Foture

Social Media solutions and consulting

Monthly Archives: December 2010

on

Democracy within the internet

So often we can hear people saying that the Internet is the best, because you have the freedom of speech in there. The huge amount of support for Wikileaks is based on the fact that people don’t want to accept that the Internet is censored. Julian Assange had the US cables in his possession, obtained sort of legally, just like the newspapers of the old media obtain their leaks — through undisclosed sources. It was only the foolishness of the Wikileaks’ source that his identity was discovered.

And so Mr Assange released the cables to the public, just like every blogger or average user could write whatever he/she wants without legal consequences. Then everything started. Mr Assange was straight away accused of sexual harassment, Wikileaks was denied access to its Amazon Cloud Services, PayPal account, and its domain was taken from the organisation. This doesn’t seem like a freedom to me.

Continue reading “Democracy within the internet” →

on

How Angry Birds built their success step by step

Angry Birds is an extremely popular smartphone game designed by Rovio Mobile. The company first launched the game on the Apple App Store in December 2009. One year later we can see its tremendous success. Nick Wingfield wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “Not since the invention of bacon and eggs has the collision of fowl and swine tasted so good”. I think it’s definitely true – the experience of angry birds attacking pigs, which stole their eggs, truly tastes good. The game has a very simple idea: there are angry birds and their enemies, pigs. The birds fight with pigs over stolen eggs. There is however additional element which makes the game more interesting and challenging, the way of killing the pigs. The poultry have to hit a good spot of a construction within which pigs are hidden, otherwise they may only hurt them and not kill them.

The user experience is amazing because of a very detailed and well done graphics. The chickens are legless and have no wings, but still look very cute and angry at the same time. The pigs are green and round, some of them have moustache and make funny noises. All the graphics is supported by the nice, catchy melody that stays in your head long after you finish playing. The story behind the whole idea is a bit funny, cause the company first decided on having birds as characters, and was thinking of a good enemy. Then the swine flue virus attacked the world, thus gaving the team an inspiration they needed to create the green pigs.

Continue reading “How Angry Birds built their success step by step” →

on

Facebook Christmas Card that can be shared with your friends

Lights blinking on the streets, new decorations in the shops, warmer clothes and sometimes even snow. It all gives you a sign of Christmas coming. Any day now you will start shopping for presents, which then will be put under the Christmas tree, you will rush to the post office to send cards with wishes to all your friends and family. This year we give you the opportunity to surprise your friends on Facebook and send them a personalised Christmas Card, which says “Hey [name of your friend]! Merry Christmas”. The card is in fact a nice movie showing one of the best parts of Christmas. The application page can be found here.

You can view the movie and also send it to your friends through Facebook. The application also gives you a possibility to share it on your wall, which saves you the time of selecting friends to whom you want to send the card. Of course, it requires access to your basic information, but we narrowed it down to absolute minimum and we are not saving it, nor sharing it with any third parties. Hope you will like our Christmas Card!

Merry Christmas!
Foture

on

Google wants to buy you for $6 billion and you say no

That’s exactly what Groupon did, the leader in local daily deals. The idea behind their service is simple: they negotiate huge discounts — usually 50-90% off — with popular, mostly local, businesses. Next send the deals to thousands of subscribers in their free daily email, hence generate the businesses a ton of new customers. People are happy with discounts, owners are happy with turnover. Groupon is happy too, predicting to generate $2 billion in sales* (half of this goes back to the businesses). After just 2 years of operation.

No wonder they were eyed by Google. The deal was going on and off for several weeks. It started with $2 billion, and according to the rumours, ended with a $5-6 billion offer, when the acquisition was officially cancelled. The obvious question is: are the Groupon directors insane?

Continue reading “Google wants to buy you for $6 billion and you say no” →

© 2010-2013 Foture