The biggest names in the tech industry seem to have collectively decided it's time to make the billions. Sure Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have sold some ads and Foursquare brokered some promotional deals. But with the second wave of IPOs on the horizon and investors' eyeballs getting as round as the tech bubble, the time is nigh for tech demigods to show that they can make money off all those users they've spent years accumulating. And hopefully not alienate them in the process. Today, Mark Zuckerberg inched closer to that dream of a trillion dollars by offering streaming movies — and tanking Netflix's stock. Meanwhile, YouTube closed a deal on a production company presumably to make its very own content. Intel cast a wide net to examine tech companies' latest money-making ventures. Then we looked into our CrystalBall app to see what they might try next.
Facebook
Moneymaker: Warner Bros. just became the first Hollywood studio to stream movies directly on the social network. Facebook has been making a big move toward e-commerce lately, and the fact that you have to use Facebook Credits to buy movies and TV shows could be the tipping point to get users to hand their credit card info over to Mark Zuckerberg. Plus, studios looking for a way to stop Netflix's growth might not make Facebook suffer the same 28-day waiting period for new content.
Downside: At 30 credits (or $3) for a 48-hour rental for The Dark Knight, it will cost you. Plus, you have to "like" the movie or the director to get the privilege. Do you really want hundreds of your Facebook friends to see you "liked" and watched Valentine's Day on Valentine's Day?
What's next: Why should you use a credit card to buy Facebook Credits when you can use Zuckerbills (coming to a U.S. Treasury in 2020)?
Twitter
Moneymaker: In order to make money off its free iPhone app, this weekend Twitter introduced a number of new features, including Quickbar, a "forced trending topics bar" that includes promoted tweets — negating the idea of a service that quickly shows you what's actually trending.
Downside: Pundit John Gruber quickly dubbed the feature "Dickbar" after Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, but Gruber issued the unfortunate nickname on Twitter and it was widely retweeted. Advantage Costolo.
What's next: Can we pay someone to monitor our Twitter feed for us? It's getting overwhelming. Either that or design personalized lists of the best people to follow based on what's important to us, like updates on Libya and breaking bear-cub news.
Foursquare
Moneymaker: At SXSW this week, Foursquare is set to announce a partnership with American Express that will link users' credit cards with their Foursquare accounts. The incentive to consumers? Deals like "spend $5, save $5" at participating merchants. Although Foursquare said its motivation is to increase membership and loyalty and that it won't charge Amex for the privilege, it's hard to believe that will stay the case if it catches on.
Downside: We don't have an Amex card. And (confession) although we use the app for recommendations, we've never actually checked in anywhere. Sorry, Dennis and Naveen! But if they add other credit cards, we would.
What's next: How about a service that warns you beforehand if you're about to friend one of those compulsive people who check in with handfuls of people at name-dropping locales?
YouTube
Moneymaker: YouTube just closed a deal to buy Internet video company Next New Networks, the producers behind Auto-Tune the News, for less than $50 million. Although rumor had it that Google was trying to get into the video-production business, Business Insider reports that the move is actually designed to help existing YouTube partners make "more and better content." Which then leads to more users and, subsequently, more expensive ads.
Downside: Isn't YouTube's strength either grainy weird viral videos or pirated television, movie, and music content? The second could definitely use better quality, but does it even matter for the former?
What's next: How about veering into Hulu territory?
Skype
Moneymaker: Just regular old advertising on the Windows version of its paid video communications service.
Downside: Although Skype says it won't show ads during the video conferencing yet, this could devolve into a Minority Report-style advertising assault.
What's next: Would it be possible to embed microphone/receiver in our brain so we don't have to use the special headset? Just curious.
Update: TechCrunch makes an important clarification. Facebook hasn't announced its own streaming movie service. Rather the movie offering comes from Warner Brothers app that uses Facebook Credits' payment system. But if it proves successful and other studios follow suit, Zuckberg can still count on more personal credit card info coming his way. Someone better go tell Netflix's shareholders.
What's up with buying tickets to Next instead of just making a reservation? That's creativity as well. Nick, my business partner, said, "you know, Chef, this doesn't make any sense to me. Everybody that opens a restaurant does it exactly the same way. Why don't we identify the elements of operating a restaurant that clearly don't work, rip the whole thing apart and put it back together in a way that makes sense as a business, then maybe we'll have something."
So having five reservationists—a grand total of $175,000 a year—to answer the phone from 9AM to 6PM, and tell people they cannot come to our place to spend money, because we're full, that makes absolutely no sense.
For Next you will have four menus a year, and each one is a different time and place. How much poetic license are you going take with those menus? We're starting out with Paris 1912 Escoffier. Anyone who has read any of Escoffier's cookbooks knows they are incredibly vague. Back in the early 1900s, they didn't have a VitaPrep blender. He pushed everything through a fine screen. Do we use a screen to uphold the authenticity of Escoffier? Or, do we use a blender to uphold Escoffier's philosophy about using the technology we have? Of course you'll use the blender.
When we go into the future, Bangkok 2060, obviously nobody knows what it's going to be like in 2060. So, sure, we're going to take some poetic license. But you can bet we'll do our homework and look at where Thai food has been the last couple of hundred years, identify the way it's swung, and try to extrapolate what WE think it might be like in 2060.
It looks like the Modernist Cuisine cookbook is going to have some adapted Alinea recipes. Do you align yourself with the Modernist movement? I will by no means parallel myself with the Beatles, but they went through their career, starting off in Liverpool playing one kind of music, then came to the States. By the time they did the White Album, stylistically, they were executing from a far different place. Alinea is aligned with the Modernist Cuisine movement but me, personally, I have the opportunity, to be at one time a modernist chef, then over at Next, I can be something entirely different.
Who do you consider to be the target audience for cookbooks like Modernist Cuisine or Alinea's? Do you see the future American kitchen incorporating dishes like these? We understood when we published the Alinea book in 2008 that a small handful of people would cook out of it. But we also know, because that book was published, it lends a little more credibility to the movement. Ten years from now, it might be more popular for people to cook like this at home, for the very reason that we printed those books.
What's the best thing you've recently eaten for under $20? We were in Tokyo about six months ago and had the most amazing bowl of ramen. It was bigger than my head. It would be like four meals for under $20, if you don't count the flight.
Over $150? It was in Sapporo, Japan. When the chef came out at the end of the meal, I felt like I already knew him. I had never met him before, nor could we communicate, but I felt like there was this connection after eating his food. And to me that's magical.
Pizza pizza!
At Slice we profile pizza obsessives with the following question: The Pizza Cognition Theory states that "the first slice of pizza a child sees and tastes ... becomes, for him, pizza." Do you remember your first slice? Where was it from, and is the place still around? Not my very first slice, but I could probably tell you where it was from. It was literally Little Caeser's pizza in my tiny hometown. Every Friday night that was like the go-to in my house.
Are you into deep dish? I am, but I prefer thin. I had the best pizza experience in my life about 3 weeks ago. It was at Great Lake, here in Chicago. It's a tiny little place, husband and wife team, BYOB. They have one pizza they make a night. You walk in, you get your salad, you get your pizza—whatever they're making that night. It's freaking awesome, man.
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