Tuesday, January 29, 2002
Codelust and I have been having a little chat on my post on paid content.
We both seem to agree that sites like TNT and Salon won't be able to sustain enough interest in their paid offerings to make them viable. On the other hand, a site like Jane's, which offers specialised content, will manage to rake in moolah.
So the key is exclusivity. Where then, I wonder, does that leave the general interest content players? I mean where is the money going to come from?
A huge challenge for these players is the growing user base. Which means more spends on infrastructure. With ad revenues dwindling, how will these players survive? Maybe turning paid is a strategic move. It cuts the user base, reduces infrastructural burden, and hopefully will bring in some revenues. But that might also kill the site.
I think Rusty Foster, founder of K5, had it spot on in an interview with Dotcom Scoop. Advertising. Personalised, targeted and highly-relevant advertising, not those ubiquitous banners and irritating pop-ups.
The problem with internet advertising was that its benefits were over-hyped. Expectations sky-rocketed and the returns fell well short of them.
But as Rusty put it so succinctly: "An audience is like heroin to them (advertisers) -- they can't just leave one abandoned for long."
Let's hope they don't leave it just a wee too long!
We both seem to agree that sites like TNT and Salon won't be able to sustain enough interest in their paid offerings to make them viable. On the other hand, a site like Jane's, which offers specialised content, will manage to rake in moolah.
So the key is exclusivity. Where then, I wonder, does that leave the general interest content players? I mean where is the money going to come from?
A huge challenge for these players is the growing user base. Which means more spends on infrastructure. With ad revenues dwindling, how will these players survive? Maybe turning paid is a strategic move. It cuts the user base, reduces infrastructural burden, and hopefully will bring in some revenues. But that might also kill the site.
I think Rusty Foster, founder of K5, had it spot on in an interview with Dotcom Scoop. Advertising. Personalised, targeted and highly-relevant advertising, not those ubiquitous banners and irritating pop-ups.
The problem with internet advertising was that its benefits were over-hyped. Expectations sky-rocketed and the returns fell well short of them.
But as Rusty put it so succinctly: "An audience is like heroin to them (advertisers) -- they can't just leave one abandoned for long."
Let's hope they don't leave it just a wee too long!
# posted by Ashok @ 9:33 PM 
