Excerpt from Transcript of Last year's CNBC Interview
SOURCE: CNBC/DOW JONES Business
TITLE: CNBC/DOW JONES BUSINESS INTERVIEW WITH RARE MEDIUM'S CEO GLENN MEYERS
DATE: January 7, 1998
SCHACKNOW: These top-of-the-line web sites can cost millions of dollars a year to maintain. Are we at such an early stage in Internet development that you have trouble from a company's point of view saying, yes, we see how much we're spending, but it's hard to get a grip on how much that brings back? It's still a whole new method of assessment, as well?
MEYERS: Sure. It depends what your business model is. We all know in the press about companies like Dell Computer (DELL) and Cisco (CSCO), who do three, $4 million a day on their web sites. They've created billion-dollar business lines that didn't exist a year ago. And that's obviously an attractive business model. They can afford to spend a lot of money deploying a site.
Other consumer product companies that are trying to extend their brand and extend their reach via the Web may have a different sort of business model to justify. I think it really depends what the client's objectives are. We don't advocate spending tens of millions of dollars on brochure ware or to put a message out to a consumer. You want to first determine, is it a business-to- business model like a Dell or a Cisco, or is it a business-to-consumer model like a Biztravel's model where you are trying to reach consumers. We were just named a interactive agency of record for Biztravel. They are an online business. Their budget is dedicated to customer acquisition and delivering products and services.
SCHACKNOW: What are the advantages out in the marketplace of being an interactive agency versus an agency that does interactive?
MEYERS: I'm sure. I think that the skill sets necessary to win at this business include very deep back end programming and architecture ability and we hired the CTO, the head of software development from AT&T's Internet division at Downtime Digital. We made an investment, it was eight and nine months ago in one of the top guys in the space. He subsequently built a team on the back end and we have built a big hosting platform with 50 megs directly on T-3, directly to the Web. And a server farm and load balancing software. We have made an investment in the back end. We also have made an investment in the developments process, in the design and the art process and we have also made an investment in the front where all the strategic consultants are, account management and business development. So, this business has what an application developer would have on the back end, like an Anderson Consulting.
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