IST 486 Trending Assignment----IS Snapchat worth that much?

      

The reason I started to notice Snapchat is because during the summer break, my friends and I decided to create an app so people can edit and share the pictures they think is interesting with their friends using both mobile devices and personal computers, because we think some of them might use Photoshop to edit the picture and then uploaded, rather than post on the Facebook then everyone can see it. After few months discussion and come up with the beta version, I accidentally read an article about Facebook wants to buy Snapchat with 3 billion dollars, and my friends told me this application looks almost the same as what we have for our product. After reading the article I decided to dig deeper to what Snapchat has and how they become so popular and valuable to the Social Media Field.

                       

       Snapchat can be described as a simple application that snap photos and videos and edit them so users can send to a list of “personal” friends.

                

       Compare to Instagram , Snapchat has a clean and direct user interface that tells the user it’s function and how to use it. After user login to the application, it is under the camera mode so user and quickly access to the main function of the application, you do not need to press another button to switch to the shooting function, the faster access gives user better using experience, because for this types of social networking application, people prefer to share the pictures as soon as they saw it rather than spending 10 minutes login and switch to shooting mode. The Interface after user takes the picture is clean too. Users do not need to go through all those special effect and trying to come up with the best-looking pictures so they can upload to Facebook. The Snapchat only ”crowd effect? use a friend list with simplest drawing pan isnstalled in the application so users can only use the simple, different straight lines to create their own photos.

  

       Another special function is unlike any other social network, Snapchat allows user to send, or in another way, share the pictures with specific group of friend so if some photos are personal or users only want their close friends see it, they can edit their own friend list to make sure their friends can see the pictures.

                 

       But is the Snapchat really worth more than 3 billion dollars? My answer is no. The Snapchat do change people’s old impression about photo sharing and editing application, but even compare to photo editing and sharing functions, Snapchat still has disadvantages compare to Google+ that also provide photo editing and sharing function but with more effect options and more professional user interface while editing the pictures, and Google+ can also allowed user to create their own circle so users can choose the group of people they want to share with. Even some of the Chinese software provider, like MeiTu has better and stronger photo editing functions than Snapchat do and then share on your social media home page. Yes, the Snapchat has an enormous user group and it is easy to use, but because the function is too simple and nowadays’ users are really easy to get tired about new products, they will find a something better and different than Snapchat in several months; or Facebook can use the resource from Instagram to develop a new product maintains the advantage of Snapchat, which is easy to use and privacy, combining with the professional photo editing technology from Instalgram and of course Facebook users as user base. If Facebook really decide to do so and they do come up with a product like that, I believe the Snapchat will not worth that anymore because it’s function, it’s user group do not focus on all users needs and requirement.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/03/snapchat-stories-24-hour-image-recap-ios-android/

http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/13/snapchat-turns-down-facebook-acquisition/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2013/11/14/snapchats-teen-appeal-is-also-its-achilles-heel/

Summery of my project 1

  To conclude my opinion of the entrepreneurship, I think it is all about how to set up a success social network based on China's big internet environment, which has tones of limit and people can not choose to talk what they like. 
     So, the basic idea is how to set up a account hierarchy which can let specific group of people have the speech freedom, just like the credit card, if you have good record, you can get more loans from the bank; so if you have good record of your account, you can definitely talk something sensitive, political stuffs, for example. So these will not only just a new social network, but more is about change the social network industry in China, and may change the big internet environment in China. I think this is also what western countries need, based on some of the news and articles, there are governments which treat social network as a enemy because terrorists use Twitter and Facebook to discuss the terrorism attack. We want to change the opinion of those governments and make them believe that social network is not that dangerous.
      One more thing I feel will attract people is I think we should open the core code of the web, based on user account's credit. Because at some point I think the user may get bored about the interface which Facebook has been used for almost 5 years. So when we open the core code to some of the users who are interested in and also have the access to change the interface, more users may attracted to our program.
      In my personal view, I do not want to copy anything from anyone, what I want, and aim to do is to build up a correct and acceptable social network in China, and provide a platform to every user which can let them discuss and talk what they like.




URL of commend: 1: http://shuduosblogforist195project.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-entrepreneurial-idea.html?showComment=1320092761563#c787861859130677461

2. http://nandingsyr.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-9-final-blog.html?showComment=1320093233836#c3733701502384405592

3. http://carolyn-blackburne.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-8-databases.html?showComment=1320093748774#c8293876437029696839

Little discussion about the set up of net work in the business

 In my firm, there are two main types of network that should be built up. The first one, of course, should be the local network around the office, which may just have a central server to let all the computers and other devices like all the printer and scanner connected to each other; also, for the local network, another advantage is easy to share the information and files through the small network rather than send to others by email or use a flash disk; employees can just log in with their user name and find someone else also in the local network for the company and copy the file to each other. This process not only make everyone's work easier, but also make the process of sending files more secure, because we do not use the open network anymore.

 Second network we need to built up is the big server for all the users which have a account at our social media. Things become different now; for the first part, we may just need a small server to solve all the information transformation for the company, which means the amount of work and calculation will not be a big number, even two or three family used server can deal all the problems. But when we need to put the server to the open network, which means our IP will be open to everyone who know our web; so the number of browse, the amount of search will both increase for a tremendous amount. So at this time, for the open network, and as the main server of the company which controls and managing all user information, should be strong enough and also, secure enough; because it is connected to the open network

What if the source code of an social network is publish to all the users?

       Like what Jeff mentioned in the class, and through the experiences in my life, there is no such big difference between IOS and Android (I will keep the Blackberry for a while because compare to those two mobile operating system blackberry is not that smart); so why more customer choose to use Android phone? The most important reason is Apple limit the usage of their source code, and if someone want to make any change or improvement, they need to get some kind of license, and follow all of the steps and requirements Apple give to them, this also happened if you want to write some programs based on IOS, like Angry Bird, you need the source code or you can not do it. But Android is more open than IOS, it givescustomers, even those fans of the Android,  the opportunity and stage to do what ever they like, make changes, design games and applications, do all the improvements.

      Same to the social network; I cannot believe that if someone can stand his or her Facebook's home page keep the same for more than 2 months, to be honest, I do not like it. It is not just change the background of the page, or the organization of all the icons. What if some of the customer want to have their own, personalized home page? We cannot do all the things for them, we cannot accept everyone's request and change the settings for everyone. So my idea is, based on the credit distribution we can give those users with good credit record a chance to set up their own page; we will open our source code to them and they can decide how to change to their settings. I think this change can definetly attract more customer to use our product because you can manage your own home page.

Discussions about the shaker

URL of the blog: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/shaker/

The topic I want to talk about is concentrate on the new social network, Shaker, which put Facebook users to a wider stage to meet more friends they never see each other in the real world before but have the similar interest with them.


It is an amazing idea about the innovation in social network, people are trying to make more connections and interceptions between the social networks, or let us say the virtual world, and the real word. Facebook provides us a platform to achieve the Step 1, which is let us know more about the people around us, if you know their name and they have a Facebook account. But what if people who are shy and afraid of talking to strangers because of the culture shock or language problems? Is that means they cannot have any friends on Facebook or other social network? Shaker gave them the chances to make friends and meet different people.

Shaker uses the resources from Facebook and combined all the users in other social network like Second Life and The Sims; so the Shaker become like a big bar which you can choose to enter different rooms for different themes; choose your favorite music; interaction with other Facebook users, and even order a drink for another user. The Shaker comes up the idea that going to a bar but actually you do not go to the bar. More importantly, Shaker can put you into the room that is most suitable for you based on your personal file and what you post on Facebook or Twitter, what we called the key word. If you like Hip-Hop and you always use IPhone, at the same time you are in Syracuse University like physics; then the system will put you in to the room which suits those key words most. So when you join a room and start a conversation with other users you will never feel a kind of nervous or unfamiliar because everyone in the room has same interest. This idea definitely solve the problem of two strangers cannot find the common topic to talk about when they first meet and feel a kind of embarrassment.

But, the question is, do people want to meet friends in this way? Just know each other on the internet based on the common interest? I have asked dozens of friends around, most of them gave me negative responses, which indicate that most people, at least in US, do not want to make friends with some strangers before they meet each other in the real world. And more importantly, if you want to find a suitable room for yourself, you should share your personal profile and information; but based on the classes we had one week ago, always limit your personal information, or we can do a lot from Google or LinkedIn. One more problem, every user’s resource Shaker using now is from Facebook, what if Facebook decide not to provide the user’s profile anymore? Then the Shaker will loss all of its users because it operates based on the Facebook, it should come up with its own user crowd.

Main Input and Output used in the entreprenure

       Digital camera, which may not widely used in my company, still give me some idea about the megapixel. Because as we are a company, we may need to organize a new conference for new products, we may held a news conference; so for all of those activities, we need to put posters, we need to give out our brochure, which are all need to be print out, so at this point we need to consider the megapixel and the print size; at which rate the image can be printed at the best quality.
       The second thing i think is pretty useful is the RFID tech. It introduce the idea using the radio frequency to identity each ueser. I think this is is a good idea because it can be widely used for my employees especially to check when they leave the company which is easy to see if someone is late for work or leave early. Another use is related to our social network. All users can decide if they want to make a RFID identification card for themself, so when they go to special place which has a RFID reader, they can directly pass it rather than show the ticket or the passport. But the disadvantage is, it includes all your personal information, which might easily used by others.

Discussion about hardware in entrepreneur

    As an high tech company, especially that my goal is the new type of social network, or wieldly, is social media, computer and server will be a really important part of the operation.

    In one company, there are three parts of people. The first kind is the normal employees, like the front desk, basic clerk, or even secretery will use one type of computer which because they only need to do face the basic problems like write a work report on Word, set up a financial statement with Exel or send the email to the boss. So, for this group of people, they just need to use the basic computer with best cost performance. The processor, for example, Intel i5 is enough for them and I may only use the 4G memory because they do not need to run complex program which need to use big part of the memory. Then, another important part of the people are those expert who are solving all the problems about the network, web design, collection of information, net security, ect. As for this group of people, because they are facing the problems are more complex, which need them to use more expert knowledge to solve the problems; the computer for them then need a Intel i7 processor and at least 8G memory. And if someone need to do something with graphic design, the video card need to be good enough because they need to use software like PhotoShop frequently. Last group of people are the management level of the company, they may not need a really fast computer because they hardly ever do something related to design or issue solving. But, one thing they really need is the security of their information and data; so the software, hardware, especially the hard disc, need to be professionally at the security and information protection.