<< You're looking at part of a "kiretsu.">>
I agree that YHOO is unlikely to be THE competitor that ruins ONSL's chance - it would be far more likely that they would combine efforts either through a marketing agreement (like the person-to-person auction site) or through a merger (far less likely). However, I was only using that as an example. The other portals are hoping to make big money off e-commerce, and would still have the potential and desire to create a competing site. The advantage to them is that they wouldn't have to learn how to be good buyers of merchandise, they would have no inventory risk, and they would be able to leverage their already considerable advertising streams.
I would look to sites like Lycos, Excite, or even WebTV to jump into this market if it looks like the concept is going to work.
The rest of your post concerned your feelings regarding ONSL's overall handling of the market and their franchise. I absolutely can see the potential. However, I think the franchise has been allowed to slip through inadequate PR and half-hearted marketing efforts (when compared to eBay, egghead and others). Even in the atCost arena, they are coming into the game after buy.com showed the concept had some validity. buy.com has already expanded the concept into books, videos and music. I'm not trying to be negative here - I'm just a bit more risk-averse than you, so I've decided to wait awhile.
Your comments regarding customer expectations were right on the money. The problem is that these issues were always obvious, and good management spends much of their time managing those expectations. The fact that people continue to have unreasonable expectations (in large numbers - this is not limited to a couple of whiners) shows that ONSL management hasn't figured out yet how the game is played. Of course, no one else has either. |
