I am not sure how quick we should be to write off ebay.
1) Remember the Amazon!
Remember when Amazon started auctions? It was the end of the earth for ebay. I dumped stock in the excitement. It went down some and then people woke up.
2) The Committee:
Let's see.....we have a bunch of guys that have absolutely no traffic and feel a committee can put together a business better than one person.
A camel is a horse put together by a committee.
Who gets to make the big decisions on how the business develops? How much money goes into ads and how much into hardware and how much into expansion? What happens if you don't like the decisions being made? How much does everyone get paid (if you are a small guy you don't have to ask this question - it's zero)? If you got almost nothing from the business, why would contribute?
3) Losing traffic:
It makes no sense to have the web site repeated at a hundred locations, so it is probably being done at one location and linked. So basically, it is like having a large banner or link to a auction site. Your payment will be a % of whatever sale occurs.
You would probably make more money selling banners to ebay because that way you get hard cash now. Also, the link to the auction site will drive business away from your ISP site (once people leave to shop, they will wander away from you and probably not bid on anything).
4) Where are the other guys?
The only places that have auctions don't want in (YHOO and AMZN). I wonder why? Ans. Because once you are sucked in, your capital will be destroyed. You will lose all control of the business and any hope you had of having a auction site will go up in smoke. However, if you have written off your auction site, then it probably doesn't matter and you will join.
Summary:
It's just a bump in the road.
Somehow, this smells like MSFT trying to get all the small guys to advertise and give exposure to a business that MSFT will somehow make the most money from. Let's all take a guess at whose server software will be used, whose support personel will be used, whose money will be borrowed (at a reasonable rate of interest) and who will get the first profits (listen: we are ready to pay you now but we have to pay for the software rental, personel and overhead first. You know that. Oops we're out of money for this month. Maybe next month - call me back then.).
I really hope people etch in stone the fact that they announced that a hundred ISPs are a part of this. Then we need to go back in a few months, count heads, and do interviews. |
