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To: Urlman who wrote (1284)	8/9/1998 2:08:00 PM
From: Scott Kessler	Respond to of 19700

Re the "barriers to entry" issue -- Scott Reeves (Barron's article author) is right -- there aren't many. However, that begs the question you posed -- why isn't there more GCTY competition. AMZN is an instructive example. There are no significant barriers to entry preventing would-be AMZN competitors from opening up on-line bookstores (see BKS, CD). One person could easily create a site from which books or whatever could be sold. However, there ARE barriers to COMPETITION -- as I call them. Some of them are: 1) establishing a recognized, respected and trusted brand-name, 2) striking alliances (perhaps exclusive and thus bs to entry) to increase eye-balls and revenues, 3) creating an infrastructure (transaction, distribution, management) promoting efficiencies and thus higher margins and ROE, 4) management experience and know-how. Yes, other companies may very well ramp out services/sites similar to GCTY's, but they're way ahead of everyone (except Tripod, perhaps), and they have the name, users, alliances and infrastructure to prove it -- Scott.