CEO • Author • Speaker
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CEO • Author • Speaker
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A Clue..to Internet CommerceFor the Week of March 24, 1997Volume 1, No. 4 Why Mass Merchants Fail OnlineGreg Stuart has worked for many mass merchants, helping them understand online technology. He says they're frustrated. None has yet stepped into direct e-mail solicitations, and not just for the obvious reason. The problem is the lists are too small, he says. Lists which are big enough to offer a return are all "opt-out," and no one wants to put their good name on the line or be accused of spamming by a TV network. Their problems with the Web are similar. Even busy Web sites lack the large number of users needed to move market share numbers for big companies. AOL has 8 million members? The Internet has 40 million users? America alone has 260 million consumers. While the online world's interesting, very-much worth study, in other words, it's not yet ready for prime-time. Your clue. You still have time to build. The big challenges are still in scaling small Web businesses up as they grow. The threat of mass merchants dominating the online world is vastly overrated. Is Wired Getting Tired?Wired's deal to turn Feed into its East Coast bureau comes with a price -- the separate vision of Steve Johnson. In a recent column dubbed "Paradigm Shtick," Johnson bites down hard on the hand that's feeding him. Wired's recent cover story, claiming push-technologies like Backweb, Marimba and PointCast will replace browsers is pushing Johnson's buttons. As well they should. Push is great, if you like what's being pushed to you. Johnson notes that default pages and bookmarks are just as easy to use as PointCast, but that's not the real point here. The real point is that, once a few sources of data are defined in a push format, users can stop thinking about where their news and views come from. In the end push technology is yet-another attempt by Big Media to make the Internet wheel stop with their numbers holding the ball. It's based on the assumption that people are stupid, or lazy, and that monopolies can be created in a technology where the cost-of-entry is near zero. Clueless? Definitely. Tired? You betcha. Clued-In, CluelessClued-in this week, if you haven't guessed by now, is Steve Johnson of Feed Magazine. Steve long-ago figured out the key to success online -- make outgo match income. In a truly new medium, understanding is far more important than capital, and while money does sing a siren song, being true to yourself, your visions and views, means more than all the money in the world. Clueless is Chris Matthews of "Hardball," and every other mainstream news-talker who hosted "debates" over the Communications Decency Act before it went before the Supreme Court last week. The issue isn't child molesters, or dirty pictures being seen by teenagers. The issue is whether the First Amendment can be defined-away simply because the "press" in question uses magnetic ink. Here's a clue, Chris -- even the CDA's ardent defenders, on your program, were denying the plain language of their law. It was a hint you were too-busy hyperventilating to take. Special Clueless Couple award this week to Time and CompuServe. The two are now in court over $3.5 million Time claims it's lost because CompuServe cancelled a deal for Time to anchor its online news coverage. Time had left AOL, amid great fanfare, in 1995, figuring CompuServe could bring it more money, along with a bunch of push technology. Greed meets stupidity, the whole affair's in the papers -- Ted Turner needs to get online and clean house. (Turner previously was rumored to be angling for his CNN group to run Time's online operations. This might be the time to revisit that.) A Clue...to Internet Commerce is a weekly publication of @Have Modem, Will Travel. It's sent free to a qualified e-mail list. It carries a list price of $49 per year. Subscribers can receive either a .txt file or an .htm file. The .htm version features links which become active when online with a browser, or an e-mail package like Netscape 3.0. (Let us know which you prefer.) To take your name off the list, simply write REMOVE as the subject, or content, of a message replying to this post. To request your free copy, write us at Dana Blankenhorn@worldnet.att.net. We're on the Web at www.tbass.com/clue and www.ppn.org/clue . A Clue...to Internet Commerce -- Copyright @Have Modem, Will Travel and Dana Blankenhorn, 1997 |
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