Archive for the ‘consumers’ Category
Thursday, December 26th, 2013
Photo credit; Gildas Maquaire on Flickr
James McGlinn, co-founder and chief executive of Eventfinda and an Entrepreneurs’ Organisation NZ member, has found much success with his online business.
Eventfinda is an online event marketing and ticketing company that around 800,000 New Zealanders use each month to find out what’s on.
The fastest growing area of business for Eventfinda is ticketing. Currently, at any given time, it is ticketing more than 400 different events, more than any other New Zealand ticketing company.
Eventfinda allows event promoters, organisers and venues to list their events for free, have that information distributed through a range of content partners, and control their own ticket sales. The Eventfinda platform has been successfully licensed in Europe and Australia and the company recently launched in the United States and Singapore.
McGlinn started the company when he was 26, saying that prior to Eventfinda’s launch, events in New Zealand had no central listing website, making it more difficult for people to find an event. The entrepreneur may have been young when he started Eventfinda, but he was already a veteran businessman, having started his own web hosting company, Entertainz, when he was 17.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: business, Eventfinda, James McGlinn, New Zealand, online
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store, Success story | No Comments »
Thursday, November 21st, 2013
Photo credit - Alan Cleaver on Flickr
The internet continues to make it possible to do things for yourself and purchasing life insurance is one of those things.
And now, New Zealand-owned life insurance company, Fidelity Life, is celebrating a first for the life insurance industry with the launch of InsureYou – an innovative new service delivering a one stop online insurance shop.
Fidelity Life Chief Executive Milton Jennings says that direct-to-consumer online insurance sites have grown substantially in recent years and InsureYou now offers the next evolution in online insurance purchasing for New Zealanders.
“The online/direct insurance market is the fastest growing insurance market globally. Experience shows that many New Zealanders like the security of having professional advice to call on when purchasing insurance – that’s where InsureYou delivers,” says Mr Jennings.
“Compared to other nations, New Zealanders are typically underinsured. People opt out of the online purchasing process because it can be isolated without having the backup of personal advice. It’s at the times of claims during serious illness or major trauma events that people see the value in having a personal adviser. InsureYou delivers on both fronts – online convenience backed up by personal support.
“For clients themselves, InsureYou will change the way they think about insurance – no paper, no signature and no hassle, and the ability to engage an adviser if required.”
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: business, insurance, InsureYou, New Zealand, online
Posted in computer, consumers, E-mail & the internet, Going Digital, New Zealand, new zealand business, Online Sales, online shopping, shopping | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 6th, 2013
Photo credit; Butch Lebo on Flickr
New Zealand expat Rebekah Campbell, who started Posse.com, which she says is the world’s first social search engine, started selling flowers and golf balls by the side of the road when she was a child just because she likes the idea of starting a business.
The former Wellington native evolved to managing bands and originally established Posse.com as a way for bands to engage their fans to help promote them and sell concert tickets.
But after selling the fan engagement platform, Campbell rebranded Posse.com as a social search engine that helps people find the favourite places of their social network. The mobile app and site launched in March of this year and has signed more than 35,000 merchants worldwide, including 7000 New Zealand stores.
Users tell Posse what they want, such as “great coffee”, “brunch” or “a gym” anywhere in the world and they will get recommendations from their “posse” of friends and local experts.
It covers most world cities, including Auckland and Wellington. The denser the population the better.
A two-tier subscription model lets businesses send customers gifts and special offers. From next year, $50 and $100 monthly subscriptions will give stores access to additional features to help them build customer communities.
The successful business has attracted a lot of attention from major tech players.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: New Zealand, Posse, social network
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Facebook, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store, social media, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
Friday, October 11th, 2013
Photo credit; Blaise Alleyne on Flickr
New Zealanders spent $5.4 billion online last financial year according to Roy Morgan Research’s Digital Universe report, but despite that seemingly large number, Kiwi money largely remains outside the digital realm.
“The bulk of New Zealand’s net wealth is not yet in the digital universe,” Roy Morgan client services director Howard Seccombe says.
The reason for that is the baby boomers who have the wealth only deal in the fringes of digital technology. That will change over time as the boomers age out and the next generation who is more familiar with digital technologies take over.
Other findings from the report included:
- This year’s survey shows 61% of New Zealanders are worried about their privacy, Â up 11% from the survey carried out four years ago.
- Smartphones have seen spectacular growth, with 1.4 million users. That’s a growth of 227% in four years.
- Right now 39% of New Zealanders have smartphones.
- The Roy Morgan numbers show smartphones amplify people’s digital behaviour. Smartphone owners are ten times as likely to shop online as non-smartphone owners, eight times as likely to bank online and nine times as likely to view video clips.
- Roy Morgan notes a dramatic 20% decline in desktop ownership. This echoes the fall in traditional PC sales. Meanwhile tablets have grown 557% in the past four years.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: baby boomer, business, digital, New Zealand, online, Roy Morgan Research, wealth
Posted in computer, consumers, E-mail & the internet, Going Digital, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, online messaging, Online Sales, online security, online shopping, onlines store, smartphone, smartphones, tablet, tablets, wi-fi | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 14th, 2013
Briscoe Group has turned its sights toward acquiring online retail businesses.
Rod Duke, managing director of Briscoe Group, which operates Rebel Sport, Briscoes and Living & Giving, said the company is not quite as keen as New Zealand’s biggest listed retailer, The Warehouse, to get into online business. The Warehouse has invested in the online stores Torpedo7 and pet.co.nz.
“It’s something we could look at,” Duke said. “(Online) is an interesting place to be.”
Duke refrained from giving any clues about any specific online businesses Briscoe might be interested in buying or when it might make those purchases.
“What I can say is if we were to buy a business it would play to our core competency (of high-volume consumer goods),” he said. “I don’t have any desire to get into a range of businesses that some people might think that we can operate in.”
Duke said that Briscoe would increase cash reserves in the current financial year from the $78 million it had at the end of January.
“We haven’t had any debt for 15 years,” he added.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Briscoe, Briscoes, Living and Giving, New Zealand, Rebel Sport, The Warehouse
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Going Digital, New Zealand, new zealand business, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Proposed changes to copyright law could have a negative effect on the uptake of ultra-fast broadband, according to Rene Summer, an international industry analyst.
Under current copyright law, the copyright holders are in control of the distribution of content, rather than offering flexibility to users.
Whilst we’d all love faster broadband, without copyright holders offering their content via online mediums, such as the ability to stream movies, we are limited in how we can use the ultra-fast broadband network.
You can read more at the nzherald.
Tags: broadband, consumers, Copyright Bill
Posted in consumers, copyright | No Comments »
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
Finally, digital TV is here and there is a $13 million campaign to make sure people understand how to use it.
30 percent of NZ households will need to switch over to the digital network before 2013. The remaining 70 percent are already on the network through Sky, Freeview or TelstraClear.
The Going Digital campaign has a handy website where queries can be made, as well as a helpline.
Tags: digital television, Sky
Posted in consumers, digital television, Going Digital | No Comments »
Friday, October 29th, 2010
Telecom has now turned off its “WorldMode“, meaning that mobile phone users on the CDMA network will now find themselves without a network when overseas, reports the Dom Post.
Whilst the move may have lost Telecom some customers, spokesperson Emma-Kate Greer said all but 3 percent of Telecom’s customers had already made the switch, and Telecom had made efforts to contact its users around the world who were still using the technology when the network was switched off.
In its place, Telecom has the XT network which began in June 2009. It has plans to completely close the CDMA network in 2012.
Tags: CDMA, Telecom, WorldMode, XT Network
Posted in Apple Mac, CDMA, consumers, roaming, Telecom | No Comments »
Thursday, October 7th, 2010
Stuff’s review of Apple TV reports today that this device has been lagging badly behind its competitors from the launch of Apple TV three years ago.
Now, however, a revamped and cheaper Apple TV is available at $170 NZD. What does it do? Its a black box which connects with your TV either directly to the set, or through a receiver. The interface allows you to connect to the Internet, and start watching TV shows and movies through Apple or Netfix (with an account).
The new Apple TV is apparently easier to set up and use than the older model. It also allows streaming of the videos so that your hard drive is not filled up.
The greatest problem is though, that renting a movie means you have to watch it in one go, or pay another $5.99 NZD to finish it. This is not a family-friendly solution, or even a cheaper alternative to the DVD store.
Perhaps another ‘bug’ for Apple to fix? Time will tell.
Tags: Apple TV, Netfix, streaming
Posted in Apple Mac, Apple TV, consumers, New Zealand | No Comments »
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
So Google did not commit any security breaches when it collected users’ data in New Zealand, however Luke Appleby writes on Stuff today that he is unclear why Google admits that information breaches are committed in countries such as Ireland and Denmark, but not so in Australia.
Its a valuable question – why is the data collection from some countries considered a ‘mistake’ worth apologising for, but not from New Zealand? It seems that when a country does not specifically request that the data be deleted, Google does not consider it to be a mistake.
Mr Appleby states that “…it was the lack of transparency, and the global attitude of Google which led many to question their “don’t be evil” motto”.
The debate continues….
Tags: Google, NZ Police, security
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Google, New Zealand | No Comments »
