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

To: Michaelth1 who wrote (24930)	8/24/2000 1:45:11 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

The definition of competition in Merriam also includes "a contest between rivals" I did a marathon with the intention of breaking 4 hours, I did. I intend to do another to break 3:30. The "rival" here is the clock. But am I really beating the clock or simply bettering myself? The answer depends on who you talk to. Linux is a perfect example of competition where there is no money, but there is the race to create the best. It is a worldwide competition for what is the best solution, the best OS. Ideas can compete. Frequently the kind of competition that occurs when one solution is pitted against all the others results in far higher quality than the kind of competition that occurs to simply gain money. Frequently the high excellence that occurs in this situation can be morphed into a money making machine, but more often than not, what happens is someone else other than the originator does this. PARC is a great example, another would be Polaroid. This dogging after what is the perceived competition (AOL)is what is plaguing ATHM. Why is it such a problem? Because it is a me-too kind of solution, it doesn't create something new, it recreates in a faster package. ATHM has the ability to be far more than a faster AOL, but they have to stop thinking that that is what they need to be to make money. This is where the money part wrecks it for them. They aren't trying to beat 4 hours, so they don't have a chance of getting to 3:30. High bandwidth opens up possibilities undreamed of yet. You have to take steps away from what you already know in order to open up the possibility of that undreamed of product. It is pretty hard to get to movies if you never had stills, even if stills weren't what you wanted in the first place. My argument for Excite has always been that they may in fact be the ones that make this discovery, stumble on the one great idea for this company to make money away from dependance on the MSOs, unfortunately if they aren't, we're still stuck with them. How much better would it be to look out on the great R&D lab that this world is becoming and allow for that competition of ideas to work through to it's natural end.....and then choose that solution. Proactive always succeeds better than reactive. Going after AOL is reactive.