Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Microcap & Penny Stocks : 1st Net Technologies ( FNTT ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Street who wrote (1154)	3/29/1999 3:35:00 PM
From: Janice Shell	Respond to of 1827

For end-users, yes. But that wasn't, I think, John's point.

To: The Street who wrote (1154)	3/29/1999 7:06:00 PM
From: Q.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1827

re. the business concept of the affinity browser: Sure, as a user you can download Internet Explorer for free. When you do that, you agree to some kind of license. I haven't looked, but I'll bet it doesn't allow you to modify the product and resell it. FNTT is presumably dependent on a license from Microsoft. Here's why. The affinity browser (the crayon crawler is the first of these) is something based on IE. I'll assume hereafter that the product is for real, and not a bunch of hooey. It is claimed to be a browser with some extra features added by FNTT that make it appealing to a specific 'affinity group'. The idea of an affinity group, as far as I can tell, is some constituency that may or may not be a single organized group (children in the case of the Crayon Crawler, or a specific stock broker). According to the stock-touting audio recording of the CEO that can be heard at wallstreetinterview.com, the affinity browser will have buttons for selling stuff (books, travel, etc.) that steer you toward sites that will pay FNTT a fee, which will be a recurring source of revenue for the co. In the interview, Greg draws an analogy to the AOL screen you see when you log onto AOL, which steers you to specific vendors which pay AOL fees. For example if you got the proposed affinity browser for Christians, you would be see some buttons every time you start your browser that would steer you toward buying books and travel from certain vendors. The affinity browser might also keep you away from sites deemed unsuitable by the affinity group (presumably this includes porn sites in the case of the crayon crawler and the Christian affinity group browser). I assume this requires a filter licensed from a third party. I am aware of a Christian search engine portal crosswalk.com, for example, with such a feature. FNTT's product would be different because it would be a whole browser executable on your PC, rather than a portal URL on the web. To make all this work, FNTT must have IE or some other browser to serve as their 'engine' as they call it on the co.'s webpage. And they need permission to receive updates, and to sell it, and to continue doing so for the indefinite future. Now let's think about their business model: If FNTT is lucky, it gets: * Microsoft's source code or whatever it is that FNTT needs, * an agreement to get this indefinitely, for all future updates of IE, and at no cost, * an agreement that Microsoft will not compete with FNTT in the future by distributing its own affinity group version sof IE. However, I rather doubt they have such a sweetheart deal. If they have any kind of license from Microsoft, there's no way it could be so nice. Now consider this: What will happen if FNTT is successful in developing this product, and in generating revenues by marketing these affinity browsers and collecting recurring fees from the marketing sites that they steer clients toward. Would there be any barrier to entry keeping competitors out? Wouldn't Microsoft, or Netscape, or whoever owns the browser engine be motivated to take this business away? Would you like to be FNTT, and be dependent on Microsoft's supplying your essential ingredient and never competing with you? There are, after all, many examples where getting into bed with Microsoft led to the ruin of a software company. Anyway, if you want to take FNTT seriously about this development-stage product, which is the primary thing that Greg touts in his audio interview, you have to begin by asking about their license for IE. Which is what I asked Cliff ...