no way to get homes more than 250 miles from the factory.”
Connect Homes' Connect 8.3 is a pre-fabricated two-story home with 2,560 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths (Click Image To Enlarge)
Connect Homes' Connect 8.3 living room, kitchen and outside patio (Click Image To Enlarge)
It’s a problem that isn’t unique to the Stott’s former employer. Levy says.
“What we discovered is that industry wide […] they use these really large modules that are basically as big as the roadways will allow."
Shipping one module around the country could cost $25,000--and some houses use as many as 10 modules.
Inside Connect Homes' manufacturing facility in Los Angeles, CA (Click Image To Enlarge)
That math makes pre-fab unrealistic, so modular companies set up regional factories, sometimes 30 factories for one brand, all building the same product. According to Levy,
“This whole industry hasn’t truly been industrialized like every other industry out there that’s basically able to ship their products in a container.”
This is the Connect Homes’ key innovation. The modules are designed to fit snugly in an 8-foot-by-40-foot shipping container, and can make it anywhere internationally for $5,000. The homes ship almost entirely complete--with plenty of green features like bamboo flooring, LED lighting, all-steel framing, and FCC-certified woods. And the inexpensive shipping and more efficient centralized production means all theses features don’t cost quite as much--$105,000 to $400,000 based on size of home, according to Stott.
Click To View Interactive Features
At the beginning of the month, Connect Homes trucked their model unit from Los Angeles up to Silcon Valley for Dwell's Silicon Valley Home Tours. They remained on display to the public through November 11.
Levy says.
"We’re really in the startup phase of our company."
The first home will start production within the next couple of months. Two others have sold so far, and they expect to sell five more within the quarter.
COMMENTARY: I love the design of Connect Homes pre-fabricated homes. However, I do have some reservations about pre-fabricated homes because quality among pre-fabricated homes can be inconsisted from one maker to another. Pre-fabricated homes look pre-fabricated which cheapens them in the eyes of the home owner. The other problem that I have is with the concept of green construction. There really is no such thing as a 100% green home, or building for that matter. It's really difficult to determine what percentage of a Connect Homes' house is really green, and what percentage of the cost pertains to the green portion. If you look at Connect Homes "green" features page, you see the terms "enhanced performance and efficiency", "improved quality", "renewable", "recycled materials", "sustainable source materials", to name a few. Roofs offer cool roof systems, but solar panel arrays are optional, and can easily add $30 to $40,000 to the cost of the home.
Having said this, if Connect Homes can prouce beautiful pre-fabricated homes of very high-quality, and can deliver them in a container, they may experience some of degree of success with prospective homeowners. The quality has to be there. Another problem that I have with Connect Homes is that they don't include the solar panels. Energy costs add to the operating costs, and having solar panels already would be a huge plus.
Courtesy of an article dated November 14, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design
KENYA HARA, ART DIRECTOR FOR MUJI, WANTS TO RECONSIDER THE DOG HOUSE. THE CANINE WORLD WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.
We’ve all heard of dog houses, but you’ve probably never heard the phrase "dog architecture." This divide is something that Imprint Venture Lab and Kenya Hara, art director at Muji, want to change with their latest project, the aptly named Architecture for Dogs.
In the hands of a Redditor or a snarky Tumblr blog, the new website, full of high-concept dog dwellings, could be easy fodder for a joke. But for Hara, who doesn’t even claim to be a dog lover himself, reconsidering architecture from a dog’s point of view is a very pure way to rediscover “what architecture really means.”
Projects on the site challenge traditional notions of scale, perspective, and function, ranging from a variegated rug of aluminum tubes--a dog cooler for those hot summer days--to a pair of ramps for short-legged dogs, which double as a shared recliner for human and dog alike.
Muji's Architecture for dogs includes Hiroshi Naito's piece for Spitz is a way to amplify the cold tile effect on a hot summer day. The aluminum tubes can be filled with ice to create a conductive, cooling sensation (Click Image To Enlarge)
Muji's Architecture for Dogs includes this piece with ramps that lets dogs sit eye level with their owners, for more soul-stirring conversation (Click Image To Enlarge)
The projects are united with care. Each is crafted to a dog’s concerns. For instance, a hammock for Jack Russell Terriers isn’t just a hammock; it’s a hammock stretched from the owner’s clothing, meaning the dog can appreciate their smell while resting. A "mobile home" for Shibas looks like a stroller at first glance, then you realize its materials are meant to mimic the natural shade of a tree and the carriage has been designed to carry the dog as closely to the ground as possible, allowing its short legs to hop out at will.
Muji's Architecture for Dogs includes Torafu Architects’ Jack Russell hammock made from old clothing converted into a hammock. You can also substitute warmer clothing in the winter (Click Image To Enlarge)
Muji's Architectue for Dogs includes Toyo Ito's 'mobile home' or a 'doghouse for walks' for Shibas (Click Image To Enlarge)
Hara tells Co.Design.
“We chose dogs because it’s a universal topic. Wolves interacted with humans, and it changed the course of their history. Dogs are man-made creatures forced to cohabitate with humans, so architecture for dogs is a reasonable inquiry.”
Muji's Architecture for Dogs includes Shigeru Ban’s structure for Papillons made from used plastic wrap tubes that can transform from a maze to a bed to even a chair or a table for yourself (Click Image To Enlarge)
Muji's Architecture for Dogs include this MVRDV rocker dog house. The rocker bottom allows has less friction with the ground, so it can be dragged by the attached rope (Click Image To Enlarge)
Each design is downloadable as a free blueprint, and next year, the collection will be available in flatpack kit form.
Where exactly the project is headed is still uncertain. Is Architecture for Dogs a purely academic endeavor? Are people meant to actually build these pieces? Is it more a beacon for the pet industry? Is it a beacon for the architecture industry? Could the site possibly serve all these roles? We can’t say, but the overarching lesson is notable:
Dogs are a species made for humans, forced to live in houses also made for humans. With Architecture for Dogs, Hara has assembled a team of elite designers to reconsider the dog’s experience in an otherwise human world. And reconsidering dog-level design, in turn, is a means to allow humans to be more mindful of their own environments.
Muji's Architecture for Dogs includes Kazuyo Sejima’s piece for the Bichon Frise. When they climb inside, the dog completes the structure’s shape (Click Image To Enlarge)
Muji's Architecture for Dogs includes a Aterier Bow-Wow created series of ramps for the Dachshund. It’s a means for the dog to gain elevation without straining its long body (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY: From the look of the smiles on these spoiled rotten pooches, I would say that Kenya Hara is on the right track with his Architecture for Dogs. As a lover of dogs, I would certainly buy some of these doggie creations. They are not only beautiful and functional, but could be considered doggie art pieces, that would embellish the home. The dogs certainly appear to love them, so I strongly recommend he begin building those kits. I have a feeling Kenya and the designers will do quite well. The worldwide pet market did over $60 billion in sales in 2011 alone. We're not just talking dog food, collars and leaches, either. Pet owners spend hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of dollars on merchandise for their dogs (and cats, too). Architecture for Dogs shows what can be done to spoil pooches even more.
Courtesy of an article dated November 15, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design
Facebook announced its long-awaited job board this morning, ushering in a new era of online recruiting and, eventually, what’s likely to be an important new source of revenue for the company. After a year long “Social Jobs Partnership” with the U.S. Department of Labor and other government agencies, the company released the Social Jobs Partnership application today, an interactive job board that aggregates 1.7 million openings from recruiting companies already working on the platform, including Work4Labs, BranchOut, Jobvite, DirectEmployers and Monster.com.
Social Jobs Partnership page on Facebook (Click Image To Enlarge)
Though a spokesperson for the company insists the announcement does not mean Facebook is entering the recruiting industry, that statement appears far-fetched given the capability of the application. The page allows users to search for jobs by location, industry and skill, apply to them directly through Facebook, and then share the jobs to their social network. Its developer partners also believe Facebook is making a clear statement of its intentions. Stephane Le Viet, founder and CEO of Work4 Labs says.
“Facebook is launching a jobs page within Facebook. This is a very big disruption in a very large space.”
The company’s own blog post reveals some telling statistics about the potential for recruiting over the platform. According to Facebook, half of employers in the U.S. use the social network during their hiring process. Of those companies already using Facebook to engage with customers, 54 percent anticipate using it more heavily in their recruitment efforts in the future. Given those numbers, the lucrative nature of the recruitment industry and the success of companies like Work4 Labs—not to mention increasing pressure from battered shareholders—it appears likely that Facebook will seek monetize recruitment efforts at some point soon.
Le Viet surmises that the current application is just an early, lightweight version intended to test recruiting on the platform while triggering a PR push letting the general public know the social network is now a place to find jobs. A more robust version may eventually mean users will see more recruitment-related activity on their newsfeeds.
The Social Jobs Partnership was meant to serve as a consortium to guide the company’s recruitment offering.
Given today’s announcement, does November 14, 2012 mark the beginning of the end for LinkedIn? The varied demographics of Facebook certainly differ from LinkedIn’s 175 million older, college-educated users. Le Viet’s Work4 Labs acknowledges this reality, focusing on entry-level and hourly positions rather than the salaried openings for which LinkedIn provides candidates. And as Forbes contributor George Anders noted in a July cover story, although Facebook's Job Board presents a huge threat to LinkedIn. Here are a few reasons why LinkedIn may still succeed:
LinkedIn Recruiter, the company’s enterprise recruitment tool, is the company’s core business. They have a three-year head start and a product with cachet among recruiters said to rival the Bloomberg terminal for bond-traders.
LinkedIn is also a trusted, professional brand created for the explicit purpose of business networking.
Older employees may not feel comfortable mixing work with a social platform better known for party photos.
The sheer size of Facebook’s user base however, means that the company can slice the population a number of different ways. Though only 22 percent of users are above the age of 45, that’s still 220 million people–more than LinkedIn’s entire platform. And Facebook has already been shown to be highly effective in recruiting lower-skilled workers. A foothold in the lower end of the market could serve as a nice starting point for moving upstream and eating LinkedIn’s business. The twenty-somethings who tend profiles on both LinkedIn and Facebook may not care where their next job comes from.
It is certain that traditional online job boards like Monster.com are on the way out. While Monster has seen its market share and stock price plummet in recent years, LinkedIn has soared and Facebook’s developer partners–Work4 Labs, BranchOut and Jobvite–have raised tens of millions of dollars to pursue social graph-based recruiting models. The future of recruiting is decidedly social.
Though Forbes staffer Eric Savitz noted that the lockup agreement covering 777 million Facebook shares ended today, the company’s stock is up nearly 8%.
COMMENTARY: There’s no doubt that Facebook could leverage these partnerships with job sites and its massive user base of more than one billion to create a powerful job listings service. The bigger question though is whether it poses a threat to LinkedIn as a recruiting engine, which is where LinkedIn makes most of its money. LinkedIn has spent years building up relationships with headhunters and providing them with premium tools to scout for talent on the social network. To compete on that front, Facebook would need to do more than just aggregate listings from other job sites.
Still, as Facebook points out in its announcement, one study has found that half of employers already use Facebook in the hiring process, so there’s certainly potential.
LinkedIn investors clearly think there’s cause for concern. The company’s stock dipped slightly (down 0.49) immediately after Facebook announced the news about the Jobs Board, and was down more than 2% on the day as of publication.
Facebook investors reacted very positively to the news about the Job Board, and although another 804 million shares lockedup since the May IPO were released for trading today, Facebook Inc's (NASDAQ:FB) shares increased by 2.5 points or 12.59%, and 229.75 million shares were traded throughout the day.
The big question that I have is how much Facebook will charge recruiters and companies to list job openings on the Facebook Job Board. Facebook certainly has a lot of leverage -- 1 billion monthly active users is one hell of a big number, so LinkedIn stands to be hurt in the longterm. LinkedIn may have its recruiting tools, which it charges a premium price for, Facebook certainly has the ability to develop recruiting tools of its own and a shole slew of analytics that could allow employers to react quickly to market competitive conditions.
Facebook's Job Board partners will also have to ponyup something to access Facebook's huge user base. This will not come free. Will Facebook charge a small commission for each employee hired through their Job Board? Up until now, LinkedIn has had little competition when it comes to professionals.
Click Image To Enlarge
LinkedIn is no slouch, it's been a social network for professionals long before Facebook came along. Here are a slewful of reasons why LinkedIn might actually win the Jobs Boar War:
If you're like most college students, chances are good that you spend more time on Facebook than you do on LinkedIn. But if you're concerned with furthering your career (and you should be), it's time to switch over to a more professional network. We've shared 20 great reasons why you need to be spending your time on LinkedIn much more than Facebook, and we hope they motivate you to make a change for the better. These reasons should be especially compelling for students earning online bachelor's degrees, as they will have fewer face-to-face networking opportunities and will need to capitalize on their online networking skills to bolster their job hunt.
LINKEDIN IS PROFESSIONAL AT ITS CORE - LinkedIn was created to connect professionals in online networking; Facebook was not. Although both services have evolved to include elements of each other, they do still remain true to their original purpose, and LinkedIn excels at presenting a professional front.
LINKEDIN IS A GREAT PLACE TO GAIN EXPERT STATUS - Although experts are increasingly flocking to Facebook, it's still hard for some people to take the site seriously. On LinkedIn, the setting is much more open to gaining expert status and credibility. Forums, question and answer sections, and groups make it simpler to connect and share your knowledge in a credible way. Students working toward a graduate degree can even share their research with other experts in the field and receive valuable feedback as they complete master’s theses and doctoral dissertations.
YOUR COLLEGE PROFESSORS MIGHT ACTUALLY CONNECT ON LINKEDIN - Although some colleges take a lax approach to social media, many still frown on Facebook connections between students and professors. But on LinkedIn, connections are typically seen as a positive thing, opening you up to the resources that your professors can share with you, including positive recommendations.
LINKEDIN REPRESENTS A MORE TARGETED AUDIENCE - Facebook now has 1 billion users, a figure that basically obliterates LinkedIn's comparatively small 135 million plus users. One might think that more users means more exposure, and that would be correct, but on Facebook, you can't be sure that the millions of users are actually online to hear about your professional life. On LinkedIn, you can expect to reach a more targeted audience that is connected to you, interested in your work, and willing to listen to what you have to say.
YOU'RE MORE LIKELY TO GET A RECOMMENDATION ON LINKEDIN - A recommendation on either LinkedIn or Facebook is a great way to put your best foot forward, but you're simply more likely to land one on LinkedIn. Recent stats show that 36% of LinkedIn users make a recommendation, compared to 27% of Facebook users. LinkedIn also has a 57% interested recommendation response, compared with 42% on Facebook.
LINKEDIN USERS LOG IN WITH A SENSE OF PURPOSE - While on Facebook, you may be surfing to find out about the latest cat video or your friend's wedding photos, but LinkedIn tends to lead to a more task-driven visit. Users log in to check out job and collaboration opportunities, people to hire, and relevant industry news.
LINKEDIN IS A GREAT PLACE TO SHOWCASE YOUR UNPAID WORK- Even if you haven't been hired for a job in your life, chances are you've volunteered or done an internship before graduation. LinkedIn is specifically designed to help you showcase this experience.
LINKEDIN IS AN ONLINE RESUME - LinkedIn is a great place to collect references, share your work experience, professional samples, and more. Your Facebook Timeline is much more like a digital scrapbook of personal experiences.
LINKEDIN SEARCHING IS MORE ROBUST- While you can search for people and terms on Facebook, LinkedIn really shines in this category. You can search for companies, find people to connect with, get news, and more on LinkedIn. Your profile is also highly searchable, and represents a great tool for allowing recruiters to find you.
YOU CAN ACTUALLY TURN YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE INTO A RESUME - Although LinkedIn functions as an online resume, it's also a time saver when it comes to creating one that you can print and hand out. Use this feature to stop neglecting your paper resume and have something to hand in.
FACEBOOK CAN MAKE YOUR SCHOOLWORK SUFFER - Experts report that students who regularly surf Facebook do not do as well on tests. In fact, some students suffered by as much as an entire grade. They believe that using the social media site takes up valuable study time.
RECRUITERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO SHARE APPLICATIONS ON LINKEDIN - Facebook and LinkedIn are both experiencing growth in applications shared on their sites. But LinkedIn stands out for the number of candidates who actually apply. You can expect recruiters to go where the interest is, which clearly rests with LinkedIn.
FACEBOOK IS A MAJOR TIME SUCK - Facebook is fun, but for most users, it takes up much more time than it should. In a comparison, researchers found that Facebook visits resulted in stays of 405 minutes per visitor, compared with 17 minutes on LinkedIn. It is much wiser to spend 17 focused minutes on LinkedIn than several hours frittering your time away on Facebook.
GROUPS ON LINKEDIN ARE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE - Facebook has groups, but not on the level that LinkedIn does. LinkedIn remains an incredible resource for connecting and networking in industry groups on the site.
YOU'RE MORE LIKELY TO GET HIRED ON LINKEDIN - In a recent comparison of job search markers on Facebook and LinkedIn, LinkedIn beat Facebook handily in every category. The most interesting and revealing, however, was social employee hires, with LinkedIn earning 73% and Facebook at a low 22%.
LINKEDIN IS A GREAT PLACE FOR BUSINESS INTRODUCTIONS - One of the best features of LinkedIn is the ability to be introduced to new business contacts through the site, especially through contacts you already know. So if you’ve recently completed a business degree and want to expand your professional connections, LinkedIn in the place to be.
LINKEDIN USERS HAVE MORE MONEY - Out of all the popular social media sites, LinkedIn users have the highest average income of $89K. If you're looking to earn a good salary, you'll be in great company on LinkedIn.
LINKEDIN REALLY SHINES WITH RELEVANCE - While your friends on Facebook may be sharing music videos that you scroll right past, LinkedIn works hard to bring you content that is the most relevant to you. The site sends emails to users with the most-shared news, groups that belong to your job focus, and contacts you're likely to be interested in getting to know.
LINKEDIN IS AWESOME FOR RESEARCH - Facebook is growing in this respect with better Pages, but LinkedIn still wins the battle of employer research. You find out who works there, who used to work there, whether or not you have any connections within the company, and more. For example, if you recently earned a master's degree in finance, and are looking for employment with major financial services companies, you can search for employment leads by networking with a company’s current and former employees.
Courtesy of an article dated November 14, 2012 appearing in Forbes and an article dated May 5, 2012 appearing in OnlineCollege.org
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