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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mooster who wrote (21315)	4/21/2000 8:25:00 PM
From: gpowell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

First you need a product, then you need to market it. You can have a great product, but if you can't market it, you will fail. This is basic stuff. I think ATHM needs to market a brand and continually search for channels of distributing it ATHM is not soap. So marketing 101 is useless here. ATHM isn't an entertainment company, they don't need to search for channels to distribute junk, they are the channel through which others distribute junk. Why compete to be the best soap? This does not make ATHM a dumb pipe anymore than INTC is a dumb chip or CSCO is a dumb router. ATHM clearly indicated, in the CC, that they are experts at facility, and they will begin to market their network to content providers. The move is endorsed here. ATHM should provide the means to deliver content in a robust manner. Thus, content providers win because they get some measure of QOS and end users win because they do not have to cross the Internet peering points to get to content. An integral part of facility is providing the end user interface, preferably fully customizable. Something along the lines spelled out by KB, and also described by ahhaha. Thusly, ATHM becomes responsible for the experience of connecting content to end-user. I coined a term for ATHM's role back in Aug 99, I called them the UWP: User World Provider. When I said distribution is key, I meant this distribution of the brand. I believe ATHM has been deficient in marketing and distributing its brand. More importantly, it is the wrong brand. When I think of AOL, I think of the whole new world they can provide. When I consider ATHM, I think of a connection. ATHM is not AOL and never will be; they are not suited for it. You are advocating that ATHM become something they are not. The new BB web sight should prove that ATHM is, at best, competent at providing an environment slightly inferior to yahoo. Being merely competent in a competitive environment will get you killed. It is not a matter a getting better at providing content. They should abandon this failed strategy altogether. If that means dumping the @Media properties then so be it. It is clear that this is coming, and we are merely waiting for the announcement. That is why I use ATHM to refer to Excite@HOME. Bell can stay with @Media and TJ can concentrate on siteing teenage girls.

To: Mooster who wrote (21315)	4/22/2000 1:30:00 AM
From: MIKE REDDERT	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

You can have a great product, but if you can't market it, you will fail... ATHM needs to market a brand ATHM's biggest problem lies more in distributing their product in a reliable and expeditious manner. Sure, they will compete with alternative platforms, but the percent penetration will be dictated by the technological advantages and contraints of the type of platform, and any future developments in the technology. If ATHM handles distribution in an efficient manner and locks down its territory, the only minus will be that over which they have no control. Mike