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

To: gpowell who wrote (21383)	4/22/2000 12:57:00 PM
From: Mooster	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

Do you have any idea of the size of Intel's R&D budget I know exactly what INTC's R&D budget is. I also know that they have allocated 6B this year to manufacturing which you'll recall is what I pointed out as one of the components of their success. Intel Inside was another component in the mid-90's. If you don't see it, then the branding was as brilliant as it was intended to be. They sold people like yourself w/o you even noticing. Intel created an image of quality dislocated from the name on the box. The box was transformed into a simply delivery mechanism for their technology. Yes, of course R&D is important - that's like saying you need a product. I mentioned in an earlier post this was requirement #1 of Biz 101. You may also recall the second requirement was marketing; branding being a method: aka Intel Inside. Considering the last three year's revenue growth, ATHM seems to be getting away w/o marketing. Demand is outstripping supply. During the last couple years, ATHM has slowly been transforming itself into a media company. Given this as the landscape, then branding becomes more important. As ahahha has pointed out, the Excite portal has lost customers, not gained. Something is wrong. My assertion is that the image is all wrong. If they want to be a media company, then re-balance the message in favor of Excite. I was always an advocate of the merger, but I believe that which was purchased should have been the purchaser. That alone would have transformed the image of the company from a connection-based pipe, to a media company. Timing, timing, timing. At the time of the merger, the excitement of investors had pumped ATHM up to a 28B market cap and provided them with the upper hand. Too bad. Nonetheless, at the time ATHM wanted to be a media company they were forced to buy Excite for a premium way before they really needed them. Timing was poor for ATHM for a couple reasons: At the time, portals were exciting and being snatched up. Second, demand for the connection was outstripping supply and no doubt, clouding the simple but effective message of "high speed" with "media" may have dampened demand. They were obviously successful in not deterring demand for the product, as well as curbing demand for the stock. The latter being what I care more about.