Generation Z

I read an intersting article which talk about there's many cases of millennials taking chance to be creative to start an enterprise online. They called this Generation Z. Generation Z is one name used for the cohort of people born after the Millennial Generation (normally after year 1995), where various of technology devices on their hands and also the trend of online entrepreneurship. For example, Nick D'Aloisio is best known as the creator of Summly, which is a summarization, artificial intelligence technology developed with SRI International, at just 15 years of age. Summly was sold to Yahoo for a reported $30 million US dollars making him one of the youngest self-made millionaires ever. For another example, Beth Reekles 17-year-old Welsh high school student who posted her first novel, The Kissing Booth, online where it got more than 19 million views and now Random House announced a three-book deal in the U.S., starting with The Kissing Booth. 

Nick D'Aloisio

Beth Reekles

 

Generation Z is familiar with computer technology, plus the increase of the popularity of social networking sites, they even can have their own blog and website, before they graduate they are more willing to participate in entrepreneurial online. Intern Sushi recruitment company survey showed that 75 percent of Generation Z hopes to turn their hobby into a full-time job; 17 2/3 years old teenager determined to change the world, therefore social networking sites has becomes their first choice.

It said that Generation Z born in Economic Recession era,  they will be much affected by growing up in economically difficult times due to the 1970’s (Generation Y) grow in recessions are often less confident, “settle” in lower paid jobs, and are more fearful about financial difficulties.

 

Bibliography

hinapress.com.my, (2014). Z世代科網界致富 18歲寫app賺近億 | 中國報. [online] Available at: http://www.chinapress.com.my/node/551459 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2014].

Stuff, (2014). Teen's multi-million dollar payday. [online] Available at: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/8474218/Teens-multi-million-dollar-Yahoo-payday [Accessed 30 Nov. 2014].

The Wire, (2013). Meet the 17-Year-Old Who's Already Got a Three-Book Deal with Random House. [online] Available at: http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2013/04/beth-reekles-kissing-booth/64016/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2014]. 

USATODAY.COM, (2014). After Gen X, Millennials, what should next generation be?. [online] Available at: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/advertising/story/2012-05-03/naming-the-next-generation/54737518/1 [Accessed 30 Nov. 2014].

Yahoo Small Business Advisor, (2014). World's Youngest VC-Funded Entrepreneur?. [online] Available at: https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/world-s-youngest-vc-funded-entrepreneur-.html [Accessed 30 Nov. 2014].

Internet- Songwriters killer?

I like Taylor Swift's songs although I'm not her biggest fan therefore most of the time I listen to her music online. Nevertheless I read an article about she has been pull her latest album "1989" from Spotify (a commercial music streaming service providing digital rights management) and claimed that she's not contribute her life's work to an experiment that didn't fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music. She dosen't agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free. She said that art comes from hardwork and should be paid. This term made me think of the climbs of the piracy nowadays due to the Internet. Another celebrity, WILL.I.AM said that VEVO and YouTube were unfairly forcing artists to accept certain branding associations, while carefully removing the artist from the profit stream, as far as technology killing the music industry. Yes, Vevo paid for the content but YouTube is open source to public (they can download the video with no boundaries) which mean the videos are free and the artist too. These situation made me concern the problem about our profits will lesser than our hardwork by spreading or putting our work on Internet. Is it Internet really that bad? 

From my opinion, there always has pros and cons, Internet gives no boundaries for piracy and unfair profit to the artist but it also gives a huge expossure for the their albums to the outside world. I found an article which can argues about this statement. Ron Miller said that the Internet is the best distribution channel ever created and it is up to musicians and record companies to figure out how to exploit it. 

 The inforgraphic above shown 21% of the artist's revenue was comes from digitally selling. Internet has provides plattform for the artist to exposure their art work to the outside. 

 It wasn’t any longer about getting paid for every album or record. It was about getting the word out about the artist music and using channels like YouTube to whet the appetites of their fans. Some unpopular artist have to use the system and get their constituencies excited about their music, so they show up at concerts and buy merchandise and give them different ways of making money.

 The Internet changed everything. Set Taylor Swift as example, in fact, when she removed her music from Spotify, she knew that it would 'spark' a conversation and get people talking about the new album. She’s taking advantage of social media and the Internet while trashing that same channel as exploitative.

       

Flappy bird, Pewdiepie & Internet

Lately I watched a video called 'Game Theory: Flappy Bird, PewDiePie, and Pasta Sauce'. It's about a trend of the games has being brought by the network star (specifically on YouTube). Flappy Bird did not launch to popularity. It was released on May 23rd, 2013 and hung around the low 1,000s of download rankings for its first week before dropping off the charts. It received some moderate but inconsequential boosts around the holidays before beginning a dramatic climb in early January. As of January 17th, 2014—eight months after its release and four months after its last update—Flappy Bird was nestled in at #1. Pewdiepie, a popular YouTube gamer has set this trend. It's explained about the theory of "Diffussion of Innovations", on how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. At this case, it is more like Internet culture. There are 5 stages of this theory: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards. Set Pewdiepie as example, he is the Early Adopter who brought the 'heat' of Flappy Bird by his video "FLAPPY BIRD- DON'T PLAY THIS GAME" (start from 4:05)

 

As the video "Game Theory: Flappy Bird, PewDiePie, and Pasta Sauce" mentioned about the Early Majority of other YouTube gamers also follow the trend and keep the 'heat' of Flappy Bird. It's like a viral. Other people will play the game which influence by their friends who watch the videos. Later that it will influence friends by friends and no longer mention the names of the YouTube gamers. These 2 stages called Late Majority and Laggards. As this rate we can see how Internet influenced the trend of a game as Flappy Bird didn't become popular at the first place.