Purple Unicorn

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‘Just Do it’ with innovation!
Purple Unicorn
Posted on March 4, 2019 at 12:39 am
Nike paces ahead with speed-to-market and direct-to-customer focus along with close attention to personalization and customization when it comes to product innovation. Will it win the race?
MercadoLibre: Latin America’s Free Market
Purple Unicorn
Posted on February 24, 2019 at 2:17 pm
Similar to Rakuten in Japan or Alibaba in China, MercadoLibre, which translates to “Free Market”, is an online commerce platform that currently operates in 18 countries in Latin America.

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On March 3, 2019, Purple Unicorn commented on Beyond ebooks: The rise of digital ecosystem of reading :

Clear and interesting. It is interesting to see the rise and fall of e-readers in this shift. The sales peaked in 2011 and have been falling since due to the frequent use of smartphones, other tables, computers for reading like you touched upon in your comment above.
More here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/12/e-reader-innovation-has-stalled/

Self-publishing has clear advantages to the author despite higher costs like you mentioned. Speed of getting published and rights are definite benefits. The one loss I see as a reader is finding good content might take time or might not be discovered as the volume of self-published books increase.

Thank you for your post Gaurav Chawla!

On March 3, 2019, Purple Unicorn commented on Smartwatch: The Product We Thought That Was Doomed to Fail :

Great post, I assume Apple has been the winner due to the network effects and value created through various integrated products and software. An interesting perspective is that though Swiss watches are being disrupted, they now serve a different purpose; a niche market focussed luxury fashion accessory or as art. Hence, though the value creation may decrease due to smart watches, the value capture remains high with high margins. The watchmakers don’t see value in high volume, low margin digital watch and is why despite mechanical watches being irrelevant since a few decades now, have survived and even thrived.

To your point, there is also the underlying trend of who the customer is. The typical consumer has become older and has been replaced by Millennials, who don’t see much point in wearing a watch. Additionally, even if one leaves aside digital innovation, Swiss watch makers have not added any mechanical or aesthetic novelty to the watch with time.

Thanks for your post Ge Li!

On March 3, 2019, Purple Unicorn commented on The Rise of the Smartphone Ecosystem and Kodak’s Fall :

It is indeed interesting to see the expanded applications that make use of the camera like you mentioned like SkinVision, Facetime, Google Translate. Do you think one company or the other did better in providing better camera hardware or apps to the user than the others?
There also remains the additional risk of security concerns with cameras that provides an avenue for value capture for firms.

I agree with what you said about what’s in store for the future. I also wonder, if applications like the Eyeborg project could become so advanced that the camera, which is meant to provide additional data replaces our eyes due to its added benefits of clarity, precision, ability to record, etc.
More on the Eyeborg project: http://eyeborgproject.tv/

Thank you for your post NR!

On February 24, 2019, Purple Unicorn commented on TikTok: A Viral App Among Teenagers :

Hi Wendy,

My initial thought was that it is a close competitor of Instagram. However, on a deeper look, I realize Tik Tok is for the performer whereas Instagram is for the personality so to speak. It has nailed what Snapchat couldn’t which is focus on allowing for advertising, fundraising and in-application purchases. That being said, I hope its future is brighter than Vine, which couldn’t continue to differentiate itself enough in the long run from competition.

Thanks for this post.

On February 24, 2019, Purple Unicorn commented on Android, Not Just an Operating System :

I looked into market share and it looks like Android has grown considerably (https://www-statista-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/statistics/216420/global-market-share-forecast-of-smartphone-operating-systems/). I wonder how much of it has to do with economic affordability and how much is due to Android features being superior to its competitors. As the middle class continues to grow throughout the world and hence the spending power, I almost think, there would be more people switching away from Android to say iOS than people switching the other way around.

Thank you for the post!

On February 24, 2019, Purple Unicorn commented on China’s Healthcare Revolution: WeDoctor :

This is fascinating. I can see behavioural change in people especially the younger generations choosing this over physical visits to the doctor in some cases. I agree that sky could be the limit if they execute well on the following:

1. My first gut reaction to this post was are they taking measures to ensure patient data is secure. This is invaluable data for pharma companies and insurance firms too. Who will own this data?
2. How will Chinese government react and how will this industry be regulated? Will this impede growth?

Thank you for the post!