Author Archives: Levi Shapiro

Telco R&D Centers in Israel Scorecard

Next month, one of the leading European operators is expected to announce a dedicated, Israel-focused venture capital fund. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to innovation clusters, some telcos are getting a better ROI from Israel than others.

Israeli eHealth: The Rx for Obamacare

Bloomberg’s World Healthcare Efficiency Index, released last month, makes for very interesting reading. Among 48 countries worldwide, the US ranked 46th. The top four (Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Israel), emphasize the role of Government in the efficiency of healthcare.

The Era of Real Time Marketing Has Arrived (Guest Post)

At Cannes Lions, no one will discuss the most significant disruption to hit the advertising industry since the internet- the transition to programmatic, real time bidding (RTB), except for maybe a few data geeks. Carl Fremont, Chief Digital Officer at MEC (WPP Group’s media buying subsidiary) is one of those Geeks and shared his perspective about RTB, “easily, the most important trend in the digital advertising sector for the next five years”.

Sorry, Brands…Your Digital Agencies are Lying to You

Brands spend a fortune on marketing- more than 9% (b2c) and 7% (b2b) of total revenue. Within marketing budgets, the fastest growing portion (+40%) is social media. Unfortunately, a growing body of evidence suggests that garnering LIKES on a Facebook page does nothing to foster community or increase engagement. Your digital agency has been lying to you. The better approach for lowering customer service costs and increasing engagement is to transform your organization into a social business.

More than 160 Israeli Companies Exhibit at Mobile World Congress 2013

his week, 70,000 attendees will descend on Barcelona for the annual mobile techie Fiesta known as the Mobile World Congress . Among the 1500 exhibitors, more than 10% are from Israel, the third largest contingent of any country at the show.

Social TV Has Arrived…Is There a Business Model?

Nielsen has made it official- Multi-tasking across screens, particularly while watching TV, is now the norm. With US Smartphone penetration on pace to reach 80% next year (Asymco) and 2012 tablet sales of 136 million units, the era of Social TV has arrived.

Israeli Tech Funding & Exits in 2012: Lots of Chutzpah but Show Me Your Instagram

Groucho Marx could have been talking about the Israeli hi-tech sector when he said “I made a killing on Wall Street a few years ago…I shot my broker”. In 2012, as Israeli exits topped $5.5 billion, there was reason to celebrate but plenty of cause for concern.

CES 2013 Preview: What Happens in Vegas, STAYS in Vegas

This week marks the annual orgy of PR excess known as the Consumer Electronics Show. More than 150,000 (mostly male) visitors, many sporting T-shirts with mysterious acronyms like “4K in HD3D”, will alternate between 2 million square feet of exhibition space and the craps tables. Unfortunately for the 3,200 exhibitors, their marketing dollars will be squandered. Although I will predict a few likely trends, when it comes to CES, what happens in Vegas really does STAY in Vegas.

Content is King…Even on Wall Street

Traditional media companies had an amazing year on Wall Street. While the Dow Jones Index increased a respectable 6.7%, the US Broadcasting and Entertainment Index surged 40%. In fact, other than Sony (dragged down by its hardware business), 6 of the top 7 media conglomerates substantially outperformed the NASDAQ 500.

2012 – The Year in Apps

Nearly 100,000 new developers created applications this year for the App Store, which rakes in 4x more revenue than Google Play. With the number of App Store applications now topping 1 million, application discovery platform Appsfire has released a fascinating end of year infographic about the App Store.

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