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Poll Shows Twitter As A Business? In Australia,
Rudd Writes
It Always Has Been
Main Street
is Upset
Five years after the col-
lapse of Lehman Broth-
ALP’s Epitaph
ers and two years after- Vidya S Sharma
the start of the Occupy Alice Johns Whether you think
Wall Street movement, it is the global news

a poll shows that half of
the respondents believe
there has not been
enough reform to pre-
vent a future crisis.The
new Reuters/Ipsos poll
of 1,400 adults shows
Main Street animus
against bankers and
their role in the financial
crisis persists. Reuters
SYRIA HAILS
DEAL AS A
W
ho knew that hashtag The ruling Australian Labour
puns, pictures of service of the future Party’s crushing loss in the elec-
Starbucks cups with tions last week came as no sur-
wrongly spelt names or the biggest prise. In a 150 member house, the
and terse outrage could be worth so Labour will have 55 MPs against
much? To be precise, $10bn, if early procrastination tool the ruling Liberal-National Party
reports about Twitter’s planned flo-
tation on the stock market are to be ever invented, it is coalition’s 91.
With this loss, Kevin Rudd has
believed.
On Thursday, Twitter made its
now, inevitably, part achieved a dubious distinction of
being the only prime minister re-
first steps towards going public. It
did so, of course, with a tweet:
of 21st-century life jected by his parliamentary
party(during his first stint in June
“We’ve confidentially submitted an 2010) and also by the Australian
S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. Bluefin, a firm that allows market- people. His first administration
This tweet does not constitute an of- ers to message those tweeting about was characterised by his autocrat-
fer of any securities for sale.” Out it certain TV programmes. It clearly ic and chaotic management style,
went to the 23.6 million people who believes the money is going to come announcement of major initiatives
follow Twitter on Twitter, and to the
followers of the 13,066 people (and
from targeted advertising. We, and
the information we share, are its
without discussing/informing the
relevant ministers and often insult- Rudd in a more favourable light
counting) who retweeted it. It
topped news bulletins. Bloggers ex-
golden goose.
What does all of this mean for the
ing ministers, backbenchers and
senior public servants.
than Bush.

‘VICTORY’ plained why this was the most an-

A US-Russian plan to
remove Syria’s chemi-
cal weapons is a “vic-
tory” that averts a
war, a Syrian minister
said, as Washington’s
top diplomat briefed
Israel about the land-
mark deal. “On one
hand, it helps the Syri-
ans emerge from the
crisis and on the other
it has allowed for
averting war against
Syria...,” Minister of
State for National
Reconciliation Ali
Haidar said. Reuters
ticipated flotation in tech history.
Newspapers redrew their front pag-
es. And, in just 135 characters,
Twitter proved its power and its
reach. Its worth? That’s #tbc.
A Few Words
Since Twitter began on 21 March
2006, with a tweet from its executive
chairman Jack Dorsey – “just set-
ting up my twttr” – 430 billion tweets
have been sent. And only about 429
billion of them were about Justin
Bieber or Miley Cyrus. Its growth is
astonishing – up to 200 million users
today. Whether you think it is the
global news service of the future or
the biggest procrastination tool ever
invented, it is now, inevitably, part of
21st-century life.
You do not even need to have your
own account: what happens on
Twitter rarely stays on Twitter. News
agendas are, for better or worse,
shaped by its 140-character missives
– minute-by-minute bulletins from
Tahrir Square, the announcement of
Beyoncé’s pregnancy.
At some point, though, the cosy
sharing free-for-all had to stop. And
Twitter – like Facebook, LinkedIn
and Zynga before it – is moving
from chummy network to corpo-
rate concern. Its investors want
their money back. How much they
will get is a matter for excitable
speculation, but that $10bn figure is
all the more extraordinary for the
fact that no one really knows how
much money Twitter makes, or
how it will go about making more.
The fact that it has filed for an IPO
confidentially means it must have
revenues of less than $1bn. The re-
search firm eMarketer has project-
ed its sales for this year at $583m.
However much it makes, Twitter is
and always has been a business. It is
not a global charity for lonely people
with time to kill. Dorsey, Zuckerberg
and Co might pad around their open-
plan offices in flip-flops, playing
ping-pong, and thought-storming in
the rooftop allotment, but under-
neath their hoodies, pinstripes lurk.
Or at least the pinstriped types are
never far away, whispering buz-
zwords like “monetise” and “tar-
get”. Start-ups can’t stay on the
starting blocks for ever.
Blue Birdie
Twitter has been preparing for
some time. Earlier this week, it
bought MoPub, a mobile advertis-
ing company, and before that,
average user? Will Twitter become
less friendly forum and more mar-
ketplace? Already there are pop-up
“sponsored tweets” from drinks
companies and airlines, which in-
sinuate themselves into one’s feed
somewhere between Robert Peston
and Rihanna, forcing the eye to
scan them.
What it means for users is irrele-
vant in any case – unless they de-
cide to buy shares. Thanks to
Twitter’s chatty corporatese – its
cute bluebird logo, the way it allows
everyone to blather on in the same
democratic fashion – users imagine
they have ownership over the site.
And yet it costs nothing to use. To
enter one’s password is to enter a
fiendish, cashless pact: post a pic-
ture of your wedding and deal with
the fertility treatment adverts that
inevitably follow. We use social net-
works and they use us.
Perhaps, like Spotify, Twitter will
start to charge for a premium serv-
ice, free from advertising. Given
that most users expect free access
and are already resigned to pop-ups
as a necessary evil, the take-up
would probably be minimal. So
what of the future? A lot of carping
about ads and, in time, the birth of
another social network. And then
the cycle from friend-making to
money-making can begin again.
The Independent
A Chaotic Campaign
Just as Rudd Mark-1 micro-man-
aged the government thus render-
ing it dysfunctional and paralysed,
Rudd Mark-2 also micro-managed
the 2013 election campaign.
He announced major initiatives
that none knew of within the party
and were un-costed (giving tax con-
cessions to the Northern Territory-
based businesses thus transform-
ing the NT into The Cayman Islands
of Australia) or were against the
government’s policy (shifting the
navy from Sydney to Cairns or
Townsville without informing the
relevant state premiers or our
northern neighbours).
Rudd has never performed satis-
factorily in any role. Instead of ac-
cepting the existence of a wide gap
between his ambition and abilities,
he seems to have concluded the op-
posite: he is the most intelligent,
knowledgeable and competent per-
son. He has always attributed un-
foreseen events or other
individual(s) for his failures.
Though he is a China-specialist
and trained diplomat, yet he dam-
aged Australian relations with SE-
Asian countries, Japan, China and
India. Always eager to prove his in-
tellectual superiority, he leaked the
details of his conversation with
President Bush because they put
More Than Rudd-Gillard Rift
ALP officials have explained their
defeat in terms of the rivalry be-
tween Rudd and Gillard. But this
only partly explains it,
Rudd had actively sabotaged
Gillard by backgrounding journal-
ists and had earlier in the term re-
signed from her cabinet after un-
successfully challenging her. So he
could not campaign on govern-
ment’s achievements, eg., univer-
sal disability care insurance
scheme, curricular and budgetary
reforms in educational sector, tax-
payer funded maternity leave
scheme, biggest increase in univer-
sal pension, etc.
But the more the voters listened to
Rudd II the more they found out that
was not a messiah but a snake oil
salesman. His popularity sank to
levels lower than in June,2 010 when
the lost prime ministership. They
knew he did not stand for anything
but even more sadly had also turned
the ALP into a party which did not
stand for any political values.
The ALP is more than 100 years
old. It will engage in soul-searching
and recover from this loss but it
will take a generation for the ALP
to re-establish its credibility.
The writer, based in Australia, advises
on inter-country joint ventures and
country risk management

Pak General
Killed in Unlocking Private Communications
Encrypted Chat Encrypted VoIP:
Available with chat Voice over Internet
Bomb Blast programs like Adium
or with software added
Protocol
Some of the VPN Connection VPNs: Virtual Private Networks Services like Microsoft’s
A roadside bomb killed Enter your user authentication to programs like AOL Instant Skype and Apple’s FaceTime
encryption tools the Commonly used by businesses to
a Pakistani general and Messenger, providing “end to end” allow users to make free,
allow employees to access work
another officer on Sun- NSA has had some Account Name:
networks from outside the office,
encryption, in which the data encrypted
cannot be decrypted at any point phone and
day near the border success in via an encrypted “tunnel”
along the transfer (even by the
Password:
through a public network video calls
with Afghanistan, the cracking, messaging service) over the
Pakistani army said, according to Internet.
Cancel OK
rare high-ranking casu- SSH: Secure Shell
documents For Linux and Mac operating system
alties in Pakistan’s war Facebook x Twitter x Bank of America x
The
provided by users, this is the standard way to
against militants. Major A URL that https://facebook.com
gain access to a remote computer documents
General Sanaullah
Edward
begins with suggest that
Khan, along with a lieu- Snowden HTTPS: Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure TLS/SSL: Transport Layer
“https://” and the NSA is working
tenant colonel, was describing displays a small This has long been a standard way to encrypt Security/Secure Sockets Layer with some VoIP
killed in the Upper Dir the agency’s padlock icon
password & financial information when sending Most common way to secure info
services to obtain
information from a computer to a server, and it is sent over the Internet and internal
district after visiting an code-breaking designates a becoming more common with social media sites like servers. HTTPS is secured by pre-encryption access
outpost near the bor- capabilities: secured page Facebook and Twitter and Webmail services like Gmail applying TLS/SSL to a Web site to such messages
der, the army said. Reuters

THE OTHER SIDE OF NEWS

something

Time Travel Possible? Ask Einstein Alfa Romeo Goes for

A physicist has claimed that it
is possible to build a time ma-
chine, but to go only into the
future. According to a US pub-
suddenly
direction. Cox said that time
travel to the future is possible
Record Price in UK Auction
under Albert Einstein’s gener- A 1935 Ferrari-team Alfa Romeo sold on Sunday
al theory of relativity. The re- for a record $9.37 million at a UK auction. The

lication, during a presenta-
tion at the British Science
Festival, particle physicist
Brian Cox from the University
of Manchester, said that time
travel is possible only in one
searcher detailed the possibil- Grand Prix car had been estimated at $8.73
ity by saying that it could be million at hammer prices by Bonhams in its
accomplished if someone was Goodwood Revival auction. A 1954 silver
travelling at an incredibly fast Mercedes W196 that 5-times world champion
pace, close to the speed of Juan Fangio drove to two Grand Prix victories
light. ANI sold for 19.6 million pounds recently. Bloomberg

How Wal-Mart Sliced & Diced Apple

KYLE STOCK
How is Wal-Mart Wal-Mart Stores plans to sell the new-
est iterations of iPhones at a dis-
able to mark count, a pricing strategy that Apple
has managed to squash for years. The
down the new cheaper iPhone 5c will be sold at the
world’s largest retailer for $79 along
iPhones despite with a standard two-year service con-
tract, 20% less than anywhere else in
Apple’s typically the U.S. The higher-end 5s will sell for
$189, $10 cheaper than its typical
Jobsian efforts at sticker price with a service contract.
In the world of smartphone retail,
price control?
this marks something of a break-
through. Apple typically sets a mini-
mum advertised price with retailers
that isn’t a requirement but is a
strong suggestion. The tech giant
then promises to kick in a tidy finan-
cial incentive in the form of market-
ing dollars if the retailer keeps its
gadget prices at that level or above.
The system ensures that small retail-
ers won’t be undercut by big-box
stores willing to squeeze margins. It
also helps make sure every retailer is
on a par with the prices in Apple’s
own retail stores.
So how is Wal-Mart able to mark down
the new iPhones despite Apple’s typi-
cally Jobsian efforts at price control?
It’s possible that it got more iPhone
money out of cellphone-service provid-
ers, who heavily subsidise handset
sales in exchange for long service con-
tracts. But mobile carrier are increas-
ingly reticent about those deals, which
leaves two plausible theories here:
[1] WAL-MART TWISTED APPLE’S ARM
This was finally the iPhone iteration
in which Apple needed to win lower-in-
come consumers, which is why Apple
made an unprecedented effort to roll
out a plastic-case version of its new
smartphone to fit smaller budgets. In
fact, Apple is getting plenty of criti-
cism for not making the low-end
iPhone cheaper still.
Wal-Mart essentially might have said:
Look, you need low-income buyers, and
we have plenty of those. Knock $20 off
each phone for us, and you can lock in
the bottom of the buying pyramid
while maintaining some of your
brand’s luxurious luster.
[2] WAL-MART IGNORED APPLE’S RULES
Wal-Mart may have simply decided to
forfeit any financial price-setting
sweeteners from Apple. It runs on pret-
ty lean margins to begin with and
might not mind sacrificing iPhone
profit if it is confident it can also sell a
case or a screen cover at a 40% markup.
Neither company is saying much
about how discussions played out. A
Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Sarah
McKinney, said she was unfamiliar
with Apple’s incentives to retailers to
keep prices high. Wal-Mart’s lower
iPhone price tags, she said, are strictly
a Wal-Mart decision. “Honestly, it’s
just our business model,” added
McKinney. “We leverage our expenses
so we can invest in price.” That seems
to suggest Wal-Mart simply ignored
Apple’s pricing preferences.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek