I just read that Telkom Media will be targeting web 2.0 services. Telkom have finally woken up after a few years and this is what they have concluded:
Telkom Media said that Online Communities is a key element of their planned online service offering. This includes social networking, news, photos and video communities.
I would really love to see how they get this right. Maybe I am being too critical but given Telkom’s reputation regarding their internet services and with online communities this will be a challenge. I would like to go a little further and expand on the four elements Telkom mentioned. Social networking, news, photos and video communities.
- Social Networking
Please tell me why I should switch from Facebook or MySpace. There are also other local alternatives such as Blueworld, Digspot and Vrinne. Is Telkom going to compete with all of these? At the time of writing this Facebook has over 28 000 South Africans. - News
What kind of news? We already have News24, IOL and iAfrica. We also have plenty other niche news sites. Are they going to compete or aggregate? Will they include blogs? - Photos
Photos is very vague. Do they want to emulate a Flickr service? This would have to be done very carefully. 24.com Albums didn’t take off too well and I can’t see myself moving from Flickr. However Zoopy doesn’t seem to be doing to bad regarding its photo service. - Video Communities
YouTube has been done already, what is Telkom going to offer that is any different? MyVideo and Zoopy are taking the market as well. What is there strategy for this? Do they want to pump more ridiculous advertising down our throats?
This is going to be really interesting to see. If Telkom has a brilliant social media / web 2.0 team then they might just be able to pull this off. I am not sure who really wants an all-in-one package but the new web is a wave, surfs up!
Tags: web 2.0
I feel the only way this could be a success is if they aggregate the lot into a single platform. How possible this is to pull off is up for debate.
Given Telkom’s current popularity it would require something very special to do this. The community will be sceptical from the word go and quite frankly it would take something spectacular to gain our support.
However, in my humble opinion, Telkom should stick to their core value proposition and provide us with service excellence which has sorely been lacking.
Stick to your game, but up your standards.
Mr T
You can’t blame Telkom for recognizing the value of what’s going on over their network. They see all the bandwidth they’re selling going in regular directions – and they want a piece of the 2.0 pie.
BUT you can blame them for not being honest enough with themselves to recognize that this move just pushes them further backwards. NO ONE wants Telkom to be the next MySpace. EVERYONE wants Telkom to lower their prices, do away with caps, maintain stable international links and deliver a reliable service for the money we pay.
Their marketing team has to get a noddy badge for enthusiasm. But a huge onion for putting that enthusiasm in the wrong place. Instead of being received with open arms, the Do campaign is now being seen as a transparent attempt at getting users to blow their 3 gigs in half the time it normally takes (which isn’t long!)
Thanks for spreading some Zoopy love here too. Photos are becoming increasingly popular, especially with our Albums and Zoom functionality going live recently. If Telkom turns on the heat, we’ve got industrial-strength ice machines ready to keep our users super cool
And more where that came from, very soon.
Have a great long weekend!
Jason
Henre: I couldn’t agree more. Telkom needs address other issues before going ahead with this.
Jason: I’m glad to hear Zoopy is doing so well. I think it’s time to start preparing another update.
Personally I think Telkom can pull this off if they go about it the right way. As Mr. Stopforth once said to me: “I would rather have a small piece of a big pie then a big piece of a small pie.”
Absolutely, but if Telkom’s making mud pies while everyone else is making sweet cherry pecan pies, there’s a disconnect somewhere. Imagine if instead of building this thing on their own up on the hill, they integrated existing 2.0 destinations within SA? Amatomu/Afrigator instead of Technorati, Muti instead of Digg, Zoopy instead of YouTube etc. Then we’re all in the same kitchen, with the same recipe, with ingredients we all agree on, making one helluva tasty finger lickin’ pie! Right?
mmmm – web 2.0 this and that – your question about news sites – will they aggregate/add blogs etc… the question should rather be – how do blogs/aggregations make things better/more interactive for the average/not neccessarily web savvy user – and do they really? “web2.0″ standing alone doesn’t mean much does it ?????- the ideas need to be harnessed and incorporated into already exisiting models – im hungover – what do i know anyway
Carls: You have given me an idea.. watch this space.
i have?? yay – can i be the first to know?