Kogan Teases Facebook CEO With Zuckerberg Selfie Stick

Updated on

Kogan CEO Ruslan Kogan is seeking publicity at Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s expense with the Zuckerberg Selfie Stick, complete with a “More Likes” guarantee (h/t Ben Woods at The Next Web). Marketed as “A first-class solution to your biggest #firstworldproblem,” hopefully the product is meant as a joke, (not that Kogan won’t sell it to you, of course). In case it’s not clear from the picture, it’s basically a meter long collapsible stick with a mirror and something to hold your camera steady. If people didn’t already look silly taking selfies, the Zuckerberg Selfie Stick will make sure that they do.

Kogan, who started his electronic retail company seven years ago while still in his early twenties and is now worth about $315 million, takes a great deal of pride in doing things his own way. Talking about the early days at his company, he recently told Sue Horban at BRW, “Business leaders were all saying, ‘Nobody will buy a TV online, that’s only for CDs and books’… My Mum was crying, saying: ‘Don’t be crazy. You’re going to quit a well-paying job (at Accenture) and become a TV salesman?’”

Kogan’s IT investments

He took a long position in Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) when it was $70 per share and took a big stake in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), eventually doubling his money, among other astute IT investments. “I stick to what I know – and that’s the internet and digital,” he says. “There are people who understand those other industries and the dynamics of them much better than I do.”

And it seems that he knows social media as well. Considering what it is, the Selfie Stick couldn’t have taken much effort to put together once someone had the idea, so it’s really free advertising masquerading as a product, and if people actually want to buy it then so much the better. Most companies use their catalogue space to try to increase their conversion numbers, but Kogan is using at least this part of it to increase traffic, and if enough people have a look and share it on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) we could have to enter ‘viral product description’ into the marketing lexicon.

Leave a Comment