|
|
41 views | Yahoo’s Helpful Shortcut To Pictures Of Underage Girls Source:TechCrunch 2008-07-05 09:30:04 |
|
23 views | Indie Music Service Alterhit Enters a Crowded Ring Source:Mashable! 2008-07-05 13:55:06 |
|
23 views | YouTube, Viacom Both Want To Uphold User Privacy. As For IPs… Source:Mashable! 2008-07-05 13:55:16 |
|
20 views | Think Before You Voicemail Source:TechCrunch 2008-07-05 11:30:03 |
|
19 views | Dada Group Nets Majority Share Of Blogo.it Network Source:Mashable! 2008-07-05 15:52:50 |
|
16 views | NYC Web Tech Events - Week of July 6th Source:CenterNetworks 2008-07-05 13:30:02 |
|
16 views | TinyURL Adds Custom URLs; Is This Exciting or What? Source:CenterNetworks 2008-07-05 15:31:57 |
|
16 views | Slide Plugs Top Friends App Back Into Facebook Source:Mashable! 2008-07-05 15:52:44 |
|
15 views | Plus ça change Source:TechCrunch 2008-07-05 15:30:03 |
|
10 views | Net Monitor Finds Big Gaps Between West And Middle East Source:Mashable! 2008-07-05 17:30:03 |
Meebo Hires a Chief Revenue Officer Based in NYC
April 10th, 2008 at 9:39 amSource:CenterNetworks
Last night I was interviewed by Brian Lehrer on Brian Lehrer Live ??? a New York cable TV show on CUNY TV ??? about my controversial piece about ???too much free.??? In the interview I repeated a statement that I have made recently about my belief that there is too much free in part because there is what I am calling a state of ???artificial abundance.???
As background, artificial abundance is the creation of too much free product in a marketplace, where indirect financial support props up the offering. Examples include Google subsidizing money losing free web operations with their very profitable search revenue, and over zealous VCs, funding companies offering free services in categories that seemingly have little hope of generating revenue.
Artificial abundance is significant not because there are too many companies or products, but because of the psychology all of this deceptively free stuff is creating. Consumers are being inappropriately trained to believe that everything can be had for free and nothing should be paid for.
When I mentioned the concept of artificial abundance to Brian, he quickly shot back, ???is that just another word for bubble 2.0.???
I was taken aback because I had never thought of that formulation. But boy was he right.
The best reflection of the problem caused by artificial abundance is the fact that there are *very* few profitable exits right now. There are essentially no IPOs, which could be blamed on Sarbanes-Oxley. But there is not that much M&A activity right now either. I presume the reason for this is a perception by acquirers that not enough revenue is being generated. Otherwise why would companies not want to buy other companies if the transaction opportunities are anything close to accretive?
My belief is there are very few such deal opportunities because except in the extraordinary cases, it is hard to make much money off of free. And so I suspect there is shrinking interest in buying money-losing operations in the hope that the acquisition will turn the un-profitable company profitable.
And so I agree with Brian. Artificial abundance is just Bubble 2.0. There are too many Internet businesses offering free products that have no hope of making money. They are going to go away. Am I happy about this? Not in the sense that a lot of entrepreneurs will lose and, of course that sucks. But I do think it is important to reset what the public expects from the Internet. Everything can???t be a free ride because the money has to come from somewhere. And advertising revenue is just not big enough to support all the cool useful things the Internet can bring us.
This article was authored by Hank Williams who is a New York-based entrepreneur who recently launched a new blog: Why Does Everything Suck? exploring the tech marketplace from 10,000 feet.
Partner Links
– Web Jobs
– NY Tech Directory
– CenterNetworks LinkedIn Business Group
– CenterNetworks Facebook Fan Page
– Purchase an Apple iPhoneSource:CenterNetworks
Meebo is announcing this morning the hire of Carter Brokaw has joined the company as Chief Revenue Officer today. Brokaw most recently was with Warner Music Group and also worked for CNET for over 10 years in a variety of sales positions. Brokaw will be based in NYC!
"Meebo is a highly-promising company with an incredible team and defendable technology," said Carter Brokaw, Chief Revenue Officer, Meebo. "From a monetization perspective, I???m looking forward to helping leverage Meebo???s core strength by bringing brands into the conversation in ways that are engaging, integrated and measurable."
There were reports yesterday that Meebo wasn’t able to sell themselves so they are now pursuing raising another round of funding.
Check out our interview with Meebo founder Seth Sternberg.
Update: Marshall at RWW has additional information on Meebo’s advertising plans.
