Business Critical: Net Neutrality, Fast Food Brands, Mobile Friends
By Flying Hippo
Business Critical is our weekly collection of what’s new, exciting, and insightful for business leaders from the world of the web, marketing, social media, and more.
Net neutrality ruling looms
A years-long debate over the idea of “net neutrality” seems poised to come to a head this week as the FCC prepares to hand down a proposal for new rules that will outline how ISPs in the U.S. will be classified and regulated moving forward.
At the heart of the debate is the question of whether ISPs (Comcast, et al) can ask content providers — YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, etc — to pay additional fees in exchange for faster connection speeds to their customers. Opponents of this sort of arrangement (which would break traditional “net neutrality”, wherein which all sites and content providers receive equal treatment from ISPs) say that these deals could benefit existing companies but stifle competition as new, smaller companies see diminished service as they are unable to pay for the same speeds as established firms.
The ultimate fall out from this ruling is unknown. But, some analysts predict that it could usher in a new era for the Internet as we know it, with many sites suffering from cripplingly-slow performance while others pay for fast lane passes.
Entrepreneur magazine covered the story of upcoming rule changes.
Taco Bell and McDonald’s serve up new takes on their brand
Both Taco Bell and McDonald’s unveiled some brand changes this week.
Taco Bell, in a play for the Chipotle-led fast casual dining marketing, has revealed a test concept of U.S. Taco Co. restaurants, a dressed-up spin on their Mexican-inspired dishes. The new brand will offer related but different dishes from Taco Bell, and ring it at roughly twice the price for an average meal.
In the world of golden arches, McDonald’s this week also revealed that they have given a makeover to their iconic Ronald McDonald mascot, in a move that is said to be in preparation for his entry into the world of social media.
Read more on the Taco Bell spin off from AdAge, and the McDonald makeover from CNET.
Facebook tops 1 billion on mobile
In their quarterly earnings report released this week, Facebook beat analyst expectations in earnings. The social media giant also announced a major milestone in hitting 1 billion monthly active mobile users.
We’ve seen the upward trend of mobile usage continue to climb, but the 1 billion mark for Facebook signals the true size of the phone and tablet market.
As marketers, we need to not only be aware of the increase in mobile usage, but evaluating and adapting our strategies to meet the needs of these users. From responsive web design to content and offers that can be consumed on the go, thinking mobile first isn’t just about screen resolution.
More on the Facebook earnings report from Marketing Land.
Top image via Flickr user glasvezel.
