dark matter essay
(C) 2013
  • about
    • values
    • competences >
      • china
      • intellectual property >
        • What is original?
        • talks & lectures
      • work & vocation
      • personal and organizational development >
        • definitions and techniques
        • syst lexicon
        • projection #1
        • projection #2
        • projection #3
  • blog
  • STP journal
  • book reviews
    • Boy by Roald Dahl
    • Digital Dementia by Manfred Spitzer
    • Evolution's Meaning and Objective by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
    • Focus - The Hidden Driver of Excellence by Daniel Goleman
    • Going Solo by Roald Dahl
    • Homo Deus by Yuval N. Harari
    • Iron John by Robert Bly
    • Irresistible by Adam Alter
    • Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux
    • Steve Jobs by Walter Isaakson
    • The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson
    • The Great Disruption by Francis Fukuyama
    • The Monk Who Sold His Ferarri by Robin Sharma
    • The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin
    • The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder
    • Weltentwerfen by Friedrich Boerries
    • World Order by Henry Kissinger
  • film reviews
    • Alphabet (2013)
    • Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
    • Bad Santa (2003)
    • Captain Fantastic (2016)
    • Concussion (2016)
    • Demain | Tomorrow
    • East is East (1999)
    • Her (2013)
    • Kinsey (2004)
    • Laura Croft II - The Cradle of Life
    • Le Planete Sauvage (1973)
    • Pope Francis by Wim Wenders
    • Suzaku (1997)
    • SIlence (2016)
    • The Challenges of Rudolf Steiner (2011)
    • The Program (2015)
    • The Salt of the Earth (2014)
    • The Straight Story (1999)
  • topic essays
    • anthropology >
      • on economics >
        • Do we reward our contributions to society the way we should?
        • International Tax Evasion
        • capitalism
        • on profit, passion & purpose
      • on humor
      • on politics >
        • zur lage der nation: le grand peur II
        • Analyse NR Wahl 2013
        • zur lage der nation
        • Wutbürger - anger citizens
        • World Order - Book Review
      • Identity: Warum mich Trachten entfremden
      • on gender and sexuality
      • on religion
    • art
    • creativity >
      • Transforming the IP System
    • education >
      • Mindful Parenting
      • Alphabet - Documentary Review
      • Henry Kissinger on Education
      • learning environment
      • Musicalized - Rich Music for Poor Times
      • screen education
      • Sting on how he became to be what he is and creativity
      • On Bi- and Multilingual Instruction
      • A Playground of Growth
      • On Procrastination
    • neurology >
      • On Football and Oxytocin
    • on nutrition
    • psychology >
      • algorithm of love
      • art of loving
      • applied virtues
      • emotional intelligence
      • grundformen der angst
      • grit - key to success
      • happiness
      • on love and grief
      • triangular love
      • yale intro to psychology
    • quotes worth quoting
    • sports >
      • kiting
      • yoga
      • squash
    • writing
  • travel essays
    • one step into camino frances
    • journey to the center of the earth
    • Alto Adige - An Example how European Integration can Succeed
    • on the friendship highway
    • en viaje de andalusia
    • sawasdee krub - a quiet holiday in thailand
    • Viking Myths and Hanseatic Harmony
    • How Airbnb Explains Bureaucratic Futilism and Why the Chinese hukou System Could be a Solution to the European Migration Crisis
    • On Slovenia and Integration or Isolation in Post Nationalist Europe
    • who moved my swiss cheese?
    • On Taiwan and its Identity Crisis
    • On Nippon Sakoku
    • Expectations of and Deliveries in Down Under
    • Silence on Kumano Kodo
    • Zwischen der pannonischen und mandschurischen Ebene treibend
    • Thoughts on Freedom and Order While Dozing in Berlin
    • On Interrail and Climate Ticket
    • On Morroco, Islam and Faithfulness
  • contact

Will Quora be Microsoft's Next Acquisition?

7/1/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Some months ago I wrote a short essay on wechat + good governance = good wechat governance. I happened to combine for that essay older research on Maslow's pyramid of human needs with more recent information on wechat functionalities. The recent acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft makes me recall some of it, in particular the above well done, but not complete visualization of Maslow's pyramid and the corresponding social networks.

Microsoft's hotmail, which I use as my main mail platform since more than 15 years - out of laziness to change to a different provider and frankly spoken some nostalgia - does not really make it into above pyramid; although one could argue that offering a mail service satisfies the need of belonging. I would therefore add the hotmail icon to the belonging stage. But Microsoft definitely failed until recently to offer any product on the esteem and self-realization stage. The recent acquisition of LinkedIn was therefore a smart albeit expensive move up the ladder of an evolving and ever more demanding consumer crowd. The Economist disagrees with me. PC World's Mark Hackman seems to agree with me albeit on slightly different premises: LinkedIn is the social network with serious data.

Whether google+ and facebook solely serve the belonging need is to be disputed. I would argue that they satisfy more of an esteem need than a belonging need and stretch over both stages. With already quite mature products for the satisfaction of belonging and esteem needs on the market, I assume that it was a difficult process for Microsoft to identify an acquisition target. LinkedIn seems to be the perfect match for Microsoft because similar like google+ and facebook cover two needs, LinkedIn covers the needs of esteem and self-realization. Moreover, since Microsoft's products are rather tailored for the "traditional" corporate world, LinkedIn has most likely more member overlap with existing Microsoft consumers than facebook or google+. Hackman shows this brilliantly with the juxtaposition of Microsoft's office graph and LinkedIn's economic graph, both revealing the user information the two companies have access to.
Picture
LinkedIn's real draw for Microsoft is in my opinion the satisfaction of the self-realization need. But it can not fully gauge this potential - yet. Following a discussion on a LinkedIn post titled 12 Things Successful People NEVER Reveal About Themselves At Work, I realized that there is still a lot of fear on LinkedIn letting down one's pants. Fair enough! The work environment continues to be a place where we can't freely talk about what we are truly interested in and passionate about. LinkedIn is THE extended work environment, therefore it is set to remain like this for another while.

Microsoft will have to look into short- and midterm alternatives. I therefore assume that Quora or Aeon Ideas will soon be or are already Microsoft's next acquisition target, because Quora and Aeon Ideas truly fulfill man's self realization needs in a social media context. I might proof wrong though if Microsoft is able to develop its digital assistant product Cortana faster than expected as Mark Hackman writes in his PC World article. We would then enter a work environment very similar to what Spike Jonze envisioned in his 2013 movie Her. But then again, would a digital assistant - even if she had Scarlett Johansson's voice - be able to support our search for self-realization. I doubt it. Compassionate and genuine writing and journaling, activities you engage in on Quora and Aeon Ideas and to some extent on LinkedIn, on the other hand do. That's a proven fact; watch e.g. the highly popular TED talk by Shawn Anchor. So my guess is still: Microsoft will acquire Quora.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Aging
    Art
    Atonement
    Austria
    Bottom Up Focus
    Buddhism
    Calexico
    Capitalism
    Children
    China
    Cinema
    Climate Change
    Csr
    Democracy
    Denmark
    Digital Media
    Economics
    Education
    Enlightenment
    Europe
    Famous Quotes
    Football
    Hamburg
    Hansa
    Happiness
    Health
    History
    Humor
    Hungary
    Ibizagate
    Individuation
    Innovation
    Integration
    Kiting
    Kurt Schuschnig
    Learning
    Life Guidance
    Love
    Medicine
    Meditation
    Memory
    Meritokratie
    Music
    Nationalism
    Neos
    Nepotismus
    Neurology
    Neuroscience
    Nutrition
    Oxytocin
    Parenting
    Philippines
    Politics
    Psychology
    Religion
    Research And Development
    Scandinavia
    Sebastian Kurz
    Slovakia
    Snowboarding
    Spain
    Sports
    Success
    Suffizienz
    Taiji
    Taoism
    Taxation
    Technology Transfer
    Top Down Focus
    Traffic
    Travel
    Turkey
    Urbanization
    Vikings
    Wise Living
    Work
    Writing
    Yoga

    Archives

    January 2023
    November 2022
    September 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    July 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    September 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    August 2009

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly