On the day that #Netflix expands into #Europe and the US Federal Communications
Commission holds round table discussions on ‘net neutrality’ (Click for March  DigiShort http://is.gd/ZkTUA6 ) there is not much of a welcome for US digital  innovators from the continent’s politicians and entrenched big business. The new  EU Commission looks like it will demand that #Google disclose its ‘secret sauce’ search algorithm and #Uber has been banned in Germany. Meanwhile, in France, Orange Telecom is refusing to carry Netflix to its home users without payment from Netflix. Nothing ‘neutral’ about that!

Given the hype surrounding Apple's new product launch yesterday I guess it might
have taken news that they found Malaysian Flight MH370 for it to beat
expectations. Unlike #UKIP defections, Apple increasingly find it hard to keep
their product development plans secret. Then again, the design of the new Apple
Watch was a bit of a surprise. Amongst the pre-launch design photos on the web
was the ‘wrist band’ approach. What we got was a bog standard square design
which is pretty useless for people with stubby fingers. In future, perhaps
Apple's Chief Designer Sir Paul 'Jony' Ive would be better off looking at the
web for what the punters THINK he is going to design rather than ACTUALLY
designing things himself.

Here’s an interesting but, when you think about it, ultimately not surprising number (at least to me). In the global software space, industry specific software dominates. That is, software that can replace the customised software development which enterprises have traditionally done inhouse because ‘our organisational processes are unique to us!’ Of course, most enterprises buy in generic software e.g. MS Office suite but if you wrap up a service (like cloud storage for example) with some applications that supposedly understand the uniqueness of a sector you have more chance of winning a sale...Nothing new there then!

At last a big digital deal that makes sense from a financial point of view even if the future synergies between the acquirer and the acquiree don’t make sense –  yet! The deal is $AMZN’s acquisition of #Twitch for $970 M. Yes folks, that’s less than a Billion and far less than the $19B that Facebook overpaid for WhatsApp. I think that Twitch is a great idea. Watching other people play interactive online games isn’t my cup of tea but I can see its attraction and it’s a simple concept (no need for a whole ‘elevator pitch’ it won’t last more than one floor!): “We want to become the ESPN of gaming!” What's more, Twitch's numbers are amazing. And the gaming industry is massive. The size of global video game market revenue, including mobile games on smart phones and tablets: $66 billion, up from $63 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow to $78 billion in 2017. Only question, can Amazon make it work for them?

OK, in a 5th round #BuzzFeed got $50M funding from Andreessen Horowitz on
Sunday. So, where does this leave Shane Smith's Vice Media? Vice recently raised
$70M from Murdoch's 21st Century #Fox, $50M of which is reportedly slated to
boost the company's already great news video channel. I posted last month about
the inane repetitive diatribe that #BBC, #CNN, #CNBC broadcast from
correspondents sitting in hotels. Vice get out on the streets and mix it with
both the good and the bad guys worldwide. Check out their blazingly good #ISIS
material posted last week here: https://news.vice.com/

What a story Netflix is. From nowhere its subscriber revenue now beats HBO. Quite an achievement. Here’s my 3 key reasons why: 1. Netflix has great, but dangerous, content. Dangerous because its ‘binge viewable’. Twice in the past six months my wife and I have done this over a weekend to my detriment (#HouseofCards and ALL seasons of the #Goodwife – the latter episodes left me with symptoms of Jet Lag, which I don’t get when I fly!) 2. Netflix is great value. £6 in the UK on 5 devices. Man that’s a great deal. 3. Their original content is getting both viewers and critical acclaim. Godd job Netflix!

Occasionally I realise that I take the freedoms that I have as a resident of the great United Kingdom for granted. For example, Thailand's military junta seeks to censor the Internet and the absurd result is that you can consume porn but not the world's most visited online newspaper the Mail Online (you get this notice). The censorship is haphazard as tourist hotels' Internet provision seems quite free (they must use a VPN) but public Wifi not, whilst Thai telcos 3/4G is patchy. Even constant sun and palm trees are no substitute for information. A quality tan does not make a quality thinker!

Those of you who have been following my DigiShort postings on LinkedIn will know that I’ve been stumped by Facebook’s recent $19B purchase of WhatsApp. Even to keep the technology/brand out of the hands of Google it seems an insane price to pay. And then we see a survey of US High School Users such as this one which says that this target segment not only use Facebook Messenger more than WhatsApp but that the latter doesn’t even beat SnapChat which at least is differentiated by its own take on privacy issues. Any ideas to help me understand this gratefully received…

As an Internet Entrepreneur, the advent of Amazon Web Services was like a magic
operational boost for my web businesses. The team could use our own software
licenses to run things in the Cloud or rent software and expandable space as
needs dictated. As an eBusiness consultant I often mention this to medium or
large companies and they ‘Um and Ah’ about security and other bollocks. I
wondered would AWS ever crack the Enterprise market? Well, with a $600M+
contract (says today's FT) with the Sneaky Beakies, crack it they have! And look
what the CIA is saying about AWS's flexibility…