Microblogging: Twitter

Seitzhan Madiyev

The Information Technology industry has been surprising us slightly. After the creation of Google search engine and the “internet bubble” crisis in 2000s, it began developing a little bit slower and in different direction than many expected. People were predicting about future IT industry; how it will change the way we live. As the time has passed trends that were predicted in that time did not achieve their expectations, or simply did not get enough attention from the community. But instead other projects came into place; those which most of the people did not even think about ten years ago, but without which a lot of people cannot imagine their lives nowadays. The top trend of this decade was given to a group of products that can be called “social networks”. And between monstrous creation of Mark Zuckerberg and a huge failure of “MySpace” there was one more invention which I believe will have an even greater impact in the nearest future “Twitter”.

How it works
Twitter is a simple microblogging service which allows users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters. When a user wants to read public messages sent by another user of his interest, he/she simply connects to it through a button named “follow”. And those who follow the user will get all the messages sent by him. It was firstly described by its creators as a service that uses SMS to tell small groups what you are doing. When people create an account there, the site simply asks you to share with others “What are you doing?”.

Socio-political significance
Twitter was often criticized for uselessness since its users were bringing a lot of “rubbish” and meaningless information, like “I ate a sandwich”. However, since 2008 the project took an important socio-political significance. In February 16, 2008 the photographer James Buck was arrested by Egyptian police. He wrote “arrested” in his twitter account which quickly came to the US authorities. The next day he was released. During the U.S. presidential elections Twitter was actively used by both candidates Barack Obama and John McCain for their campaigns. It was blocked in many countries for the purpose of not spreading information of some events.
When the management team understood the importance of their service, they have changed the business model the question has been changed to “What’s happening?”. The society started to realize the importance of the project. It became the fastest media platform to release the latest news and updates on almost all events occurring in the world. Now even media outlets are forced to get the newest information from Twitter with the risk of reporting false information. It has become the most efficient media platform, since all people who have an account there have become the reporters.

A lot of people argue that most of the messages that occur in twitter are so called “Pointless Babble”. So the research has been made to analyze what people actually share with others, and the results were interesting. Pointless Babble won with 40.55% of the total tweets captured; however, Conversational was a very close second at 37.55%, and Pass-Along Value was third (albeit a distant third) at 8.7% of the tweets captured. (Twitter Study) Pass-Along Value is the messages that actually matter; those are the newest news, relevant information and shares of interesting thoughts by famous politicians, business people, etc. Although it is only 8.7%, but it is still large in general terms since around 200 million tweets are sent every day.

New business model
Twitter has created an absolutely new way for businesses to promote their products and for people to promote themselves. Since 2000s marketing has been moving more and more towards the Internet, and just few years ago so called “social networks” helped to create new business models and increase the efficiency of marketing. One of the most important tools created because of social network is the “target marketing”. It simply allows businesses to find the right audience to promote to dividing all the users by different groups. But if social networks like Facebook are efficient platform for targeting adverts, how Twitter has created a new way? It is simple: “Brand Journalism”.

Nowadays adverts don’t get enough attention from public and become less and less efficient, and that is where brand journalism might come in the nearest future. Brand journalism was created as a tool to promote products and companies in an innovative way. A company can hire a professional journalist which can write only about this company, its everyday activities, new products, the chronicles of what has happened. People are interested to hear new stories, and Twitter is an ideal platform to tell those stories, to share photos and links.

I believe that Twitter has not achieved its peak yet, and it has more to come in the future. From being on of the most innovative products of these years, it might become an essential part of our lives.

References

1. MG Siegler. Russian President Medvedev Sends His First Tweet At Twitter. — TechCrunch, 23.06.2010
2. Chris Nuttall. What’s happening? A lot, says Twitter COO. — The Financial Times Tech blog (blogs.ft.com/techblog), 20.11.2009
3. Twitter: "pointless babble" or peripheral awareness + social grooming? — Danah Boyd blog (www.zephoria.org), 16.08.2009
4. Owen Fletcher, Dan Nystedt. Internet, Twitter Blocked in China City After Ethnic Riot. — PC World, 06.06.2009
5. Om Malik. A Brief History of Twitter. — Gigaom.com, 01.02.2009
6. BBC admits it made mistakes using Mumbai Twitter coverage. — The Guardian, 05.12.2008
7. Claudine Beaumont. New York plane crash: Twitter breaks the news, again. — The Telegraph, 16.01.2009
8.  John Brandon. Barack Obama wins Web 2.0 race. — ComputerWorld, 19.08.2008
9. Twitter Study. — Pear Analytics. — August 2009

The influence of Smartphone Apps on Handheld game console market

LAM YAT HANG

    Starting from 1976, with the invention of the first handheld game console, playing video games was not restricted at home or game center anymore. We started to see people playing video games when waiting for buses, queuing for tickets or even attending lectures. Handheld game console allows us to have fun anytime at anywhere.

    More than 40 years have passed, today handheld game console is still very popular among people. It is not difficult to find people holding a PSP or NDS on the street. PSP and NDS, as the two consoles having the most competitiveness in the market of handheld game, starting their competition in 2004. They were both first introduced in 2004 and hit the market at that time. Until now, the PSP has sold for more than 71million units and NDS has sold for more than 147million units. With the release of new versions of the two consoles, their sales are still going. In 2009, the NDS shared 70% and PSP shared 11% of the portable game software revenue in the U.S. It seems that in the market there is no another console can complete with them. However, if you also consider mobile phone as one of the console, they really get a strong competitor.

    Many people may wonder if mobile phone can be considered as one type of consoles. Before appearance of the iOS and the Android system, the games installed in the mobile phones were usually simple games like “Snack” and “Minesweeper”. The mobile phone games usually had lower quality than that on traditional game consoles and didn’t be very popular. Therefore, people didn’t consider mobile phone as one of the handheld game consoles. However, with the appearance and popular of the iOS, Android system and Smartphone in recent years, game developers start to put more money in this market to develop more and better games. The games are not simple any more, some of them even have a big hit in the world like the Angry Bird and Fruit Ninja. These years, we can usually see people playing video games on the street, holding not a NDS or PSP, but a mobile phone. Due to its popularity and success, many people start to consider mobile phone as one of the handheld game consoles.

    Is that mobile phone really intimidating other consoles? Recently a research find that the market share for iOS and Android in the U.S portable games revenue raise from 19% in 2009 to 34% in 2010 and is predicted to further increase in the following years. While the market share of iOS and Android system increase by 15% in a year time, the one of NDS and PSP decreased 13% and 2% respectively. Many researcher believe that appearance of Smartphone and its applications, which called as “Apps”, is one of the factors that make the market share of traditional game consoles decline.

Some news also reported that the Nintendo Corporation, the corporation which invented NDS, has classified the iOS and Android system as their strongest competitor in the market of handheld game.

What makes Smartphone a strong handheld game console? Mobile phone is considered as a must-have item for people living in cities. In 2011, the Smartphone makes up 40% of all mobile phones in the market in the U.S and is expected to increase further in the future. It shows that Smartphone is also becoming more and more popular. Before the appearance of Smartphone, people need to bring an additional device like NDS or PSP with them for playing video games. Many people at that time need to bring their cell phone together with a console when they went out which was a little inconvenient. Many people did not own a cell phone and a game console at the same time. However, Smartphone changes the situation. Smartphone combines mobile phone, game console and even computer together. People bring a Smartphone with them are just like bringing a game console at the same time. With the device on hand, people are more likely to play video games. Although not all people use Smartphone to play video games, but a research find that 29% people will do so. With the amazing sales of Smartphone in the recent years, Smartphone had sold for more than 100million units in the 4th quarter of 2010, it can be said as the console having the most consumers.

Apart from that, Smartphone also provides a more convenient way for their consumers to get video games. The video games in the Smartphone are downloaded in form of applications, which usually called as “Apps”. All Apps are downloaded from the web and no exception for the game Apps. When people want to have game, there is no need for them to go to a shopping centre or waiting for the delivery if they buy it online. All the actions for buying Apps are being instant. The consumer just need to press an icon and their Apps will be downloaded and installed in their Smartphone. From the time that a person has a idea to have a game Apps to the time which he can play the game, the whole process takes no more than 5 minutes. The convenient of the process encourage people to enter the Apps market and have their game Apps. The sales revenue and the game developers will definitely be beneficial to this.

With the increase in the market share for Smartphone in the handheld game console, it is expected that more game developer will enter the market and provide more games for consumers. With more choices, more consumers will also be attracted. This forms a virtuous cycle and the Smartphone market share in the handheld game console is likely to further increase in the following years.

Reference

1. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/40-percent-of-u-s-mobile-users-own-smartphones-40-percent-are-android/
2. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/mobile-snapshot-smartphones-now-28-of-u-s-cellphone-market/
3. http://thegadgetsite.com/2011/04/nintendo-ds-and-psp-losing-market-share-due-to-android-and-ios/
4. http://www.weiphone.com/iPhone/news/2010-05-15/Statistics_say_iPod_iPhone_hit_DS_PSP_sales_216609.shtml
5. http://news.newhua.com/news/2011/0104/112578.shtml
6. http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5025e3880100ot99.html
7. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37715/comScore_29_Of_US_Mobile_Phone_Subscribers_Play_Mobile_Games.php
8. http://www.hksilicon.com/kb/articles/34964/iOSAndroid-2015
9. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-14-ps3-worldwide-sales-reach-51-8-million
10. http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/library/historical_data/pdf/consolidated_sales_e1106.pdf

Microblogging -- Twitter & Sina Weibo

Liu Songling

Introduction

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets", and images.

Sina Weibo (Chinese: 新浪微博; literally "Sina microblogging") is a Chinese microblogging site. Akin to a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook, it is one of the most popular sites in China, in use by well over 30% of internet users, it has a similar market penetration that Twitter has established in the USA.

Rapid Development

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. Twitter rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with 200 million users as of 2011, generating over 200 million tweets and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet."

Sina Weibo was launched by SINA Corporation in August 2009, and now has more than 200 million registered users. A two-year-old block on Twitter setting being accessible in China has allowed Sina’s homegrown Weibo to flourish - and now it’s blossoming in to far more than a Twitter-style microblogging tool.

Social influence

a. Twitter

As one of the most popular social network sites in the world and with more than 10 languages in used, Twitter has an indisputable influence in both the daily life of humans and issues of the society.

Nowadays, people spend an increasing time chatting online or with cell-phones, with great interest in what their friends or some other famous people are doing. Thus as a convenient internet posing wall for users to update their moods, status just via text-based posts, twitter not only provides the commenting and chatting services like Facebook, but also let users become “followers”, which enable users know not only their friends’ status but also other famous people,  their interested companies, organization and so on.

“Followers” in twitter, like fans or supporters, by leaving comments or reply to a status can somehow show their supports or arguments, and can even reflect the public opinion on a certain social event. For example, in August, 2009, when the opponents of Obama’s health care reform plan aggressed the National Health System (NHS) of UK, thousands of the users of NHS used the #welovetheNHS label in twitter to support NHS and refute the campaign of U.S.Right, winning the Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s support and respect.

b. Sina Weibo

Owning similar services with Twitter, Sina Weibo, though established only 2years ago, now also has a great influence in the society. Mainly used by people in China, the impact of Sina Weibo largely focuses on the care of the life of people. People in Sina Weibo not only share some advice and tips of daily life, but also warm-heartedly post some advertisement on emergent need of hospitals and disaster area. For instant, the reason why Yao Chen becomes the Queen of Weibo is not just the humor language she used in her post, but her consistent post for the people in urgent need for help. People love to see that famous Weibo owners take advantage of their large amount of fans to help others with widely advertising instead of promoting products.

Also, like news broadcasting, Weibo users report and describe the real situation of big events and disasters, enable people in the nation get the fastest information. For example, in the disaster of the train crash in Wenzhou China, on 23rd July, 2011, people post the condition of the crash and the people injured in Weibo, which was more informative and timely than TV news report.

Advertising effectiveness

a. Twitter

While hesitation over making purchases for products through the networking sites has abated, what along with the widely use of Twitter, of course, is the great profit from advertisements. While Facebook may take the lion's share of social media marketing budgets, Twitter is fast catching up and eMarketer has estimated that worldwide advertising revenues will rise by 210 per cent by the end of this year. This represents moving from $45 million (£28.7 million) earnings in 2010 to an expected $139.5 million (£88.9 million) by the end of 2011. The marketing analysts also forecast that Twitter's worldwide ad revenues will reach $400 million (£255 million) by 2013.

Also, economic advantages come from the cooperation between mobile phones and Twitter. For example, Samsung announced the launching of Galaxy S, a Smartphone manufactured by Samsung, in Korea in detail via the Twitter. Usages like these certainly helped people in terms of receiving information quickly. This not only enables people to use Twitter with smartphones at anytime in anywhere, but also decrease the cost of communication. It is estimated that over half of Twitter users use their webpage by mobile devices. While other online services such as blogs and MSN Messenger require people to be stationed, Twitter can be accessed while moving. Moreover, other online communication systems such as MSN Messenger ask users to sign in. This means that people have to stay in their seats in order to use the system, which is a huge inconvenience.

b. Sina Weibo

Via such kind of social network, not only companies advertise their products by posting ads, but users publicize the products they love by showing their pictures and comments. Recently, it has become a trend that users would love to post what they have bought and what they have eaten on Sina Weibo, which then cause a great popularity of the product or the restaurant that is appreciated and forwarded by many other users. Since people would rather believe what their peers and friends preferences, thus the effectiveness of such advertising may much more powerful than TV ads. 

Conclusion

Though I just talk about the development, social influence and advertising effectiveness above, there are many other information and benefits of these two social networks. However, apart from their advantages, they also have their respective limitation. For instant, Twitter has no constant, long-term income source, which makes it hard to decide whether to choose the profit from companies’ advertisement or the users’ favors, as it may worsen the perception of users about twitter if it intentional creates a platform for advertisements. Also, Sina Weibo only has Chinese version which greatly limits its development and expansion. 

Reference

1. http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sina_Weibo
3. http://www.equimedia.co.uk/index.php?id=98&article=800744322
4. http://ahnyoungjae.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/economic-benefits-and-limitations-of-twitter-and-the-future/

Is it secure to shop online?

With the growing in popularity in surfing the internet among the public across the decade, online shopping has become a widespread activity in our daily life. No matter what you can think of, almost all the products and service are available on the internet, which vary from groceries to clothes, from cars to house. A research conducted by Pew Internet in 2008 revealed that over half (66%) of the online American admitted that they have purchased a product online, and most of them thought that it is convenient (78%) and time saving (68%). Despite the benefits online shopping bring us, it draws some concerns over the security problem of data transmission. 75% of internet users worried about the safety of sending personal details or financial information such as the credit card number over the internet. Is it safe to shop online? How to ensure the security of online shopping or e-commerce? What can we do to protect our personal information from leakage? In this survey, I would like to focus on the precautionary measures to better protect ourselves so as to enjoy a safe and comfortable online shopping experience.

1. Web sites with secure transmission
The first measure is to look for secure web sites which use the secure transmission standard such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Secure Electronic Transaction (SET). It ensures secure transmission of data between a web site and its client by using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). When sensitive data is needed to sent over the internet from the client, the public key of the web site is obtained to encrypt the data. It can only be decrypted by using the company’s own private key which must be kept secret, ensuring the security and maintaining the confidentiality of the message no matter when it is intercepted during transmission. An SSL web site can be identified by a symbol of a closed lock icon in the status bar or the protocol prefix “https” in the Uniform Resources Locator (URL). (Chan W. N., 2005) The following is a web site with SSL.

2. Verifying a site by Digital Certificate
Using a digital certificate is another way to verify a web site to see if it is secure. It is a digital document including the name and the public key of a person or an organization, which is used to verify or identify that a person or an organization sending a message is who he or she claims to be. Checking the digital certificate of a web site by clicking the lock icon on the browser can easily ensure the security of transaction with the web site.

3. Looking for the Web Site's Privacy Statement
Checking out the “Privacy and Security Policy” of the web site can give you a clearer understanding on how your data is processed. To be more specific, you can find out what type of information is collected by the web site, whether your information is shared with a third party and how it is shared.  If your data is allowed to be marketed to others, you can probably expect to receive spam mails.

4. Be Aware of Cookies
Cookies are a small chunk of data generated by a dynamic web page and stored in a text file on your computer’s hard disk. (Chan W. N., 2005). It is an online tracking system that stores information such as your login name and even your password you sign in a site, the web sites you visit as well as your shopping and surfing habits. This data is useful for the companies to select and promote their products and services to you through targeted advertisements which suit your interests and shopping patterns. It is a common and useful marketing tactics for the companies to expose their products to their potential customers, which in turn has a higher chance to earn a greater profit. However, this data are stored secretly without your active consent. All this information may combine to form a detailed profile and may be transmitted to the third parties in the worst case. Although you are allowed to set your security settings to disable cookies, you may possibly not be able to make online purchase from e-commerce web site where cookies are needed for running the shopping carts.

5. Using single-use credit card numbers

Since your credit card number can be easily stolen from the customers’ databases by hackers, it is not secure to use it for online shopping. To tackle this problem, it is suggested to use the single-use credit card numbers or “virtual credit cards” to make purchase, which the substitute account number is generated on a random based for one-time usage only. This method can effectively keep your actual card number hidden while performing the transaction. Due to the single usage in nature, it can’t be used again for other purchase even if the card number is stolen from a hacker.

In conclusion, there are pros and cons in conducting e-commerce. It indeed brings us convenience and fun in shopping online without the restriction of the geographical boundaries and time factors. The number of online shopper will be soared rapidly if the public’s concern over the security and privacy problem of data transmission can be addressed. You may find the advice above useful in protecting your sensitive data while enjoying the fun of e-commerce.

Reference

1. Chan, W.N. (2005). Computer concepts. Hong Kong: Radian Publishing Co.
2. Chan, W.N. (2005). Data communication & networking. Hong Kong: Radian   Publishing Co.
3. Horrigan, J. (2008) Online Shopping. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Online-Shopping/01-Summary-of-Findings.aspx
4. Online Shopping and Security (n.d.) Retrieved October 4, from http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/pm1789g.pdf
5. Online Shopping and Tips: E-Commerce and You (2011) Retrieved from https://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs23-shopping.htm

The Largest Marketplace on the Internet: eBay

Due to rapid growth of e-commerce, people nowadays can easily purchase goods and services at home. With increasing popularity of online shopping, there are more and more auction websites existing on the Internet. Among these, eBay is the largest and one of the most famous online marketplace for selling goods and services for individuals. In this survey, I will discuss the business model of eBay, followed by its security measures. Finally, my opinion on eBay will be made.

Business Model
eBay creates an online person-to-person marketplace where sellers list a variety of goods and services for sale and buyers can bid on their interested items. Instead of direct the transactions, these two online auction websites provide buyers and sellers with a platform to communicate during the transaction.

However, both eBay does not provide this platform free. Although buyers can browse and bid on auctions without being charged, sellers are required to pay for the transaction fees, including insertion fee and final value fee. Insertion fee is the fee that is charged when sellers list their item on eBay for sales. For final value fee, it is charged when the auction ends. Insertion fee and final value fee are charged based on the opening bid and final selling price of the sold item respectively.

Once the auction ends, eBay will notify both the seller and buyer through email. After that, the payment exchange is left to the seller and buyer.

Security Measures
In order to provide confidence to users in a safe and secure ways through the transactions, eBay established a number of security measures to protect users.  Firstly, registration is required for users before buying or selling items on eBay. Apart from this, user’s information such as the URL, browser software and IP address can be tracked by eBay. This can avoid users from creating more than one account in the same computer.

To avoid improper activities such as fraud and intellectual property infringement on the website, eBay runs the Verified Right Owner Program which assists in the investigations of these activities. If users are found violating the rules repeatedly, eBay has the right to disclose the users’ account to law enforcement. This makes the users have more confidence when using eBay.

Besides, eBay also protects the buyers’ right by providing refund. When the buyer cannot receive the bided item and cannot solve the problem with the seller, he or she can go to the Resolution Center and eBay will carry investigation the case.  If the problem is due to the seller, eBay will return full refund including the selling price and the shipping cost to the buyer.

After reviewing the business model and security measures established by eBay, it is not difficult to understand why eBay is one of the largest and most successful online auction websites in the world. However, whether security measures are useful and convenient for users is still questionable. Take Verified Rights Owner Program as an example, this program assist in the investigation of any intellectual property infringement on the website. However, it cannot identify whether the item sold is a licensed or unlicensed product.  If you sell second hand Nike shoes on eBay, eBay may suspend your account because you are not authorized to list Nike products by Nike and eBay will consider you are selling unlicensed product on the website. What you need to do next is to send email to eBay telling it you are actually selling the licensed items. And eBay will investigate the case that usually takes several weeks. During this period, the user’s account is still suspended. This causes inconvenience to sellers and in case if they want to create another account in the same computer, eBay can track IP address of users’ computers and prohibit users from creating a new account in the same computer. 

Undoubtedly, eBay system provides a good platform for people to online shopping or trading; however, there are many constraints which lower the efficiency of trading from sellers or buyers.

Microblogging

Wong Kwan Ting

Introduction
Recent years, microblogging is very popular all over the world. Microblogging is a type of blogging, but it has a small scale than blogging. In a microblog, users are only allowed to post small content within 140 words or a photo only. Nowadays, it is more and more convenient to surf the Internet everywhere. People are able to connect to the Internet by their smart phones and they can update their microblogs no matter where they are. The most famous companies which provide microblogging services include Twitter, Weibo and Plurk.

History of Microblogging
The history of microblogs starts from 2005 and it was called tumblelogs at that time. It was a simpler type of blog which was a quick and good platform to publish people’s work on the Internet. After one year, the term “microblogs” was used by Twitter instead of “tumblelogs”. Then, more and more companies start to provide microblogging services and each of the providers has its own characteristics. For instance, Plurk has a timeline view which shows the statuses, photos and videos of the user in a form of timeline. This helps people share information and news more quickly and efficiently. Due to the fast development of the sharing platforms on the Internet, the Internet has become a place where breaking news and new ideas come out. The news and ideas can usually spread all over the world after a short period of time.

Benefits of Microblogging to the Business
The main characteristic of microblogging is the function “follow”. The microblog users are able to follow other users so that the most updated statuses or photos are pushed to the followers’ news feeds. The followers are able to choose what updates they want to get. Moreover, as microblogs are mainly public to all people, microblogging is a very good platform to promote business. Because of the popularity of microblogging, a lot of corporations, such as Dell, Apple and Microsoft, have microblogs on Twitter or other microblogging service providers to deliver their exclusive news or most updated products and services to the public. For instance, Microsoft posted a video of the new Xbox Live Experience on their Twitter recently. The video is just like an advertisement or a TV commercial on the Internet but it is totally free of charge. The companies do not need to pay a cent to publicize their products and services on the microblogs. The microblogs are also good places for marketing and public relations. The Sysomos study reveals that the group of marketers is more active than general users on Twitter. 15% of the marketers follow more than 2000 people but only 0.29% of the general users follow more than 2000 people. [1] Apart from companies, the film stars and singers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland China are very common to use Weibo to share their daily life to their fans. Through microblogs, the stars are able to promote their recent work. Furthermore, they can build up a good image to their fans and the public. This could help them attract more opportunities on working. Hence, microblogging is also a great and convenient promotion platform to the public figures.

Privacy and Security on Microblogging
Apart from the benefits that microblogging brings, there are some issues which we need to aware. For instance, privacy is a main concern on microblogging. The users of microblogs may post some personal information such as telephone numbers or addresses on their microblogs. As their microblogs may be seen by the public, the personal information may spread at a very fast rate. Moreover, it is not secure even if the users set up privacy on their microblogs. For instance, Google’s Buzz platform automatically publicizing their users’ email contacts as followers in 2010. [2] This aroused a controversy to the users and Google later edited the settings. Besides, hackers may have access to the server of the microblogging service providers and steal the users’ information. As a result, the users of microblogs should not rely on the providers very much and they should be careful before posting their personal information on their microblogs.

Freedom of Speech on Microblogging
The freedom of speech on the microblogs is also a concern on society. This issue mainly affects the users of microblogs in the mainland China, especially the users of Weibo. For instance, Weibo would filter the posts or photos which are related to the June Fourth Incident or sensitive information considering the Chinese government. The Internet should be a platform which allows every one expressing their opinions and ideas freely. The action of deleting statuses is very annoying to the users since they are not allowed to express what they are thinking. This matter leads to a controversy to the microblog users and the microblogging service providers. It is also a new social issue to society in Hong Kong and the mainland China.

Conclusion
In conclusion, microblogging help us spread our ideas and the news to the world more quickly. More and more people are able to exchange their information via microblogs. Nonetheless, the convenience may lead to some side-effects. The privacy and security of microblogs are still doubtful to the users. Furthermore, freedom of speech on microblogs also leads to a controversy on society in recent years. We should identity the benefits and demerits of microblogging and think twice on how we use microblogs.

References

1. Inside Twitter: An In-depth Look Inside the Twitter World. Sysomos; 2009-06-10. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
2. Google Buzz redesigned after privacy complaints. The Telegraph (London); February 15, 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2010.

Critique on Three-Dimension Television from Economical Aspect

Background

Three-Dimension Television (3D TV) is a television type with Stereoscopy Technique. Images modified by Stereoscopy Technique produce an “illusion of depth” to people, and 3D images can be seen with a pair of special glasses.

Due to the fact that the movie Avatar had a very successful box office record in 2009, 3D imaging technique was then heated up and many electronic products companies were eager to grasp a share in the market by developing this cutting-edge technology. So many 3D TV were then being pushed into the market.

Stereoscopic image of a piano, the viewing angles of the two pictures are slightly different

Nevertheless, according to the statistics on the internet [link], there was just a low purchasing rate recorded in some technology leading countries such as Japan, America and England. People in those countries do not appreciate this technique and are not passionate to own a 3D TV. This significant contrast does not create good impact on the economy. The following paragraphs will detail the reasons why this newly invented television technique cannot become popular, followed by an economic analysis.

Reason 1: 3D media is not common in the society
Because of the mentioned reason, electronic companies put a considerable amount of time and effort to invent and improve 3D television technique. Under a rapid developing progress, fully developed 3D TV had been prepared for the citizens. However, 3D media cannot keep up the pace. Media producers did not provide enough peripheral supports, such as 3D television channels, 3D movie recordings and 3D games, to this newly invented stuff. By common sense, consumers always wish the products they bought can be fully utilized. But in this case, there is no such opportunity for them. Properly they would not think that it is worth to buy this product.

Reason 2: 3D is not a major consideration for making the purchase decision
Besides a small amount of people with technology fever, most people in the society are not enthusiastic on special technologies. For this reason, we may know that 3D will not be the leading factor for people to enjoy a TV program. Instead, being a common leisure of the general public, the content of TV program would be more important than brilliant technologies. Therefore, having great 3D technology equipped cannot generate enough momentum to encourage people buy a 3D television.

Reason 3: Price is high for the general public
3D TV can be sold from around HKD$ 15000 to HKD$ 70000 in Hong Kong (Prices of Sony’s 3D TV were takes as a reference of the market price. [link]). When we compare the price of 3D TV with the income of a general Hong Kong citizen, we can easily notice that the price of 3D TV is relatively high. Many people agree that watching television is just a basic entertainment. Ordinary citizens may not be willing to pay for an item using nearly a whole month of salary. Therefore 3D television is deemed to be an unpopular product.

People watching 3D television

Economical analysis
A basic economic theory is that the market will be most efficient when it is at equilibrium, which is supply equals demand. In short, we can say that success can be reached if the equilibrium point is reached. If there is too much supply or too much unsatisfied demand in the market, the product cannot be counted as a good element for the economy. In the situation of 3D TV, its supply is extraordinary high compare with the demand.

In addition to the above points, we need to take into account the cost of Research & Develop. Given the enormous investment in Research & Development, it may be not beneficial to the company even if the market is at equilibrium because there exists a possibility that the company still cannot recover its cost (still have not breakeven) at that particular point. 3D television technique was still immature in 2009. But after the hurricane of Avatar, the electronic product companies devoted a lot to the invention and the improvement of new 3D television technique. A very significant amount of resources had been spent. But still, those companies would get a far way to break even. 3D TV actually cannot provide positive impact to the economy. 3D television can be considered as a failure at this stage.

Conclusion
Owing to the aforementioned reasons, at this stage, 3D TV cannot become popular in the society. Having just a few numbers of interested consumers thus leads to inadequate demand. In reality, 3D television cannot produce positive effect on the economy of the society. Launching 3D television technique in a hasty way in 2009 should not be considered as a good option for the economy. However, fortunately, the above mentioned bad reasons have the room to be eliminated as time passes. Maybe 3D TV can demonstrate their value when peripheral supports are ready in the consumer market in the future.

References

1. Wikipedia – 3D television Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_television Retrieved on 22nd November, 2010
2. Wikipedia – Stereoscopy Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy
3. Retrieve on 22nd November, 2010
4. A&T (sam的多媒體園地) – 認識「3D TV」廬山真面目 Website: http://sam52888.pixnet.net/blog/post/4629445 Retrieved on 22nd November, 2010
5. 中國經濟網 – 叫好不叫座 3D電視遭遇”寒流” Website: http://big5.ce.cn/cysc/zgjd/kx/201011/05/t20101105_20538191.shtml Retrieved on 22nd November, 2010
6. Sony Bravia Website: http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/product/tv/index.jsp?lid=topmenu_icon_bravia Retrieved on 22nd November, 2010

Influence of Smartphone in the business sector

Thanks to the advanced technology, smartphone has become a new milestone. It is not only improved on the performance but also the functions. According to Vercillo (2010), there has been 96% increase in smartphones sale between the third quarters of 2009-2010, which is a huge number of smartphone sales ever. In reality, smartphone is widely applied in business world. In this essay, how smartphone is influencing the phone company and business firm and how consumers treat smartphone.

Firstly, phone companies will earn more profit. Smartphone has started to replace the mobile phone market. In the past, the smartphone was not as common as today. The improvement of the internet network, the apps and software of smartphone being introduced and so on are the associated factors that contribute to the popularity of smartphone. In Hong Kong, the population of having a smartphone is double than the global rate, which is 48% (TNS Global Telecoms TNS Insights Survey, 2010). As Hong Kong is a business city, it is not surprised that there is a high rate of usage of smartphone. Moreover, the quality of the smartphone is being improved, for example he battery life, increased in memory and speed of loading data. More people will tend to get the smartphone, rather than the traditional mobile phone. Therefore, the sale of smartphone in future will definitely be increased, which means the phone company would have more profit. However, there are disadvantages to the phone company with smartphone being more common. Since there would be more smartphone to be produced, it will increase the competition between them. In order to gain the profit, they have to spend more time and money on inventing the new product or improving the quality of supported service, for instance the apps and updating the software. They may also need to have better marketing strategies on selling their product. The sale of the traditional mobile might be affected by the smartphone. Therefore, the mobile company has to work hard on maintain the competitiveness.

Secondly, smartphone assists business companies in different way. Businessman can easily access internet with a smartphone. In fact, smartphone users normally use email, mobile internet and Microsoft Office (TNS Global Telecoms TNS Insights Survey, 2010). They are no longer limited by the place and time to run their business. Also, the business companies can use smartphone as a channel to promote their company. Most of the banks have made their own apps to serve the customers, like Bank of China, HSBC, and Bank of East Asia. Also, H&M, Chanel, Hugo Boss and Pizzahut Hong Kong allow customers to do the ordering through the Iphone applications. Festival Walk and Langham Place has their own apps as well. In this way, it not only promotes their company, but also increases the sale. Therefore, smartphone is a useful tool for the business company.

Yet, there are technical limitations sometimes. The consumers who use the smartphone would have certain knowledge of using smartphone. The business company would not be able to target the customers who do not smartphone well. So, the business companies need to give clear instructions. Sometimes, even if the business companies provide different services through the smartphone, it might not be used by everyone. The banking application is one of the examples. According to Zetter (2010), there are some banking applications that expose customer data. In order to protect themselves, the customers would not prefer using apps to do any transactions. It is obvious that the technical problems still exits sometimes, regardless of the advanced technology.

Smartphone does bring conveniences to consumers. Consumers can browse all the updated information from the web or apps whenever they need, particular those who are in finance or stock market. They can also contact, send e-mail or even holding video-conferencing through smartphone as it is a reliable tool with high speed. Smartphone’s user is usually businessman (Vercillo, 2010). It can be noted that smartphone does assist customer on their business.
Nevertheless, it is not everyone who would choose to use smartphone. It is more common for people to use smartphone, but it is still more expensive than the traditional mobile phone. Also, consumers do need to be affordable to use some of the services sometimes, like browsing the web or downloading apps. In general, people with older age would not use smartphone since they are lacking of the knowledge or not used to high-tech products. Therefore, financial and age could be the factors which affect people to choose smartphone.

In conclusion, smartphone has become more common and the trend will keep being increased. The sale of phone companies benefited a lot from it. Yet, they still have to spend resources on maintain the competitiveness of their product. Also, smartphone also assists busniess firm in certain extent and the technical problems of using smartphone is still being improved. From the consumers’ side, getting a smartphone or not is still depending on the purchasing power and the background that they come from. Therefore, smartphone is highly related to us nowadays, especially on the business aspects.

Reference

1. TNS Global Telecoms TNS Insights Survey, 2010, Smartphone usage set to dominate Hong Kong mobile market, Retrieved 20 November, 2010 from http://www.tnsglobal.com/news/news-DB5EF16289044655A787385A433A896F.aspx
2. Vercillo,K. , 2010, Nearly 100% Increase in Smartphone Sales in Past Year, Retrieved 20 November, 2010 from http://www.tnsglobal.com/news/news-DB5E F16289044655A787385A433A896 F.aspx
3. Zetter, K. 2010, Smartphone banking apps expose sensitive customer data, Retrieved 21 November, 2010 from http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/ 11/smartphone- banking- apps-expose-sensitive-customer-data.ars

Google Search: Financial and Business Aspects

Google is a global technology leader, focused on improving the ways people connect with information. Through innovations in web search and advertising, Google is now a top Internet destination and possesses one of the most recognized brands in the world.  Available to anyone with an Internet connection, Google maintains the world's largest online index of web sites and other content. A report from Hitslink, an analytics firm, states that Google has close to 80% of worldwide search traffic and market share. Those numbers indicate the importance of Google in the digital world.

In the late 1990’s many new search engines appeared, most of which are used today. These include Yahoo!, Excite, Inktomi, AltaVista, Google and others.  Among these, Google occupies over a half of the entire search engine market. On a user level, the procedures of search engine operations are very simple. All the user has to do is to input necessary parameters of the search. In other words, the user says the search engine what he or she wants to get, e.g. “Happy Valley”, “flight to Hong Kong tonight” or “CCST 9003. However, how search engines decide which page match which query is a real science. Search engines have their own technologies, algorithms, and formulas, which are typically kept secret. Those criteria that the search engines use and are widely known include the occurrence of the search query term on the page text, the title, the meta tags, in the liking text inside the page, in the URL address (Uniform Resource Locator), the headings, as well as bold and italicized font (Nymark & Ramzan, 2008). It is important to note that all search engines are unique, and have their own formulas and algorithms, but they perform the same function; they fetch relevant results that match the user’s query. Google uses page rank to decide which site will come first in the search result.

In order to build up a huge database of the web-sites, Google uses its crawlers named “Googlebots”. Googlebots is an automated web-browser, which follows every link it sees. It visits a site and all its internal pages, gather them, and bring back to the server for index. Next Google processes these pages and creates an index, much like the index in the back of a book. The index is parceled into manageable sections and stored across a large network of computers around the world. When a person types a query into the Google search box, his query is sent to Google machines and compared with all the documents stored in Google’s index to identify the most relevant matches. In a split second, Google system prepares a list of the most relevant pages and also determines the relevant sections and bits of text, images, videos and more. What a person gets is a list of search results with relevant information excerpted beneath each result.(Google, 2010).

Since search engines are huge projects from technological point of view, they must have big capacity servers to operate normally. These servers, in turn, are expensive assets. What Google does to cover these expenses and to gain tremendous profits as well is that it provides context advertising. Google’s advertising program is named “AdWords”. AdWords is a separate vertical bar that returns text advertisements only for a certain keyword or phrase. For a search query of “Hong Kong tourism”, there will be 8-11 advertisements in the AdWords that appears on the right of the search result. These advertisements will be related to hotels in Hong Kong or other tourist facilities available in Hong Kong. This online advertising is very effective because it is targeted and covers very narrow segment of the market; the exact segment the advertiser wants. Google AdWords has received extremely high praise from advertisers who found it a very cost-effective and targeted advertising option, as it allows for easy display of ads to promote goods and services on both Google search results pages as well as collaborating sites. Considering the vast popularity of Google, it is easy to reach a wide audience there. It is    also worth mentioning that Google generates most of its revenue through its advertisements program. Out of US$23.6 billion revenue of Google in 2009, US$22.9 billion came from advertising.

Google AdWords network operates by allowing advertisers to bid on an endless selection of keywords that they believe may be typed into the Google search engine in search of information. When an advertiser bids on a specific keyword, and they bid a high enough price, the result is that their ad will appear in a special segment of the search engine results pages for that keyword which is located both above the regular search engine results and along the right side of the page as well. If an advertiser does have an ad appear in one of these places, and a search user happens to click on the advertisement, traveling to the advertiser’s assigned page, then Google will charge the advertiser a certain amount, which is dependent upon the advertiser’s bid amount.

The Google Company has seen a continuous growth in its revenue, market share, profits and share value ever since it has been set up. Even the economic recession that caused many high performing companies to shut down could not impede the growth of Google Company. Google has positioned itself as the leader of search-related advertising. Google has been complemented by the fast growth in search-related ads sector.  According to Piper Jaffray’s survey search related ads is the fastest growing sector of the online ad business. Furthermore, Google has almost twice as many search ad click-throughs as runner-up Yahoo. In December 2009, Google had 16.5 trillion ad click-through, compared with Yahoo's 9 trillion, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. These figures show the dominance of Google in online advertisements market but it should be not be forgotten that too much dependence of a company on only one single revenue generation project can be detrimental for company’s stable future.  It is also possible that in future, Yahoo and Microsoft may be able to create a technology that gives them a competitive edge over Google in online advertisements and suddenly Google will see a sharp decline in its revenue. 

Furthermore, while applauding the increase in revenue of Google we should bear in mind that Google’s traffic acquisition cost (TAC) has also increased considerably in last couple of years. TAC can be considered as a direct measure of how much it costs Google to drive visitors to its search site and other services from other Web sites, in order that it can then serve them advertising. Included in TAC is the amount of money that Google pays to other companies to ensure that Google is the default browser in their devices. An excellent example of TAC is the US$2 million per month that Google pays to Apple so that its search engine is the default choice for Mobile Safari on the iPhone. TAC could also be used as an indicator that Google's trying hard to keep its traffic up, and that the strategy appears to be working.(Google, 2010) 

Nevertheless, there have been concerns from various quarters regarding the adverse impacts that Google has created in the business world. Google has a market share of close to 80% of worldwide search traffic and people believe that Google takes negative advantage of this situation. They believe that Google can be a dangerous monopoly. Through various acquisitions Google is strengthening its dominance over search and online advertisements markets. Google is fast becoming the “information gatekeeper”. Google's dominance gives it unprecedented control over information. If in the future Google's stock price declines, the company can seek to recoup dollars elsewhere by misusing the information collected.  Marketers are hungry for demographic information, and they're willing to pay for it. Google provides the door, checks who's coming inside and can pass that information onto marketing paparazzi. The temptation to mine the information will be huge, and that temptation will increase as Google matures, its growth slows and its stock falls to earth.(Wilcox, 2010). The Google Company's core business is about search and advertising, which relies on the content of other people and businesses. People complain that Google doesn't own the information from which it makes nearly all its revenue, rather Google is the middleman of the information, which it takes for free.

It should also be noted that due to Google’s dominance of search engine markets, many search engines have experienced a drop in their revenue and some had to go out of the business. This may seem fair enough to an economist stating that the most efficient company has the right to stay in the business in the long run. But let us not forget that it takes a herculean effort to setup a search engine. A great amount of intellectual resource is put in by computer software engineers to develop a search engine. As stated before the algorithms and the formulae that conduct search are not available off the shelf. Rather they need to be ingeniously developed by software engineers. Google’s dominance has prevented the efforts of these engineers to be justly rewarded. The specialized dedicated resources of other search engines are not being utilized to their optimum level and these search engines are unable to collect high revenues.

Google is an excellent example of a company that has harnessed technological superiority to reap financial gains. Google dominates the search and online advertisements market not because it was the first firm in the industry, rather it was the technological superiority that enabled Google to outdo the big firms that were in the industry before. With surprising tact and tenacity Google has been able to dwarf giants such as Microsoft and Yahoo in revenue generation and market share. For Google to ensure its financial dominance it has to focus on its technological aspects. It needs to make its search engine more efficient so that people continue to prefer Google over other search engines. This will motivate businesses to compete for a place on AdWord advertisement and subsequently Google will continue to generate revenue. The key areas of technology where Google needs to focus to improve its search engine is relevance of the search, comprehensiveness of its stored data, freshness of data that is being crawled and the speed of the search. Furthermore, Google should also take into account the overall impact that it generates around the world. It should address the negativities that are being associated with it. Google should kick start a proper campaign to change its image as an “evil monopoly”. It should take steps to build trust amongst online users so that they use Google search engine without the fear being exploited. 

References

1. http://epubl.ltu.se/1402-1773/2008/286/LTU-CUPP-08286-SE.pdf 
2. http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html 
3. http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_googlenomics?currentPage=1
4. http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/web_services_browser/why_google_succeeds_part_1.html 
5. http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//economicimpact/pdf/google_economicimpact.pdf
6. http://www.1stpageprophets.com/pay-per-click/benefits-of-google-adwords-ppc.html 
7. http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=220257 
8. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/dec/17/google-and-the-new-digital-future/?page=1 
9. http://internetbusinessmodels.org/googlebusinessmodel/ 
10. http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Google-is-a-dangerous-monopoly-more-than-Microsoft-ever-was/1266994170

How Computer Games Change the World (2)

Financial and Business Changes
Besides great sales, the computer games development has greatly influenced the financial sector as a pioneer of creating new business, new careers, and new promotion methods.

First of all, online games have established a fast and sustainable business in trading virtual items. With the rise of online games in late 1990s, trading virtual items became a significant part of Internet trading business. Unlike traditional commodities, virtual products traded, which are mainly rare equipments in MMORPG, online game accounts, and “Webmoney” credits used in online games, do not have a real shape. This feature enables fast trading via Internet. In a virtual product trade, a buyer pays to get a code from the seller, and then the buyer inputs the code in the online game to get virtual items. It only takes several minutes for the buyer to get the code after payment, whereas for trading real products usually it usually takes several days to get the product. Furthermore, trading virtual items is a sustainable business because of the great demand of virtual items. Usually the equipments in MMORPG have a valid date and the online game charges for a certain amount of “Webmoney” every month, so players always need new equipments and “Webmoney” if they involved in the online game. These consumable factors keep players buying virtual items, thus maintain a sustainable business. As the online game player population is increasing, the demand of virtual items is also likely to keep increasing.

Second, the computer games industry provides youths with better career opportunities. As a variety of new jobs related to computer games have emerged, youths have more choices on choosing their jobs. For instance, in South Korea and China, some skillful young computer games players become professional gamers and enroll online game tournaments like World Cyber Games as a career. They work as “e-sport” athletes and gain from their game performance. Also some computer science students become professional game programmers or game designers so that they can design their ideal games. These new jobs give the youths who have strong passion in computer games better career choices because they may find their careers enjoyable. On the other hand, the youths’ talent can also be fully revealed in corresponding jobs. Professional gamers can utilize their fast reaction as well as skillful moves to perform a wonderful game to audience, and game designers can show their creativity in designing a new game.

Third, the computer games promotion shows a possibility of effective and low cost marketing among online game players via online game community. Advertising in online games is effective because the advertisement is exposed to all players, and the majority of computer game players have similar demographic characteristics. For example, regular online game players are mainly aged from eighteen to thirty-four, and 60% of the players are male. Therefore it is effective to have advertisements or campaigns targeting such majority players. On the other hand, compared with advertising in magazines or in MTR station, advertising in online games has relatively low cost because the promotion is mainly conducted through network, which requires much less expenditure.

In conclusion, the computer game industry has brought vigorous new elements to current business world. However, there exist some safety risks in computer game business. For example, some criminals can make use of the loopholes in trading virtual items to commit frauds, and some intruders can steal someone’s account and sell it to other player. But judging from the new business, careers, and promotion methods provided by computer games industry, more business opportunities is favored rather than risks.

Business and Economics Changes in another prospective

The development of computer games has provided many business opportunities to the world. Many companies have successfully targeted this potential market and made a lot of profit. Similarly, individual game players have also used this golden opportunity to earn some money. But what big changes were actually brought by the introduction of computer games for both individuals and companies to the business market? For easier understanding, I would take an online game called “Audition” which was developed by one of the Hong Kong game developer, Gameone Online Entertainment Group How Computer Games Change the World 8 Limited [1], as an example on how computer games change the business market throughout this part.

From companies’ side, the most significant change to the business world is the launch of different online games that require regular subscription payment, as there were no firms that will focus on the online games business before. Apart from subscription payment, some online game developers have also introduced “virtual items”, such as virtual money, inside the game that require real dollars to purchase. Therefore, in order to play such kinds of online games, game players need to pay certain amount of fees. There are two common ways for the online game companies to charge users, one is by periodic payment such as monthly payment, and another one is by selling game credit points through some game packages which are usually available for sale from convenience stores. For the example of Audition, it is currently selling game packages to sell its virtual items like virtual clothing and virtual money to game players from places like 7-11 [2].

Besides the launch of charged online games, computer games developers also finance their budget to advertise their products through channels like magazine, television or even Facebook. Audition has also invested substantially to their advertisement. They have launched their first television commercial at TVB on June 13, 2008 [3]. Also, setting up interest group and links at the advertisement column at Facebook. All these promotion activities have helped Audition to gain popularity and hence more potential players would be attracted to try the game and make money contribution to the company.

The introduction of computer games not only brings financial changes to game developers, it also brings business opportunities to individual game players. For instance, trading virtual items in reality is the most common one. Sometimes the virtual items even cannot be purchased by real cash, but can only be obtained by luck or continuous playing individually. These virtual items were usually regarded as “rare” or “valuable” inside the game. This has, however, boosted the trading of virtual items between players in reality by cash. In the game Audition, the virtual clothing and other virtual items that used to customize the virtual character are also transferrable inside the game. Therefore, this created demand and supply of the virtual items between players. The potential buyers and sellers usually search their needs from online forums like Discuss.com and Uwants. After they have found their buyer/ seller, they will negotiate the trading details and make transaction subsequently.

Apart from trading virtual items between individual game players, the rise of computer game also lead to different kinds of public competitions. Some game developers would launch regular computer competitions or tournaments that open to the public, usually there would be a prize or reward for the winner. For example, Audition had launched a competition for the 12th ACGHK 2010 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre during July 30 to August 3 this year (2010). Winner has got a prize, which is a guitar simulator and a few virtual game packages [4].

To conclude, the development of computer games not only brought a commercial opportunity to game developers such as launching charged online games and sales of virtual products, but also provided an environment for individuals to trade virtual items and to participate in open games competition.

Reference

1. http://www.gameone.com/intro.php
2. http://news.hk.9you.com/article/au/readnews1.php?artid=807
3. http://shop.hk.9you.com/au/
4. http://news.hk.9you.com/article/au/readnews2.php?artid=2134

How Computer Games Change the World (1)

Introduction
A computer game, or a video game, refers to an electronic game, which involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. (Baer, 1969) A video device can be a television, a computer, or portable gaming device, etc. The oldest computer game in the world is the cathode ray tube amusement device, a missile-firing game invented by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann in 1947 (WINTER, 1999). At that time, the device could only show very simple dot and line graphics on the cathode ray tube instead of a monitor or television set and only scientists who pursue their studies in physics know how to “enjoy” the game.

Nowadays, however, various computer games have become a major mean of entertainment for most people in the world. These computer games are loaded with fascinating graphics and ever-evolving complexity of the game systems. In the United States, sixty-seven percent of the American households play computer games (Entertainment Software Association, 2010). Economically, the U.S. computer game software sales generated 10.5 billion USD in 2009 (WINTER, 1999). These data imply how popular and powerful computer games have become that not only can it cause an influence to an individual’s life, but also a change to the world.

Similar to other important forms of media, such as movies and televisions, computer games have always been the central of arguments in different aspects, particularly the adverse impacts of violent or pornographic games. It is very controversial to judge if computer games bring a positive or negative impact to the world in general. In fact, the change computer games brought to the world can be described in 3 dimensions, including personal influence, financial & business changes and societal impacts. This essay explores how computer games change the world, both positively and negatively, by having a detailed investigation on each of these four impacts. As the impacts of video games in the four aspects are written by four different HKU students, some of the ideas may be contrasting or even contradicting. We believe that this is a mean to demonstrate diversity of thoughts, and the exchange and interactions of different viewpoints will have dynamic effects on each other, which I believe, is the core value of the whole common core education (general education).

Personal Influence

As the computer games become popular, we should think about the personal impact on the game player. Generally speaking, computer games have both positive and negative effects on the player. To judge computer games are good or not, that’s all depends on the player’s self-control and time management.

First, different skills can be learnt from different types of entertainment computer games. The action games require the player to have high concentration and fast reaction; also because of the high levels of action, it can improve the eyesight and hand-eye coordination of the player. Strategy games can train the player’s logic reasoning ability and problem solving. Sport games
can develop the player’s sport sense while the player no needs to be on the field. It can avoid overtraining so it is very useful to use sport game as a tool to train athletes before match. In nowadays computer games, smoother graphic reality and better sound quality provide a higher level of entertainment to the player so that they will enjoy the games more and maintain concentration for a long time. It is a good idea to use computer games as a teaching tool. Schools are encouraging students to play education games in different subjects. That education video game is improving student’s academic performance by increase the concentration on learning. Playing computer games can release stresses as the player can do anything they what inside the game and get rid of the real world. “Video game training” also use by different professionals. For example, flight simulators are used by cadet pilot for training in order to reduce the risk and also save air fuel. By the same token, military are using RPG game to simulate the combat zone situation. As the Nintendo Wii released on 2006, computer games are not limited by just using hands and eyes. Players are able to use full use of their body to play computer games and doing fitness.

As for the negative side, addiction to the computer games has already been a big issue. Just like our parents always tell us, spending too much time on computer games could lead to bad academic result. Also it might cause potential health disease like Myopia and heart attack .The extreme case is death, a South Korean player died due to nonstop playing 50 hours of online game. The affection on mental health is even worse, as anti-social behaviour is build up on the frequent computer games user, as they are lack of social skill and not good at public speaking. All this is because of they spend the time in computer games instead of joining social events. Playing violent video games can cause aggressive behaviour. This is extremely danger for countries that allow people to have guns like the US. Once the player can’t control his emotion, the society will pay a heavy price whilst gun violence occurs. To put it simple, the positive effect of the computer game mainly maintain in personal aspect while the negative effect could affect the whole society.

Reference

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_behavioral_effects
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm

Discuss Smart Phone in a sociology percepts

Introduction

In Hong Kong, It is common to a person using a smart phone, and it is important to state that the popularity of smart phone is increasing. For example, when we are on the street, normally we can see people using Iphone, Samsung galaxy series, etc. It means that smart phone do attract people to use it selves. With the increasing popularity of smart phone , a lot of questions are also raised: Why smart phones are so attractive? How the smart phone change the society? In this essay, this phenomenon will be discussed in a sociology percept. First of all, the reason for the extra high popularity of smart phone will be discussed. The essay will then be followed by discussing the effect of smart phone on the society.

1)The reason for the high popularity of smart phone
There are two reasons explaining why a lot of people choose smart phone rather than mobile phones, mainly ,in terms of security and convenience .

1a) In terms of security
Owing to the fact that Hong Kong is a city of business and a lot of people are working in the business aspect, people need to handle a lot of data of their work and transfer the data to their client through their self phone. Moreover, as some data of their work may be confidential, it Is necessary for the phone to be secure enough so that all the data can be confirmed not to be stolen. For smart phone , since some smart phone are known to be secure, many businessman choose it to help their work. Take blackberry as an example, owing to the fact that the operating system of blackberry are set to be very secure when compared with other phones, blackberry attracts a lot of people to use it . Apart from blackberry, the operating system - Symbian, which is invented by Nokia, is also secure so it attracts many people to use it rather than mobile phone.

1b) In terms of convenience
In the smart phone market, apart from some brands which are very famous in data security, there are also some brands which are famous in the large variety of applications. They are : IPhone OS , Android and Windows mobile. These Operating system provide a large variety of applications. This large variety of applications convince user to do their job. For examples, google maps and bus routes searching application. These applications are very convenient to user to get their job done. Moreover, IPhone OS and Android provide a platform for user to create their own application. This allows applications to have a much higher variety. The characteristic of smart phone that having a lot of applications do attract people very much since it can convince them very much.

2)The effect of smart phone to the society
Since the popularity of smart phone is on the increase, more and more people are affected by this kind of gadget. Therefore, it is important to look at the effect of smart phone on the society.

2a) Boosting the development of application
In the past, application mainly are developed by big companies and people seldom join the development. However, the situation has changed once the smart phone such as IPhone and android system released. Smart phone boost the development of application. The reason is that , as mentioned in above, some smart phone ( IPhone and Android) opens a new platform for user to develop its own application so as to fit their requirement. That is to say, everyone is now have the chance to join the application development. This converge of labor do help the development of new applications.

2b) Open a new market and create new jobs
As mentioned before, some type of smart phone open a new platform for user to share their application. This new platform also create a new market, that is , application market . Take IPhone as an example, Apple company gives a platform called Apple Store for IPhone users to buy applications so as to evaluate their phone. A market is formed which people can buy applications there. Moreover, apart from opening a new market, this new platform also create a new business. Since there is a high demand for applications in the market, some people choose to develop new applications and sell it to other people so as to earn money. This states that Smart Phone do create a new business .

2c) Creating a culture of movable business
Some Smart Phone ,such as blackberry ,are said to be very secure and a lot of businessman to choose to do business through their smart phone. This create a new culture of mobile business that people are now use their selfphone to do business with others. For example, people may sign a contract through smart phone. Therefore, people can now do business everywhere. That is to say, Smart Phone convince businessman to do business in outdoor.

3) Some critical thinking about Smart Phone
Although Smart Phone is said to be very secure, and convenient, it is important for us to think some questions: Do Smart Phone really that good? Do smart phone really secure? Actually, there are many unknown area that we do not know well about smart phone. It is important to state that we should not trust smart phone very much. Even though everyone said that they are secure, it still has the chance of information leakage. Moreover, since your mobile phone always access to the open network, information may be stolen and changed, which may cause a big problem in both economy and personal privacy. Therefore, everyone should think deeply whether they should believe their smart phone too much.

A Study of the Roles and Impacts of Computer Games in the Economy

Computer games are enjoyed by a wide range of people, irrespective of age or sex. Beginning with the relatively simple games in the 1950s, the computer game industry has been developing rapidly (Brookhaven National Laboratory, n.d.). Especially after the spread of internet services and personal computers, computer games are a regular part of our lives. Successfully adapting to consumers’ demand and expectations, the computer game industry currently supports the various countries’ economies. This critique will discuss how computer games contribute to the economic growth and a contemporary financial issue the computer game industry is facing.

The computer game industry creates jobs for professional developers and players. In order to produce games of high quality to attract consumers, computer games essentially require complex algorithms. This implies that the game industry requires skillful programmers to handle the algorithms. According to Simply Hired (2010b), programmers in the U.S. annually earn $72,000 USD. This is much more significant compared to the average college graduate salary of $46,000 USD (Simply Hired, 2010a). By paying high salaries to programmers, the computer game industry contributes to stimulating the economy. Not only the developers but also professional players play their significant roles in the economy. Professional gamers can make money either by contributing to the producers or to the consumers. In the former case, professional players test games to find bugs and to improve the quality of the games by commenting on the games. In the latter case, professional gamers can carry out the real-money trading which is to exchange the virtual items, virtual currencies or characters and real money, which can be seen among players in massively multiplayer online games. Professional gamers can also make money by creating and editing strategy guides to give hints and solutions to specific computer games so that other players can complete the game more easily. In addition to programmers and professional gamers, the computer industry relies on and pays market analysts, customer service representatives, and foreign language translators (Crandall and Sidak, 2010). Without the computer game industry, a great amount of people would come to be unemployed. In these ways, the computer game industry is crucial for many people to keep the current income levels.

The computer game industry stimulates money flow by advancing technologies. For example, the demand for faster CPUs for computer games led to the creation of microprocessor architecture called the Cell Broadband Engine Architecture (CBEA) by STI which is an alliance formed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM (IBM Research, n.d.). By applying the high-performance processing to game consoles, the CBEA allowed the fast portrayal of images, which successfully relieved consumers’ stress and contributed to the image quality improvement. This project to invent the CBEA cost $400 million, which must have stimulated money circulation in the world (QJ.net, 2006). Moreover, according to the IBM, the CBEA is also applicable to cryptography, physics, and scientific workloads. In this way, the strive for satisfying consumers’ expectations led to spending a great amount of money, and successfully developed the technology which is further applicable in other fields. Technological developments in the computer game industry will conduce to the age of high mass-consumption, and eventually to the economic growth (Nordtveit, 2010). By enhancing the liquidity of money, innovation of technologies enriches people and the nations.

ROM image leakages and emulators would cause the functional decline of the computer game industry by financially advantaging consumers and disadvantaging producers. In the same way as game consoles load their software, emulators can load ROM images extracted from the commercial software on the computer. While sharing ROMs on the internet is illegal, there are thousands of websites that allow people to download ROMs. Even though copyright holders and game managing organizations try to restrict the illegal activities, they have difficulty preventing the spread of ROMs. This problem is related to the economy because producers will come to gain fewer revenues to produce new games. As consumers try to minimize spending, they will not pay the computer game companies for the software or consoles. Instead, players will download games for free through the internet and play on their computers as long as the quality of the games is almost the same. As a result of the decrease in the demand for the computer games in the market, game companies will have to lower the price of the games in order to induce consumers to even if only slightly pay for their goods and services. It is also possible for game companies to decrease the quality of their games because of less monetary resource available. Although this appears to be disadvantageous to players as well, they can enjoy other entertainments such as anime and social network services such as Facebook. The illegal activities excessively empower consumers and fiscally damage the computer game industry.

The world’s economy cannot be successful without the computer game industry. Many people rely on the jobs in the fields related to the computer game industry in order to afford their needs and wants. Technological developments in the computer game industry further boost the economy as they involve a great amount of monetary tractions. Yet, the industry’s significant role in the economy is interrupted by players’ illegal activities that economically ravage the producers and hamper money flows. While computer games can be replaced with other entertainments for general players, the industry is essential to maintain the current standards of living in many countries. The governments may need to protect the computer game industry from the illegal activities in order to ensure the prosperity of their nations.

References

1. Brookhaven National Laboratory. (n.d.). The first video game?. A passion for discovery. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham4.asp
2. Crandall, W.R., and Sidak, J.G. (2010). Video games: Serious business for America’s economy. Entertainment software association. Retrieved on November 24, 2010, from http://www.theesa.com/newsroom/seriousbusiness.pdf
3. IBM Research. (n.d.). The Cell project at IBM Research. IBM research. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.research.ibm.com/cell/
4. Nordtveit, B.H. (2010, October 6). CCGL9005 session eight: Growth theories [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://broadening.edu.hku.hk/mod/resource/view.php?id=299
5. QJ.net. (2006, April 6). Cell designer talks about PS3 and IBM cell processors. PC Gaming, PlayStation, Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, news, reviews, downloads, custom apps, homebrew and much more. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.qj.net/qjnet/playstation-3/cell-designer-talks-about-ps3-and-ibm-cell- processors.html
6. Simply Hired. (2010a, November 23). Programmer salaries. Job search made simple. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-college+graduate
7. Simply Hired. (2010b, November 23). Programmer salaries. Job search made simple. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-programmer

Computer Games Change the World: Financial and Business Changes

The development of computer games has provided many business opportunities to the world. Many companies have successfully targeted this potential market and made a lot of profit. Similarly, individual game players have also used this golden opportunity to earn some money. But what big changes were actually brought by the introduction of computer games for both individuals and companies to the business market? For easier understanding, I would take an online game called “Audition” which was developed by one of the Hong Kong game developer, Gameone Online Entertainment Group Limited [1], as an example on how computer games change the business market throughout this part.

From companies’ side, the most significant change to the business world is the launch of different online games that require regular subscription payment, as there were no firms that will focus on the online games business before. Apart from subscription payment, some online game developers have also introduced “virtual items” , such as virtual money, inside the game that require real dollars to purchase. Therefore, in order to play such kinds of online games, game players need to pay certain amount of fees. There are two common ways for the online game companies to charge users, one is by periodic payment such as monthly payment, and another one is by selling game credit points through some game packages which are usually available for sale from convenience stores. For the example of Audition, it is currently using game packages as a way to sell its virtual items like virtual clothing and virtual money to game players from places like 7-11 [2].

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Besides the launch of charged online games, computer games developers also finance their budget to advertise their products through channels like magazine, television or even Facebook. Audition has also invested substantially to their advertisement. They have launched their first television commercial at TVB on June 13, 2008 [3]. Also, setting up interest group and links at the advertisement column at Facebook. All these promotion activities have helped Audition to gain popularity and hence more potential players would be attracted to try the game and make money contribution to the company.

The introduction of computer games not only brings financial changes to game developers, it also brings business opportunities to individual game players. For instance, trading virtual items in reality is the most common one. Sometimes the virtual items even cannot be purchased by real cash, but can only be obtained by luck or continuous playing individually. These virtual items were usually regarded as “rare” or “valuable” inside the game. This has, however, boosted the trading of virtual items between players in reality by cash. In the game Audition, the virtual clothing and other virtual items that used to customize the virtual character are also transferrable inside the game. Therefore, this created demand and supply of the virtual items between players. The potential buyers and sellers usually search their needs from online forums like Discuss.com and Uwants. After they have found their buyer/ seller, they will negotiate the trading details and make transaction subsequently.

Apart from trading virtual items between individual game players, the rise of computer game also lead to different kinds of public competitions. Some game developers would launch regular computer competitions or tournaments that open to the public, usually there would be a prize or reward for the winner. For example, Audition had launched a competition for the 12th ACGHK 2010 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre during July 30 to August 3 this year. Winner has got a prize which is a guitar simulator and a few virtual game packages [4].

To conclude, the development of computer games not only brought a commercial opportunity to game developers such as launching charged online games and sales of virtual products, but also provided an environment for individuals to trade virtual items and to participate in open games competition.

Reference

1. http://www.gameone.com/intro.php
2. http://shop.hk.9you.com/au/
3. http://news.hk.9you.com/article/au/readnews1.php?artid=807
4. http://news.hk.9you.com/article/au/readnews2.php?artid=2134