Welcome to the new edition of “This week’s news”, a selection of links to interesting articles and news from the worlds of blogs, commerce and e-commerce.
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One person we do not need to convince about the value of blogging: Dagny Carlsson, a 102-year old woman from Sweden who probably is the world’s oldest blogger. Her blog 123minsida.se/bojan has 70.000 visitors, as reported by Swedish newspaper SvD.se. Carlsson just purchased an iPad – to check mails when she is in bed.
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Jeff Bezos’ comment on future delivery of products purchased online via drones has been controversial. John Donahue, CEO of Amazon competitor eBay, does not believe in drone shipping as an instrument ready to be used in the near future. He thinks that Bezos’ plan to deploy deliver drones is neither realistic nor necessary.
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Not only Apple is looking to reach people right in the moment when they walk into a store. PayPal has just unveiled a system called “Beacon” (not to be confused with Apple’s “iBeacon”) which lets stores recognize customers and offers them a way to pay with their phone, without the need to take out their phone. Like iBeacon, Beacon uses Bluetooth technology.
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And while we are discussing PayPal: The company’s president David Marcus is totally into Bitcoins and does not rule out that his company might make use of the virtual currency in the future. What he does not believe in? NFC: “It’s technology for the sake of technology or for the sake of pushing the agenda of the companies supporting it, versus solving real people’s problems”.
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After WeChat, even fellow Asian smartphone messenger Line is trying to use its platform for e-commerce, starting with a special flash-sales campaign targeting users in Thailand, where Line has 20 million users.
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99 percent of the online shops seem to look alike and follow the same, mostly boring concepts. But there are a few exceptions. ReadWrite lists 5 unique and innovative online shopping sites. Give it a look if you need some inspiration for how to be different.