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

To: Michael P. Michaud who wrote (2922)	10/23/1998 11:48:00 AM
From: Stuart C Hall	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Mike said: This is the concept I am worried about: I have a choice of the up and coming ATHM at $40 a month or I can get the wildly popular Aol for $22.95!!!! Call me foolish, but I think most folks will choose AOL. Mike, You couldn't be more wrong. Have you read the reports about folks who have gone to a cable modem who say they could never go back to dial up? The major thing holding ATHM back is that it isn't available everywhere (yet). When it is it will truly change the internet for the better. I would compare (for the layman) dial up to a 9" black and white TV with bad vertical hold, defective bunny ears atennae and three channels to cable modems which would be my 35" 75 channel Sony Trinitron TV. There is no going back. Once the AOL folks see the difference they will go with the speed regardless of who provides the content. Another thing to consider is that once cable becomes more popular more web designers will create their sites for broadband access. Dial up will be the equivalent of running DOS in a Windows 98 world. Regards, Stuart

To: Michael P. Michaud who wrote (2922)	10/23/1998 2:37:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

No, ATT doesn't want access to the local copper phone market. The internet can't be made to practically differentiate between local and long distance. They want to create a new kind of delivered service called broadband. This isn't a word game. ATT wants to take the risk to create something great which will cost more. Should government come in and say, "you take the risks so others can benefit"? Government is stepping way beyond any constitutional intent by taking that tack. I admit, they have done it before and that's why most of the antitrust laws passed earlier in the 20th century were declared unconstitutional. Hindery today stated, referenced in my other post, that TCI would provide access, but AOL must pay rent. ATHM also has the distribution model which is protected by patents. AOL can't come in and imitate the distribution mechanism. They can create their own which would require time and capital. That would require a substantial partner like SBC. You have to remember that AOL is the low end. AOL can't be sold in the high end at discount prices. The government refers to this as the oxymoronic, "unfair competition". It is like dumping. Say AOL high speed is offered by SBC-TWX-UMG Road Runner at $40. Then T-TCI-ATHM has the same competitor that they have now. I stated that this kind of competition is constructive for ATHM even though it seems that AOL has this large, entrenched market. You have not learned. It is the existence of the formidable competition that makes you strive to achieve and in so doing, makes you far more money than the guaranteed existence of monopoly protection. Monopoly only accelerates your devolution. ATHM will have to provide a better service both in customer service/support and in content. That is exactly what ATHM has been doing all these months and what has been completely ignored by this thread. You also are forgetting @Work and @Media. These divisions are creating a product differentiation that is years ahead of any potential future competitors. That is completely outside of AOL's ken because it deals with everything from business LANS to collaborative processing. That is another card up T's sleeve. T is not trying to grab the local phone market only, they want a communications complete solution at EVERY level. That is part of the reason for wanting to buy IBM's international business network. The local phone market is easily integrated into cable based broadband networks so that business and consumer have a comprehensive and unified structure. All you have done is invent terror for yourself. It's not safe out there. If you can't take the risk, you should go hide under your bed. It is good to hear this kind of superficial argument though, keeps the riff-raff out of the stock and provides good down drafts so I can buy more cheaply.