Business and home webcasting
Bramson's vision for internet video seems to revolve around narrowcasting, a vision that he had months ago, far before the general business public and media, which is slowly starting to trumpet the idea of narrowcasting.
It seems clear that the production facilities and the "AXC network" that is being assembled will form a turnkey enterprise that will make web narrowcasting possible for anyone willing to pay. It is also clear that AXC wants to be a content provider, via affiliates such as TV onthe WEB, AENTV,and now Executive Branch TV. I am sure that Bramson is on the prowl for more "good buys" such as these acquisitions. (As a digression, does he have the funds to continue acquisition, or can be expect bond or stock offering, or outside capital?).
We can split the internet video market into two broad categories- business and home. TV onthe WEB looks like it is very focused on the business market, and that is good- better to execute well in one sphere than execute poorly in two. (By the way, the business category includes the government as well). That leaves a large hole to fill in the home internet area. I find it hard to believe that Bramson is not looking in this area as well- the cable companies are all over this one, so I would expect AXC to partner with an existing cable concern. One choice is ATT/AtHome/Excite, with the teaser of Excite headquarters being located right next to Ampex HQ, but there are other possibilities as well. The monster deal would be with AOL, and there is a great deal appealing about this arrangement- narrowcasting depends on and contributes to the existence and growth of web communites, and AOL has the biggest one of all to tap into. A daring move would be to pay AOL for access to their demographic- whatever the fee, you would make it back (and more) in terms of AXC stock price appreciation. Of course, this is some time away, as content does not yet exist, but it is a natural evolution.
There are so many ways for AXC to go from here, the possibilities are dizzying. I invite speculation from the board as to the time frame/nature/content of home-directed narrowcasting, and the possible business relationships that would need to be assembled to make it all work.
Finally, much has been said about quality of internet video. Has anyone read anything akin to Moore's Law for this area? Is there a rational basis for stating that we can expect streaming technology to move at a doubling rate of 18 months or so? If not 18 months, what then? Valuations of stocks like RNWK would imply that many investors are making such assumptions- are they correct? We need some technical insight here.....
I leave you with an interesting bit of news, that may be part of the technology that will be take internet video another step along the road to 30 frames per second:
The MIT Sloan eCommerce Awards competition named Akamai Technologies as Rookie of the Year in an event held this week in Cambridge, Massachusetts and on the World Wide Web via Webcast. The Rookie of the Year award is bestowed upon "the most promising up-and-coming company" in the realm of the Internet and eCommerce. In addition to Akamai, four other nominees were considered for this distinction: MP3.com, NetZero, Planet Rx and Priceline.com.
"We are thrilled to be named eCommerce Rookie of the Year and honored to be recognized in a competition which included such a prestigious group of finalists," said Akamai's Chairman and CEO George Conrades. "Since receiving our first round of funding late last year, Akamai has successfully signed up leading eCommerce and media companies as customers, hired top-notch technologists and Internet business professionals, built a world-class network, and secured a second round of financing. The Rookie of the Year award is a testament to our momentum in launching our business and to the promise of our patent-pending technology for speeding up the Web."
The MIT Sloan E-Commerce Awards is a first-of-its-kind award ceremony designed to recognize organizations for their successful innovation in Web-based business. The competition is organized by MIT's Sloan School of Management's new Electronic Commerce and Marketing education program.
Akamai's first service offering, FreeFlow(SM), trialed in January and made commercially available in April, was created by top mathematicians and computer scientists from MIT's famed Laboratory for Computer Science. FreeFlow guarantees the fast and reliable delivery of rich Web pages for the world's most heavily visited sites to their visitors from around the world. The award was selected by a committee of distinguished business leaders and MIT faculty, including Michael Dell (founder, Chairman, and CEO of Dell Computer), Shikhar Ghosh (Chairman and co-founder of Open Market), Kim Polese (CEO and Founder of Marimba), Bill Porter (Founder of E*Trade), Alan Webber (Founder of Fast Company magazine) and others.
MIT Sloan's world-renowned faculty also participated on the selection committee, including Michael Cusumano, distinguished Professor of Management at Sloan and Co-Author of "Microsoft Secrets" and "Competing on Internet Time," Nader Tavassoli, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Sloan's E-Commerce and Marketing program and John Little, Associate Director of Research for the E-Commerce and Marketing program.
Akamai's network is expanding daily. Currently, Akamai's worldwide fault-tolerant network consists of over 500 servers on more than 20 networks, and has a total capacity of over 10 gigabits per second - enough throughput to support the peak demand of the world's 25 top Web sites combined. In the first week of May, Akamai served over one-quarter billion hits per day and 350 megabits per second as an average during peak hours. These extraordinary volumes, however, utilized only 3% of Akamai's total capacity.
The MIT eCommerce Awards builds on the university's extensive expertise in electronic commerce and the Internet, as its distinguished faculty works with industry leaders to develop knowledge, insights and techniques that shape the future of technology and business management. The MIT Sloan School of Management, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of the world's leading business schools -- conducting cutting-edge research and providing management education to top students from more than 60 different countries.
Akamai Technologies is transforming the way that content is delivered over the Internet. Akamai has been recognized as the winner of the 1999 MIT Sloan eCommerce Award for Rookie Of The Year. Akamai was also lauded as a "Top 10 Company To Watch" in the 1999 "Network World 200." Akamai Technologies --www.akamai.com -- is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. Akamai (pronounced Ah'kah'my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool. |
