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To: Jing Qian who wrote (13485)	8/4/1999 4:53:00 AM
From: CGarcia	Respond to of 29970

You get what you pay for..I have heard that alot of these "free PCs" get to the customers either damaged, or don't run as promised...the same goes for ISPs...the free ones will have terrible quality, disconnecting the user more often than not...having no content on their home page, etc...Quality will always sell...take AOL...while other ISPs keep dropping the price, AOL raised theirs...and what happened? More customers hopped onboard...why? Because they have a premiere internet community, and most users aren't computer friendly...AOL is probably the friendliest user interface on the planet...the bottom line is quality...if there is enough to be offered, then people will pay the price...right now ATHM needs to be offering the users more than just a fast pipe...give the users good original content that AOL doesn't offer, and watch people hop on ATHM...then again, maybe that's been YHOO's ideas for ATHM all along :)

To: Jing Qian who wrote (13485)	8/4/1999 6:16:00 AM
From: Michael L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

"Thinking deeper, the most likely scenario of a future if this free everything movement keep continuing, is that a lot of weaker companies are going to be squeezed out of business. Eventually only a handful of biggies survive. Whoever got the strongest brand, best cash reserve and the critical traffic mass will stand the highest chance of survival." Good thing At&t is behind them. :)

To: Jing Qian who wrote (13485)	8/4/1999 11:32:00 AM
From: gpowell	Respond to of 29970

Jing, The free everything trend is fueled by the flow of capital from venture capitalist, banks, and private investors (the public) into net stocks, which finances their negative cash flow. So in part the speculative bubble of the net stocks brings upon the pricing pressure that further erodes the bottom line. This will pop - maybe it's happening right now. What we end up with is a fee for services based system based on the economy of scale.

To: Jing Qian who wrote (13485)	8/4/1999 11:57:00 AM
From: gpowell	Respond to of 29970

Are you old enough to remember when retail stores had their own credit card? Each store had their own credit department; as we know not all organizations are created equal some are better than others therefore this became one more non core area that a business expended resources on to compete in the market place. Eventually the bankcards eliminated the need for store credit cards. Today very few retail businesses have their own credit departments - even though may have their own branded card the credit services are performed by a third party. The net will make it possible to further off load support costs (G & A) to more efficient organizations.

To: Jing Qian who wrote (13485)	8/4/1999 12:47:00 PM
From: David Harker	Respond to of 29970

>However, the latest development is giving me chilling feelings >that Net may become a very very important aspect of human life >but on the other hand it may not be a money machine. > ... >I am not sure how companies can make money out of this >socialistic phenomenon. Rather than focussing on the Web sites & ISP companies, focus on underlying enabling technology - JDSU, BRCM, PMCS, etc. It is CERTAIN that total worldwide available bandwidth will grow at a very fast rate for a long time - the demand is there. Who cares which web site or ISP/home-access-mechanism will succeed - make money on the certain underlying growth of the infrastructure. Whoever that winning web site is, those who use it will need a fast infrastructure to enjoy using it.

To: Jing Qian who wrote (13485)	8/4/1999 1:51:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

You have a pretty good assessment. I might suggest though that high speed adds a content potential to common Internet which gives that form of access the added dimension where people are willing to pay. That only works for ATHM where the company direction moves in the Doerr + Jermo conception rather than the Armstrong + Bell one. For example, I'm willing to pay $5 - $10 per to watch new films on my tube. And please, don't give me this Realplayer method for doing it. That capability should be controlled within ATHM's domain, not by local software. Ads won't provide much to revenues because the PC or STB can be sufficiently sophisticated to manage any output so that ads can be completely eliminated. Ads now are blatant intrusions of privacy. They are at best a nuisance. Marketing in the future will be elective presentation. I want to buy something. Here is video catalogs of what everyone has and independent evaluations of the products. Once I know what I want, I go to a store or order over the Net. The Net provides information about products, if you want it. High speed is fertile ground for many interesting developments which haven't been conceived. One could look at it in analogy to radio and television. Once cable is established and ubiquitous one will be able to make more concrete projections about what can be done with the medium. During the early '50s tv channels would put a picture of say, the Golden Gate Bridge, on for many hours during the day attended with some musak, because they didn't have anything to broadcast. Eventually soaps were discovered.

To: Jing Qian who wrote (13485)	8/4/1999 1:59:00 PM
From: GraceZ	Respond to of 29970

I don't totally disagree with your assessment that Net may end up to be earning bust I have a client that has a higher dayrate than any of my other clients, he gets jobs that are world class. In order to maintain the image/marketing necessary to get these world class jobs he spends an enormous amount of money on marketing. So much so that he nets less than clients with 1/4 of his dayrate and is probably close to either going out of business or landing the one big paydirt job that will set him up for life. Ha! Sound familiar? This is the game that is being played here....but it is with Wall Street's money. Sooner than we think, Wall Street will demand payback and if it does not get it these guys will be outta work. OTOH I spent a lot of money on the Net last year. $25K on computer equipment, $2,500 on airline tickets, rented cars, bought $500 worth of CDs and books and invested 1/4 million in stocks....all online. Is someone going to say that there was NO profit in any of those transactions? Oh and I forgot, paid $200 for a lifetime membership here on SI, so I could share this with you all.