Posts filed under 'Startups'
Richard Macmanus discusses how Web 2.0 and a lot of the new sites/applications/tools seem to be relying on page views and the advertising dollars they generate as their business model.
He is right that this is one step better than the dot-com bubble because then most companies were hoping the page views alone would lead to an IPO or acquisition. At least now there is advertising revenue attached.
I think we should be questioning the validity of new tools and applications aimed at relying on advertising alone. Don’t get me wrong, I work in advertising and think it has a strong future, but it also means you’re often putting your company’s livelihood on the line for something that you don’t necessarily control and can be cyclical.
My advice to startups would be to make advertising a strong piece of the puzzle, but to build something good enough that you could potentially charge for it or have other ways of earning revenue to build from.
June 11th, 2006
The CEO of much talked about startup Riya is blogging about the events of their first two months of public existence. The first post is now up.
It looks like some very interesting topics will be covered, and it looks like a must-read for entrepreneurs launching web applications in this day and age.
There is also some great discussion of metrics and analyzing data, which is near and dear to ConversionRater.com’s heart.
June 1st, 2006
New blog search engine Sphere has launched. Techcrunch has a good quick review, and in my initial run-through I agree with their thoughts. It’s a very clean design, I like the look and it’s clear what actions you can take.
I still wonder though, do we need another blog search engine? I suppose the blog search offered by the big players isn’t that great, and many people still think Technorati’s search isn’t very good. Perhaps Sphere will make those people happy. But is the general public that interested in searching blogs only to really allow a blog search engine to take off?
I feel like blog search engines will really only be used by bloggers and specialty researchers who are looking for commentary on a subject. The general internet public is just going to expect Google to find everything for them no matter if it’s a blog, web page, or some other type of file.
Either way, it looks like Sphere is a solid entry in the blog search engine race, it’ll be interesting to see if I ever intentionally use it.
May 1st, 2006
Umair is right. I’ve been using LinkedIn since it’s inception but I’ve always felt it’s so limiting I can’t find many useful purposes for it. The only things I’ve ever heard are that people have found past co-workers they knew, or the occasional hire is found through it. That’s okay I guess, but is it good enough?
I’m a strong believer in simplicity, so I’m glad they don’t cram it with useless features, but at the same time there needs to be more freedom and useful features. Umair makes the comparison to Friendster and how it has struggled by being too limiting. On the flip side many think Myspace has done well because it allows much more control and interaction. Obviously LinkedIn’s audience is different and can’t spend their whole hour of lunch time during school customizing their profile, but I think Umair’s right in that there needs to be more interaction to truly make it useful to more people.
LinkedIn is positioned well for it since they have the userbase already, so will they execute or will a startup beat them to the punch?
April 25th, 2006
As this whole Web 2.0 thing has been occurring, I keep on telling myself that everyone is much smarter this time around opposed to the dot-com bubble of the late 90s.
Why? Well, most of us lived through it and saw what happened to companies with poor business models during the bubble, and it seems like a lot of the new web companies out there are spending less money, technology is cheap or free, and they are doing it with fewer employees.
However, I still see way too many companies that are using the “Underpants Gnomes Business Model”. Here’s the audio file if you missed the South Park episode that’s from, but basically it’s the following business model:
- Collect underpants.
- ????????
- Profit!
It’s become way too clear now that a lot of new web companies are following this business model, and the majority of them will probably fail at some point. For example:
- Mashup videos
- ??????
- Profit!
- Share photos
- ??????
- Profit!
- Make office-tool AJAX app
- ??????
- Profit!
- Make social bookmarking service “better” than del.icio.us
- ??????
- Profit!
- Make social news site “better” than Digg.
- ??????
- Profit!
I could go on all day. Sure, if you can keep your expenses so low you can rely on massive page views for advertising, then this will work out fine. However, it feels like a lot of these companies are spending more than they’re probably bringing in….let’s just hope they don’t hire any Underpants Gnomes to do strategy for them.
April 10th, 2006
There have been a lot of really good posts on blogs lately evaluating all the different applications out there for various purposes. I thought it’d be a good idea to highlight all the ones I’ve run across in a post for those who may have missed some:
Let’s Buy Some Music: Part 1 – Frank Gruber for TechCrunch analyzes and discusses all the available music download services such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, and more.
A Complete Guide to Web Analytics – I discuss and give brief reviews on a majority of the web analytic applications available today. I’m looking to update that post shortly with more applications mentioned in comments and emails.
The State of Online Feed Readers – Frank Gruber talks about nine different feed readers to help get you through your RSS feeds. Personally, I still like the simplicity of Bloglines.
Ten Video Sharing Services Compared – DVGuru reviews the main video sharing sites, many of whom are brand-spanking new. I’ve yet to try most of them and this roundup will help me choose who to try out. Reviews include, Vimeo, YouTube, Eyespot, Jumpcut, Grouper, OurMedia, vSocial, VideoEgg, Revver, and Google Video.
The Flickr Gunners – Michael Arrington reviews some of the up and coming photo applications looking to take the buzz away from Flickr. Reviews are of BubbleShare, Ookles, and Zooomr.
Pandora vs. Last.fm – Steve Krause dives into the two primary music recommendation engines in Pandora and Last.fm. I personally prefer Last.fm due to the tracking of my iTunes listening, but I’ve had a few Pandora recommendations that have paid off as well.
April 9th, 2006
Gabe Rivera is the creator of blogosphere memetracker Memeorandum that has turned into a popular news/blog destination for politics and technology. It’s a site based on using an algorithm to determine what stories and blog posts are the hottest and they float to the top. It also groups together the other blogs that are talking about it for an easy to track a discussion. It quickly became a favorite news destination of the politics and technology blogging worlds.
What makes it so smart is that because Gabe is just using a formula he developed, the site doesn’t require a ton of employees and revenue to run. What makes it even smarter, is he’s now rolling out his memetracker to other industries like his recently launched celebrity gossip site WeSmirch, and today he announced baseball memetracker BallBug.
The work he has put into Memeorandum is now paying off as he can roll out new sites that track stories in a similar manner, the possibilities are really endless there. I’m sure there’s work involved in determining which blog sources and news sources to track for each topic, but it’s a business that looks like it can expand without much work.
The question still remains though, what’s the revenue model? Well, ads could obviously be there, and if he can build a strong network of sites, I’m sure an acquisition would be possible. But what’s nice is that Gabe can probably take his time without needing money to fund a staff of workers.
Good work Gabe, I can’t wait to see what sites come next.
April 4th, 2006
The blogosphere was filled with 2006 web predictions, including my own. Looking back at mine, only one or two have come true thus far, but the year is still young. Now that we’ve already got reality for the first quarter of the year, it’s time for some quick End of Q1 Web Predictions for the rest of 2006.
1. Applications are ahead of the curve.
The Web 2.0 world will start to realize that some of the cool applications being built are fantastic, but still ahead of the curve. I think some examples of this are applications that I really like such as Newsvine and Edgeio. They are well made, but I don’t think there are enough sophisticated users yet to make these applications really take off. I’m not saying they won’t, but I think they’ll have slow growth until it really kicks in about two years for them. It’s a reason that it’s sometimes best to keep things simple. Digg took off because it isn’t complicated, it takes a lot more time to figure out how to get the most out of Newsvine.
2. We’re short on attention.
The early adopters that are using all these new web applications only have so much attention, so it will take more users to keep many of these businesses viable and growing. For example, I’ve tried out 10 social bookmarking applications, yet I only have time to use one. My mom will never use one, my daughters are still 10 years away from using one, and the majority of my coworkers in a technology industry still don’t use one. Basically, this means some will crash and burn.
3. The rise of vertical social networks will quicken.
Myspace, Facebook, and their brethren have really taken off over the past year and a quarter. We’re now going to start seeing them tighten some rules to appease advertisers and investors, and growing problems with things like the police, school administrations, and others meddling will stunt growth a bit and make them lose some “coolness”. Combine that with some getting tired of how large and unfocused they are, I think we’re going to see more social networks popping up for specific industries, topics, and areas of interest. Dogster is such an example that’s been around for a while for dog lovers. Joga from Nike/Google is an example of how we’ll start seeing social networks for sports.
4. Facebook will regret turning down $750 million.
I don’t see how they’re worth $1 billion, but maybe I’m wrong. I just feel like they’re not going to be able to get a better offer and should have taken the money while the space was still red hot.
5. MSN will release their contextual product to poor reviews and results.
MSN will release their adCenter contextual network to publishers, and publishers won’t like the experience or the results. It will be the 2nd major company to try and present a great alternative to Adsense that won’t quite deliver.
6. Google Calender will be good, which will be a shock.
Google’s upcoming calendar application will be good, which will be a bit shocking compared to some of their recent product releases which sometimes feel half-finished. 30Boxes will be okay, but others trying to enter the calendar space will be in trouble. What is 30Boxes business model by the way? Getting acquired? Premium options? Ads?
7. Blog networks won’t get acquired, but will realize their income isn’t too bad.
After the About.com and Weblogs Inc. acquisitions there was a whole bunch of blog networks that started up. Whether they were motivated by the acquisitions, I’m not sure, but I don’t think we’re going to see many more networks get acquired by larger players. However, due to multiple streams of income such as advertising, sponsorship, and affiliate programs, the owners will realize that it’s not too bad of a business.
8. Niche Ad Networks Will Start Popping Up
FM Publishing may have been one of the first, and in some ways blog networks are like them, but we’re going to start seeing niche ad networks being created by entrepreneurs who realize that large ad networks can’t focus on getting sites targeted deals in all the various industries out there. It’s not a business to build and flip, but a small team can make some great income by starting an ad network focused on one type of industry or site and maximizing that site’s inventory.
9. Content producers will start to realize the value of microchunking content, monetizing it with built-in ads, and letting it go.
While NBC did the wrong thing in forcing sites to remove the viral hit “Lazy Sunday” Saturdy Night Live video clip, it was a prime example of how microchunked content can spread, and the opportunity that exists for smart content producers. If NBC had immediately placed the clip on their site after the show with an ad or two built into it, they could have made a lot of money from that video being passed all over the web and viewed by millions. Instead, it got put out there without any monetization at all, although NBC still benefitted from the resurgence of interest in Saturday Night Live.
10. Bloggers will complain.
Bloggers will continue to complain about things such as the snarkiness in the blogosphere and what’s going on with their Technorati rating.
That’s it for now, let’s see what develops in the rest of 2006.
April 2nd, 2006
A strange pair in Nike and Google have teamed up to launch a soccer social network called Joga.com. As I’ve talked about in previous posts, I think people will get tired of the vastness and general theme of Myspace and move more towards vertical or niche social networks that will be built to serve their passions and interests.
Even if they don’t tire of Myspace, I see an opportunity for entrepreneurs who create social networking sites or platforms for topics that they know and love. Myspace allows you to do some things, but obviously a social networking site built on soccer will be more attractive to soccer lovers, as there will be built in features that fit soccer along with knowing that everyone involved is interested in the same core subject.
What remains to be seen is that if this particular case will work. There are large corporate interests behind Joga.com in Nike and Google, so will users feel like it’s authentic and real? If it succeeds, won’t we see Nike/Google social networks in other areas? Soccer was a naturally first choice for it’s world interest, but it seems like the same formula could work for basketball, football, and whatever other sport Nike feels like starting a site in.
It’s still an open question in my mind if this particular site will succeed, but I’m pretty sure a well-done soccer site started that was very authetic and real would work. It’s possible that some will be turned off by Nike’s involvement. For example, if Myspace was started by a large music label would it have worked to this extent?
Either way, expect a lot more niche social networks.
March 21st, 2006
The stealth startup from techblog overlord Michael Arrington called Edgeio has done it’s first public demo and word is now out about what they’re doing.
On first glance, I like it. One of the ideas I’ve been annoying my friends with is a decentralized classified ad system. Edgeio is really close to my idea with their idea of taking blog listings and other ad listings that may be tagged with a label like “listing” that Edgeio would then index for their site. It sounds like they’re touting that it’s decentralized and on the edge, and one end of it is. But it still sounds like you have to go to Edgeio to browse listings and buy.
What I’d like to see is a decentralized system that allows bloggers/publishers/newspapers/whoever use a form on their site that allows users/themselves to post ads to this decentralized service. I hadn’t thought about Edgeio’s ideas of indexing tagged content, that’s a nice idea as well. Then, I’d like for bloggers/publishers/companies to also be able to pull ads from the decentralized listings based on tags. Here are two examples of how this could be used.
1. My employer Right Media could use a form provided by the classifieds company and add our open job listings with tags like rightmedia, advertising, job, etc. Then we could also pull these listings from the service to display on our website. We’d just select to show all ads tagged “rightmedia”. So this service is helping us manage the ads on our site, but this would also allow other job sites or whoever to grab our ads to show there as well. This provides Right Media with more exposure for our ads from anyone pulling job listings from the service, as well as providing job sites with more content. All kinds of specialty ad sites could grow from such a service that chose to display jobs for certain industries.
2. My content site Wakeboarder.com already has a classified ad forum. But the users who post there only get exposure on Wakeboarder.com. If I had a classified form that put these ads into a decentralized service, then other wakeboarding sites could grab these ads. In turn, I could also grab any other wakeboarding-related ads that had been posted to this service from other places.
Local sites could pop up, specialty niche sites, and anyone who publishes a website of any kind could probably collect or post ads from it that were relevant.
What’s the business model? I haven’t thought that much about it, but I imagine like Craigslist that once it had scale, you could charge for people who were posting certain type of ads. I’m sure there’s ways to monetize it in other ways.
So if I had to give Edgeio advice, I’d say allow people to pull listings from your service as well. They’d get way more exposure. Then also provide me some sort of web form as a publisher that I could use to send ads placed on my site to you.
February 9th, 2006
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