OpenTable, A Web 3.0 Case Study

One of the decade’s major trends in vertical and local Web that I identified earlier was the growing importance and popularity of high-quality, specialized, niche content. OpenTable (NASDAQ:OPEN), the online restaurant reservation solution provider, seems to have fully understood this trend and how to take advantage of it.

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RIM’s Uphill Battle

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM) last week reported fourth-quarter results that beat estimates by a slight margin but gave a weak outlook that sent its shares down and led many analysts to downgrade it. RIM is launching its tablet, PlayBook, on April 19 and much depends on the device’s success. PlayBook will be based on RIM’s new QNX operating system and will support Android applications. Will this strategy work to revive RIM in the extremely competitive and crowded mobile device market?

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Oracle Done With Sun. Are Chips Next?

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) last week reported a strong quarter that beat analyst estimates. Increased spending on cloud computing by companies in many industries has been beneficial to Oracle, which entered the more difficult server business with its acquisition of Sun. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Adobe Makes A Conciliatory Move

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) this week reported an 84% increase in its profit but gave a conservative outlook due to the recent tragedy in Japan, which accounts for 10% to 15% of revenue. Meanwhile, Adobe appears to be changing its strategy around Flash and HTML with the launch of a new Flash-to-HTML converter last month. It also plans to release an update to its Creative Suite software that will make it easier for designers to build websites using the HTML5 Internet standard. This is a practical move from Adobe, which last year clashed with Apple and Apple’s decision to ban Flash on iPhones, iPads, and iPods and go for HTML 5 for video and animation. >>>

Microfinance Across Regions

Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the Malegam Committee report, an important development for the MFI sector in the country. The report has paved way for the creation of a separate category of nonbanking financial corporations (NBFCs) operating in the microfinance (MFI) sector and meeting certain specified requirements; these companies will be designated NBFC-MFIs. The NBFC-MFIs will be treated as “priority lending” sector and find it easier to obtain loans from banks. More important, the committee has exempted the NBFC-MFIs from the state moneylending acts and stipulates that the sector will be regulated by the RBI. The exemption helps remove the NBFC-MFIs from the control of the Andhra Pradesh Micro Finance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Act which last quarter restricted interest rates and the debt collection methods followed by the microfinance industry. The report instead controls the interest chargeable to the borrower by putting a margin cap based on the size of the MFIs and limits the charges levied by the MFIs to processing fee, interest, and insurance charges.

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European Acquisitions And Tie-Ups Position Electronic Arts To Capture Digital Population

A recent Games Purchase Drivers 2010 report published by The NPD Group revealed that an average of 71% of games bought by consumers in the U.S. comprised physical games, and 29% were digital games. In February of this year, total game industry sales rose 3% over the year to $1.36 billion. Sales of video game hardware increased 10% to $0.47 billion, while sales of software fell to $0.60 billion from $0.63 billion a year ago. Sales of video game accessories continued to grow driven by the growing popularity of Microsoft’s Kinect. Video game accessory sales increased from $0.21 billion a year ago to $0.26 billion.

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Informatica An Even More Attractive Target For Oracle

The data integration market is attracting big-name players. Last year, Dell acquired Boomi, a SaaS integration leader, and IBM acquired Cast Iron, a cloud computing integration company. Although Oracle hasn’t made any purchases recently, the market remains abuzz with rumors that Informatica may be at the top of its list. As I have mentioned earlier, this would be a move that would benefit Oracle significantly by helping it build on its in-house data quality, profiling, or metadata solutions.

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Online Travel Looks To Asia, Mobile Apps, Social Media

Asia is expected to be a high-growth market for the travel industry. According to the World Trade Organization, the global tourism industry will add 66 million jobs by 2020, of which 50 million jobs will be in Asia. Rising income levels and an expanding middle class will help to fuel this growth. In China, for instance, each of its 1.3 billion people takes one trip per year, and the country expects to see that figure quadruple by 2015. For online travel players, there is even better news. According to PhoCusWright, only 2% of travel is booked online in China. iResearch predicts that 30% of Chinese air tickets will be sold online by 2013. India too has seen a tremendous growth in online bookings, which grew at a compounded rate of 80% annually to $6 billion in 2010 from $295 million in 2005. >>>

Move, ZipRealty, Trulia, Zillow Need To Monetize Traffic Better

Despite the unemployment rate being at 8.9%, its lowest level since April 2009, the housing market does not seem to be making a quick recovery. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median U.S. home price fell to $158,800, its lowest since 2002, in January. The median price has fallen 13% since June. Foreclosed homes continued to add to the inventory, pushing prices downward. According to Lender Processing Services Inc., the foreclosure inventory in the country rose to a record 2.2 million in January. Housing starts are also being impacted. According to Commerce Department data, housing starts in the country were at their slowest pace since April 2009, and building permits slumped to a record low. Beginning home construction fell 22.5% to a 479,000 annual rate, making it the biggest reduction since March 1984.

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Ancestry.com, A Year After Its IPO

Founded in 1983 as a publishing house, Ancestry.com (NASDAQ:ACOM) has become the world’s largest online community of people interested in their family histories. Over the past three years, the site’s more than 1.4 million registered users have created 22 million family trees with over 2 billion profiles and 52 million photographs, scanned documents, and written stories and have access to a growing pool of 6 billion historical records.

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