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To: Darla who wrote (2888)	7/22/1998 10:23:00 PM
From: CanynGirl	Respond to of 10081

I think you misunderstood. I'm not making any statements as to how many subscribers they will get based on their spending. Also, I don't think anyone is predicting $400 million in sales for '99. (As for AMZN spending $39m, I believe that is for Sales & Marketing). All companies/products are different. I have no idea how much they will need to spend per customer as this is really a new business. Originally, I was using my pre-programmed mature company model which was wrong. Sea Otter was on the right track. Growth companies today are spending about 20 cents on the dollar to start. If you look at AMTD, you will see that they predict that their cost/new customer should go down to (if I remember correctly) around $125 for the year. Initially, you have a high number because there is a delay from Ad to purchase. We used to use 3-4 months. But I'm sure it's different for different industries/products. Eventually it becomes a reasonable number. Also, don't forget, EGRP,AMTD, AMZN are all spending big because of competition. There were 30 online brokers at the beginning of this year. AMZN knew BKS was coming online. Although I'm sure GMGC will have lots of competition, right now they don't. Also, we must remember, Advertising is not the holy grail of customer acquisition. It's just air cover for the resellers. In my experience, humble as it is, channel programs are far more effective. In, any case, I'm not predicting 400,000 subscribers next year. It would be nice, but that's not and never has been my point. Frankly, I'm not expecting postive earnings next year and hope that they don't have them. I want to see them spend on growth and brand building. I'm not sure why you say AOL isn't a fair comparision but have no problem with AMTD and AMZN? As for Intel, I threw that in since the majority of their money is spent on branding. And, my understanding from GMGC is that the priority for their advertising is brand building.

To: Darla who wrote (2888)	7/22/1998 10:39:00 PM
From: Seconds Out	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10081

Darla, Amazon and Ameritrade are in totally different model types of businesses than GMGC in that they are attracting retail clients to make a point of sale decision each time they are to recognize income from that customer. Additionally, they must establish a relationship based on their name recognition as opposed to their customer using a competitor to provide the same type of service. Barnes and Nobel as well as Schwab ring a bell? Coke versus Pepsi, Nike versus Addidas...Big advertising $$$ because no real difference other than perception which must be created. Also,Portico is a service that can be marketed through resellers and carriers because they, especially the carriers, will make money. The carriers will make a ton of money on additional usage therefor justifying the expenditure of their advertising dollars to mitigate the cost per customer to GMGC. The less a product is categorized as a commodity, meaning the more it is differentiated from similar products in the marketplace, the less advertising that is necessary to attract customers. The more a service can be integrated into another product or service that is at the retail point of sale, the lower its fixed costs and advertising. For years Intel didn't advertise much because they didn't have to convince us to buy their product, they had to convince Compaq et al to bundle it with its product. All these are reasons, IMHO, that will allow GMGC to attract customers at a favorable cost per customer compared to many other industries. I don't know what that cost will be, but you sure don't know either. I would venture to guess that GMGC's Chief Financial Officer knows, and that the numbers are viable. Let's not resort to the obnoxious responses to a differing opinion that you so eloquently displayed just now. Save that for the hypesters, not those with an honest difference.