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Technology Stocks : CheckFree Holdings Corp. (CKFR), the next Dell, Intel? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rob C. who wrote (6372)	6/15/1999 6:56:00 PM
From: Brooks Jackson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 20297

I'm still bothered by what I did NOT hear in the call this AM. Personally, I have no doubt that giving away CKFR's very good product is a sure-fire way to build volume and market share. How can Transpoint compete? They have no product to give away. What I did NOT hear clearly is how CKFR plans to convert millions of high-maintenance freeloaders into paying, profit-generating CUSTOMERS. What worries me is that this business model has failed before -- just look at Slate magazine. It had lots of readers when it was free, but nobody wanted to pay for it. Also, I am still not clear on whether in fact Pete now expects the individual customers to pay for the e-bill service. If so, it seems to me that's a major shift in strategy that needs much, much more discussion than it is getting here. And if so -- is it because billers REFUSE to pay despite the huge per-bill savings CKFR can offer? Is it because servicing e-bill customers is going to turn out to be much more expensive than any of us thought? Maybe Crafty was on the right track about that after all. Is the decision driven by polling and focus-group studies that support the idea that individuals will actually pay $5/mo for the privilege of getting bills by computer instead of by mail? Pete seemed to suggest that when he said studies show the vast majority of people don't want to go back after they've tried e-bill -- but polling is notoriously unreliable on things like this. What people TELL you they will pay is often way different from what they REALLY pay in the real world.