Thursday, September 28, 2006

Offline Print Media Will Survive

The imminent and current decline of eyeballs to print media is something that is often discussed. Clearly, people are moving online to consume today's media; this is happening across all verticals from autos, real estate to entertainment news.

Question is what do the newspapers, magazines do to keep those consumers?

Likely two options: A) invest in an online property if they already haven't or B) cut costs to keep the offline customers and make the business more efficient.

Sites like the Wall Street Journal and NY Times have done a tremendous job in executing on Path A but what about the rest of the bunch (i.e. the "mom and pop" type newspapers who still operate a printing press). The mom and pop don't necessarily have the financial resources of a rich parent company or the expertise to get into the online space.

It's a tough place to be right now, especially with all the money going into new consumer technologies and innovation. Competition can be deathly, as Darwin has so hypothesized and proven correct.

A ray of light does exist for old media .... "history shows that emerging mediums are additive. When a new medium shows up, the existing media still exist," says a VP at PQ Media, Leo Kivijarv.

There will always be a place for reading a newspaper over a Sunday morning coffee but over time, but I will ask .... for how long.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Funding Web 2.0, Venture Capital

No doubt that money is flowing into Web 2.0, however you define it.

VentureOne defines it as business models organized around some combo of user generated content, networking, and collaboration. They just came out with the latest numbers on 1st half 2006.

Here's a quick summary:
  • $262.3 million of venture capital into 49 Web 2.0 startups in the U.S. in the 1st half of 2006
  • Consumer models are hot. They soaked up 63% of the funds at $165.3 million in the first half (27 deals)
  • Median deal size for Web 2.0 companies was $4.4 million, 41% lower than the $7.5 median for venture financings on the aggregate

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Zillow's Aiming at Customer Acquisition

Zillow came out with a new feature that is aimed at getting consumers more engaged and making their Zestimates more accurate.

Sounds like a win-win for the company and consumer.

What is it? A homeowner can edit their home facts.

The homeowner gets to set the facts straight on their home (SF, # bedrooms, bath, etc.) which will "help improve the accuracy of your Zestimate over time."

Very smart.

Why wouldn't every homeowner in America want to make sure their home is shown in the best possible light? Especially when it's time to sell.

Great in theory but in order to do this. The homeowner needs to REGISTER (ah ha!) and completing this process isn't exactly easy.

They need to verify you as the homeowner. That means you must provide either a credit card number or fax/mail a copy of your deed/title, mortgage statement, tax assessment, or utility bill to the company. How big of a barrier is this? I, myself, am not going to do this until others are using the Zestimate as a viable and trusted source for home values. It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem.

It's darn interesting to see how Zillow is trying innovative ways to build a relationship with their customers. I do wonder how many folks are going to take the time to pluck down a credit card or even fax a personal financial document to the company. Time will tell.

Here's a link on How To: Edit Home Facts.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Web 2.0 Directory

A nicely executed directory with logos of all Web 2.0 companies. Visually pleasing. Check it here: Web 2.0.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Feeding the Edge

Edge Feeders.

Sounds like a specific category of the animal food chain. I came across this concept through a blog entry written by Fred Wilson, a managing partner at Flatiron Partners and Union Square Ventures.

He talks about the value of the network and how consumers want to create content on their own terms (think MySpace and YouTube) and want to be able to distribute that content on the edge. Content on the edge is not contained by a site/operator, like listings on a real estate site or editorials. It's the stuff that's widely and easily distributed by its creators. Enablers of the edge are the Edge Feeders who basically provide a platform for this content to be distributed.

The example he uses is Flickr. Flickr allows you to put all of your photos there and from there, you can post it to your blog, a family website, an Evite, et al. You get the point. It feeds all of your channels on the web. The value of this application is the ability to aggregate an enormous amount of edge content, organize it, and distribute it.

So what does this mean if you're not an Edge Feeder? I believe that site operators need to think hard about how to take advantage of facilitating the feeding of the edge. Giving control to the consumer is good and if you are in some way relying on user generated content, you will figure out a way to make it damn easy for users to feed their content into your site (i.e. click on a button and you have a direct feed from Flickr).

As evidenced by Flickr and Delicious, containing content creation is a thing of the past and feeding the edge is the future.

Fred's blog entry on Edge Feeders.