A brainstorm blog

It’s a crisis, let’s go on a holiday!

a brainstormer — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:08:45 +0000

A crisis might seem the perfect timing to go on a holiday, it appears. Prices for hotel rooms have declined with 14% over the last year, says hotels.com. In relation to the business segment, the leisure segment has increased, a trend that has been around for a while now. Kirk Kinsell from Intercontinental Hotels Group remarked we might think of travelling as a basic right. These two trends are a positive sign for the Brainstorm start-up.

This means more exotic destinations can now also attract the middle class, next to low-budget backpackers and luxe travellers. The latter don’t make up a part of our target audience, but middle class travellers may also be interested in authentic restaurants. On top of that: these are people even more likely to plan some things ahead, which may be an advantage in more deserted areas without mobile internet available. So: travellers happy, EatOut.com happy.

Facebook: The T in CNN’s SWOT

a brainstormer — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 22:34:30 +0000

According to an article in The Guardian, CNN president Jon Klein fears Facebook. At a Q&A with Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel, he expressed his concern with the popular social network site: “We want to be the most trusted source. But on Facebook, people are depending on their friends as news sources. “

Joseph Tarkatoff offers interesting figures illustrating Klein’s point. The following graph, for example, shows how Facebook stands up to Google News as a source of traffic to news sites:

”I’m more worried about the 500 million or so people on Facebook versus the 2 million on Fox,” says Klein. Looking at how people seem to rely a lot more on Facebook than on sites as Google News, CNN should better watch out.

Internet, everywhere

a brainstormer — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:22:43 +0000

Many internet operators are working on mobile internet, as is Telenet. They will be testing broadband mobile internet (4G) in Mechelen, Belgium. This internet enables up to 100 bits per second, that is ten times as fast as mobile internet now. This makes applications possible like online gaming, watchinf television and video conferencing on the move. This proves the trend everything goes mobile and that is something to think about when you own a site. Especially for the Brainstorm site, recommending you authentic small restaurants all around the world, we need to make sure a mobile version of the site is available. Whenever fast mobile intenet arrives, a more daring version will be possible, maybe even the original site with streaming and interactive applications.

Source: ‘Telenet test supersnel mobiel internet’, De Standaard, March 4 2010, p. 21.