Posts by Duane Kuroda
Virtual Goods Show Potential, Haven’t Yet Crossed The Chasm
With 350 million users playing social games on Zynga alone, and over 68 million social gamers in the U.S., the social gaming world looks to hold the potential for vast wealth. eMarketer expects the U.S. virtual goods market, which is the economic engine behind social games, to hit $653 million in sales in 2011. Â After […]
Post Paywall Hits Up iPad Users For More Dough But Does The Math Make Sense?
The bizarre attempt by the New York Post to boost iPad app sales both entertained and surprised me. It seems that someone at the Post believes it’s worth singling out iPad users and forcing them to subscribe via an app. If you haven’t experienced the extortion firsthand, Dave Winer posted a screenshot of what happened […]
eBay and PayPal Suing Google Over Employees And Trade Secrets Is Just Sour Grapes
My initial reaction of the news that Google was being sued by eBay and PayPal was one of mild annoyance. In the lawsuit, two Google employees  are accused of having “misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers†and of one of the plaintiffs who was recruiting another employee, is […]
Sneak Peek At Square’s Data Reveals The Challenges Of Payments Business
Micropayments, commerce, and conventional payment providers sometimes track me down on LinkedIn to discuss  innovation in payments. When I get a chance to chat in person, the best discussions come from the entrepreneurs who see opportunity in shaking up how payments are done or addressing under-served groups like the “unbanked” (those without an account at a bank […]
When Is A 0.82% Conversion Rate from Free Trial To Paid Subscription A Win?
In answer to the headline, it is when your target is 0.2 percent, but is that low of a conversion rate a sustainable business? In a paidContent article last week about the UK Times paywall the meager conversion of 0.82 percent of iPad users from trial to paid users was cited as a win, beating […]
Leveraging Virtual Goods for The Greater Social Good
Many people have been touched by the recent and ongoing tragedies following the 9.0 earthquake in Japan. Personally I have been shocked and saddened by the devastation with family members temporarily displaced due to the events and relatives in Japan impacted by the breakdown of transportation and communication there. While news of the Japan Earthquake, […]
Google vs Apple for Publisher Payment Solutions: Neither a Perfect Fit
The recent discussion in Media Beat around Google or Apple for publishers has been fascinating. On one hand I love to see the passion and loyalty people have for Apple or Google, but on the other hand there doesn’t really seem to be a debate as much as a religious shouting war. The way I […]
CityVille’s Numbers May Be Record Breaking But Zynga Faces Harsh Reality
Social gamers might be excited by Zynga’s CityVille hitting a record number of users. Investors might by excited by CityVille’s potential revenue. Both may be interested in the impact CityVille could have on the virtual goods market. With a record number of users and revenue for a single game, CityVille’s success might give you the impression […]
Lies, Damn Lies, and 65 Percent Purchase Online Statistics
Everybody spends money for online content, or so you would think if you read the Pew Internet study just released. The report claims that 65 percent of internet users have paid for online content – which may be true but it is also misleading. The title is so misleading in fact, that I would bet […]
PayPal Creates Universal Micropayments Or Just More Hype?
There is no universal method of processing micropayments. Many providers are working on a solution including PayPal. Recently there was a lot of buzz across Twitter and the Internet about a new micropayments offering from PayPal due to announcements made at the PayPal X Developer conference. Two announcements that warrant further investigation are (1) PayPal […]