The Netherlands vs. the world

For social networking the entire world is using Facebook or MySpace, but in the Netherlands most people use Hyves. That is logical (by now), half of the Netherlands has a  Hyves profile, so why bother getting into Facebook (unless you have international friends). But the problem is when you want to integrate social networking functionality in your own website. Facebook allows (almost) everything. Hyves has quite clear limitations. So it’s difficult to have a good social network integration for the Dutch market. Besides that, as a Dutch company, an integration with Hyves is not a real good international example*.

For shopping the entire world is using Amazon, but in the Netherlands most people use Bol. Bol targets the Dutch market (also by selling Dutch books) and I guess we feel special, because Bol is in Dutch. But when you want become an affiliate of a shop, Amazon is more interesting, since the internet is not only Dutch but worldwide. So for sites from the Netherlands… what to choose?

For online payments the entire world is using credit cards, but in the Netherlands most people use iDEAL. For some reason in the Netherlands people are more anxious about the safety of online credit card payments, so another banc payment system, directly using your internet bancing facilities, was developed and now most used. In Dutch webshops, you should implement iDEAL, but it does make the shop uninteresting for everybody outside of the Netherlands.

For second hand buying and selling the entire world is using E-bay, but in the Netherlands most people use Marktplaats. Marktplaats is specifically created for the Dutch market, but when you want to sell something your possible market is bigger on eBay. So for Dutch people wanting to sell something valuable it is difficilt to get Dutch and international bidders.

* Still Hyves is better for integration than LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a complete closed API, making any integration without assistance of LinkedIn impossible. But that’s a completely different (annoying) subject.

For social networking the entire world is using Facebook or MySpace, but in the Netherlands most people use Hyves. That is logical (by now), half of the Netherlands has a  Hyves profile, so why bother getting into Facebook (unless you have international friends). But the problem is when you want to integrate social networking functionality in your own website. Facebook allows (almost) everything. Hyves has quite clear limitations. So it’s difficult to have a good social network integration for the Dutch market. Besides that, as a Dutch company, an integration with Hyves is not a real good international example*.

For shopping the entire world is using Amazon, but in the Netherlands most people use Bol. Bol targets the Dutch market (also by selling Dutch books) and I guess we feel special, because Bol is in Dutch. But when you want become an affiliate of a shop, Amazon is more interesting, since the internet is not only Dutch but worldwide. So for sites from the Netherlands… what to choose?

For online payments the entire world is using credit cards, but in the Netherlands most people use iDEAL. For some reason in the Netherlands people are more anxious about the safety of online credit card payments, so another banc payment system, directly using your internet bancing facilities, was developed and now most used. In Dutch webshops, you should implement iDEAL, but it does make the shop uninteresting for everybody outside of the Netherlands.

For second hand buying and selling the entire world is using ebay, but in the Netherlands most people use Marktplaats. Marktplaats is specifically created for the Dutch market, but when you want to sell something your possible market is bigger on ebay. So for Dutch people wanting to sell something valuable it is difficilt to get Dutch and international bidders.

* Still Hyves is better for integration than LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a complete closed API, making any integration without assistance of LinkedIn impossible. But that’s a completely different (annoying) subject.

Ukrainian service

We have our Ukrainian colleague Andry is in our office in The Netherlands for a couple of weeks, to assist in projects and learn about Wicket and mashups. His passport got stolen. That is not the best thing that can happen to you when being abroad. So he is now in a foreign country, without a passport and a visum to end soon.

But off course you have your own countries ambassee in the visiting country to help you. In this case the Ukrainian ambassee in The Netherlands. The first thing they told us is that it can take three months before they can deliver an official document stating Andry is allowed to travel back to the Ukraine without a passport. Next, when trying to call them on the status of the request, they give us another phone number to call between 9:00 and 12:00. That number answered, informing us to call back after 15:00. After 15:00 nobody answered at all. The next day between 9:00 and 12:00 no reactions again.

Ukrainian service/bureacracy? Or just bad luck?

15 minute rule

If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.

For those of us that are not so lucky to find the A-team, we need another solution. A nice rule I saw implemented in my Lviv team is the 15 minute rule. If you run into a problem and don’t see how to fix it withing 15 minutes…. ask one of your colleagues to assist.

This leads to faster problem solving and more knowledge sharing!

(And it’s always nice referring to the A-team )

Improved marketing using social networks

Viral marketing
The project we are working on right now is focusing on viral marketing. Viral marketing means we are not talking about a normal “campaign” that is advertised to the target group by the company that started the campaign (via radion, newspapers, tv, banners, etc), but it is mainly spread by the target group itself (like a virus). Where it used to be word-of-mouth, nowadays of course it’s going much faster on the internet. For more info, check wikipedia on viral marketing.

Social networks
There are a lot of online social networks, both business (LinkedIn, Xing, etc) as private (Facebook, Hyves, Twitter, etc). The power of these social networks is that they enable the user to show themselves and contact friends, relations. And all that in a user friendly way, no copy-pasting e-mail address, but button-click functionality to expand your network and show who you are.

Contribute and win
My current project combines the viral marketing and the social networks into one. A marketing message that is spread to the user group via the social networks, by the target group itself. A powerfull combination, and the concept leads to a lot of positive response. People are invited to enroll in a competition (motive: you can win something nice). Of course we ask the information that is the main goal for the marketing campaign (a content submit and/or personal details). So there is a win-win-win situation. The marketing goal is reached, the target group is happy to join a competition and win awesome prices, overall costs drop because of the use of available networks.

Of course a new blog post will follow after we have the first release live

Interesting use of this approach: Use a viral to see if a community has added value for your business/product.

Iceland by mountainbike

After last years vacation on Mount Kilimanjaro, safari and diving, this year asks for another great, but totally different vacation.

The plan
We  want to go to Iceland and make a tour to see all the wonderfull things nature has to offer. Because we have limited time (2 weeks) we only focus on the southern part of this island. We are not going to rent a car…. we are going by mountainbikes

We want to fly in from Amsterdam on Friday, take a bus to Skaftafell on Saturday (11 hours!) and from there bike back to Reykjavik while visiting cool places on the road. This should bring us back to Reykjavik in time for Menningarnótt, a huge party with concerts, fireworks and almost 1/3 of the icelanders attending . After a well deserved day of rest we want to use the second week for visiting the area between Geysir and Keflavik, where we will end in the Blue Lagoon before flying back home.

I really look forward to it. We are still planning a lot of stuff… finding out the route, needed materials, should I buy a new bike or not, etc. If you have any advice: pls comment.