This story warms the cockles of my heart, not only as a kiwi but a wanna-be Web millionnare ;-) AfterMail, a company from my hometown Wellington New Zealand, recently sold their web mail software to US company Quest for $14.7 million upfront and another $30 million in cash if it meets performance targets. That's US dollars folks! US$45 Million for a Web mail solution, made by a little New Zealand startup.
AfterMail isn't what some of us might call a Web 2.0 company, but it fills a niche in the 'software as a service' ecosystem. As local rag The Dominion Post described it [via Dave]:
"The idea is deceptively simple – an email management tool that lets companies quickly search their archives to find messages to or from a certain customer, on a certain date, with a certain attachment or with specific or unwanted content, such as pornography.
Instead of storing it all on a company's already crammed servers, store it on a dedicated server and allow customers to access it through a Web browser.
That's basically what Wellington start-up AfterMail does."
Browsing Rod Drury's blog (one of the founders of AfterMail), it's interesting to see how he picks up on opportunities in the Web market just by observing his own work habits and extrapolating from there. For example take a look at his post entitled The changing nature of work, which as a fellow Wellingtonian working on the Web for clients on the other side of the world -- I can definitely relate to! In a follow-up post, Rod notes the opportunities:
"Another big change is nature of my work has moved so that Virtual Collaboration is becoming a larger part of my day. I (verb) email, Skype, IM, Web demo, Conference call etc. (noun) Partners, Staff, Customers, Analysts, etc.
Virtual Collaboration is bigger than just communication as information gained through interaction needs to be stored and be accessible. So each communication interaction adds value to the shared information.
[...] So rather than an all encompassing piece of software, like some new bits in Office 12, I think the opportunity is a methodology and some glue over the standard components we use now."
I know most of my readers are US-based, but I think AfterMail is a great example of how would-be Web entrepreneurs can build very successful niche businesses by spotting what is seemingly a simple (but overlooked or underserved) gap in the market - and filling it. It doesn't need to be a sexy Web 2.0 business. As AfterMail demonstrated, and as Rod noted in his recent posts, there are loads of potentially profitable opportunities for web-based software that can meet current market needs.
Sorry for lack of updates recently, I've been busy getting married :-) I see others have been busy too - Mike Arrington's expanded the Crunch empire with a new mobile blog called MobileCrunch, Susan Mernit's been hired by Yahoo! (does this mean I get my name on the 5ive page now? ;-)), Ben Barren's launching an Aussie blog search engine called gnoos (Ben and I have also got plans for a media empire - we're good at that in this part of the world!), and Umair Haque has been writing a fantastic series of articles on new media economics and edge competencies (which I've been poring over in what little spare time I've had recently - see also Keith Teare's The first law of RSS post). It's all happening, as cricket commentator Bill Lawry likes to say...
This week I'm back to work and blogging, then the week after I'm off to Microsoft Search Champs. Sadly, the honeymoon has to wait :-(
I'm not usually an Apple fanboy, but I decided to check out Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote this year. The webcast was provided by Apple (nb: they force you to download the latest iTunes + Quicktime in order to watch it). Steve wowed us with some big numbers, including impressive iPod figures. Apple sold 14m ipods last quarter, a figure which was met with rapturous applause and wonderment from the Macworld audience. Steve then announced that Apple has sold 42 million ipods in total now - 32m of which were sold in the 2005 calendar year.
The iTunes figures are equally impressive. 850 songs in itunes, 3m downloaded per day, a staggering 83% market share. All of this elicited more rapturous applause from the faithful - and a curious bird-like peep of "wooo!" from Steve. The numbers didn't stop there. 8m videos (tv shows) sold since their introduction in October 05, baby!
Apple fans line up to get their fix from an iPod Drip - photo by andyi
The most interesting announcements for me were:
At that point my connection to the webcast went kaput, but once again Engadget has all the details - great job at both CES and Macworld, weblogsinc!
While I'm not a Mac user at present (I was last year), it's obvious to me that Apple is making big strides at making the Mac a powerful and simple media creation tool for everyday people. I'm particularly impressed with the iLife suite, which now includes the blog-like iWeb. I don't need to remind you how important the read/write, two-way Web is to me, so I must admit I emitted one or two bird-like peeps of "wooo!" myself during Jobs' presentation.
Also Apple's ipod/itunes numbers are truly impressive. Apple would love it if the new iLife/iWeb functionality, unveiled at Macworld today, helped them gain similar momentum with PC sales. Wouldn't that make for an interesting 2006 - if Apple PC sales numbers skyrocketed in the same year that Microsoft releases its new Vista OS?
A USA Today article reveals that MySpace has now reached 47.3 million members. The Blog Herald also reports that MySpace "is growing by an amazing 160,000 new users a day, according to MediaPost".
USA Today gives a rundown of numbers for SNS sites, c/o comScore Media Metrix. They note that "in the past year, the number of visitors to MySpace (from homes, workplaces and colleges) has skyrocketed, making it the Web’s top social networking site":
MySpace.com
Nov. 2004: 4.9 million
Nov. 2005: 26.7 millionFacebook.com
Nov. 2004: N/A
Nov. 2005: 11.1 millionXanga.com
Nov. 2004: 5.8 million
Nov. 2005: 7.9 millionBebo.com
Nov. 2004: N/A
Nov. 2005: 1.5 millionFriendster.com
Nov. 2004: 966,000
Nov. 2005: 1.5 millionTribe Networks Inc.
Nov. 2004: 62,000
Nov. 2005: 515,000Linkedin.com
Nov. 2004: 123,000
Nov. 2005: 354,188Orkut.com
Nov. 2004: N/A
Nov. 2005: 83,000Source: comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, Inc.
For some reason, USA Today didn't include LiveJournal in their chart. According to official stats, LiveJournal currently has 9 million user accounts - but only a little under 2 million are "active". That would put LJ at number 3 or 4 in the above chart.
The demographics of SNS sites are interesting. LiveJournal users are skewed to 16-20 years and are 2/3 female. MySpace is said to be mostly < 22 yrs and general consensus is that it's a younger user base than LJ.
All of these SNS services have a very young user base, so in many ways it's a battle for the hearts and minds of Generation Y and beyond. MySpace may be winning in numbers, but recent controversy shows they can't get complacent.
Perhaps I ventured a bit too far out of my echo chamber, but today I came across 3 different conspiracy theory articles about popular Web companies. One was about e-commerce giant Amazon.com and the other two related to leading Social Networking sites MySpace and Facebook. The theories namecheck the CIA, the FBI and a non-showering CEO who allegedly used to a run porn site. [continued on my ZDNet blog...]
Yahoo continues to buy up all the great talent, this time they've snagged my blog buddy Lucas Gonze and his innovative music-sharing web app Webjay. As the Yahoo! Music Blog explained [via TechCrunch]:
"Webjay is visionary and fantastic, but we are also keenly interested in Lucas the individual. He’s contributed a lot of great work to standards around music on the Internet, and has always pushed forward a refreshing perspective of openness and progress without turning a blind eye to infringement or the rights of copyright holders (likely because he’s a musician himself). His recent creation of the meme “Lightnet” is a culmination of years of working under this philosophy."
On a personal note, I've been following Lucas' progress on Webjay ever since he started it. He was one of the first readers of my blog too. So a hearty congrats to Lucas - well done mate!
I used to think the Semantic Web was the Moby Dick of the Web. But now I think the Google OS and Office is. In the famous novel, Moby Dick is a mythical great white whale. It's an embodiment of evil and power to Captain Ahab, whose goal is to hunt down the beast. However the book's narrator, Ishmael, isn't sure if the whale is good or evil.
Do you see the similarities between Moby Dick and the Mountain View company? A Google OS and Web-based Office has been rumored for so long now, it's almost become a myth. And like Ishmael, most of us aren't sure whether the beast is good or evil.
I mention all this in response to Jason Calacanis' excellent post entitled CES analysis: Why I know Google will do an office suite and a desktop OS in 2006. Jason predicted that Google will:
"a. launch calendar and office suite in the next six months.
b. by the end of the year they will come out with a Linux-based OS and offer it for free to PC makers. Those PC makers will love Google for giving them a free OS and Google will love extending the reach of their money maker: google Adsense."
He backed those predictions up with some great logic and deduction. As did Jason Kottke when he came out with his GoogleOS post back in August. One can't deny the pure logic of the two Jasons. GoogleOS? Sure, it's a shoo-in. Google has to do it, otherwise Microsoft wins with Windows and MS Office.
So what's the hold-up? We all suspect Google is up to something. As Ben Barren noted: "What is all that headcount on Firefox and OpenOffice really doing we wonder?" Google Pack, which is basically a cobbled-together collection of default applications for a desktop, is perhaps a sign of things to come. Nick Carr thinks it may be a trojan horse, allowing Google to automatically update software on users PCs - thus routing around Microsoft's control of the OS.
It remains to be seen whether Google Pack lives up to its mythical Greek status, but I'll come right out and say that I agree with Jason's conclusion that Google will release an OS and Office suite by the end of this year. Disclaimer: I'm a romantic at heart and I believe in the myth of the White Whale.
"And thus, through the serene tranquillities of the tropical sea, among waves whose hand-clappings were suspended by exceeding rapture, Moby Dick moved on, still withholding from sight the full terrors of his submerged trunk, entirely hiding the wrenched hideousness of his jaw. But soon the fore part of him slowly rose from the water; for an instant his whole marbleized body formed a high arch, like Virginia's Natural Bridge, and warningly waving his bannered flukes in the air, the grand god revealed himself, sounded, and went out of sight. Hoveringly halting, and dipping on the wing, the white sea-fowls longingly lingered over the agitated pool that he left.
With oars apeak, and paddles down, the sheets of their sails adrift, the three boats now stilly floated, awaiting Moby Dick's reappearance."
Herman Melville: Moby Dick - Chapter cxxxiii - THE CHASE - FIRST DAY
There's been a ton of CES news to digest these past few days, especially in the past 12 or so hours. Yahoo released Go and CEO Terry Semel made a speech at CES; Google released Google Pack, Google Video Player and Google Video Store; Larry Page did a speech at CES. As I trawled through all the news - thanks in particular to Engadget and PaidContent for the excellent coverage - I tried to distil some of the themes emerging. Here's a starter for 10, which I'd love to get peoples comments on...
Themes for Internet companies hitting the media market in 2006:
These are just the themes for Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and eBay/Skype - I can't wait to see what Apple comes out with at Macworld next week. The rumor of the moment is that Apple will release a new application called iWeb, said to be a Web design application with "easy drag-and-drop capability for a variety of Web-optimized content and media types."
So what do you think - have I covered the main themes of Internet companies at CES? Feel free to add your thoughts below.
Yahoo! Go is being advertised as "a new suite of products and services for your PC, mobile phone and even your TV". The main aim is to enable people to connect with their content (e.g. email, photos, music) across a range of devices.
Right now the Go product range is limited. Upon clicking the "Get Started Now" button I got two "coming soon" notices and a limited availability mobile offering. Here's the deal at this point in time:
- The Go Desktop is "coming soon" and only konfabulator widgets are available now.
- Yahoo! Go TV is also "coming soon" and will only be available for Windows XP PCs.
- So that just leaves mobile -- and that's available only on "select Nokia Series 60 handsets."
The 'How It Works' was intriguing. The PC offering appears to be a desktop dashboard with fold-out panes. The email part of it is being promoted as a purely desktop app: "You can manage your mail without ever opening a browser." The Yahoo 360, IM and My Web 2.0 tie-ins seem to be all part of a desktop appliance - Yahoo's equivalent of the Google Desktop perhaps?
The TV part will be interesting to track, mainly because video and TV Internet integration is all the rage right now - with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and a host of others talking it up at CES. Yahoo is keeping the hype at a red hot level with Go, promising it'll "change the way you watch TV." It says: "By accessing Yahoo! services directly on your TV, you can have a more personalized viewing experience." One interesting feature is that Flickr will be featured in this product. There's also the expected music and video offerings.
Mobile is the unknown quantity here, because who knows if it'll be deployed outside the US and how effective the service will be. One interesting feature is "voice instant messages", which is Yahoo Messenger on your mobile. It also has email via mobile phone.
Paidcontent.org has listed all the product guff and has more links. And expect Yahoo CEO Terry Semel to talk about this at length in his CES speech tomorrow.
At first glance, Yahoo! Go seems like a decent attempt to create a kind of portal environment that will extend across the PC, TV and mobile. However at this stage it also seems to be mostly vapourware, with not much actual product to show. But then so is Microsoft's Vista at this time... So one key thing that I hope Semel will reveal tomorrow is the timeframe for when each part of Go will be released.
It also worries me that the TV part is limited to Windows XP PCs and mobile will be limited in terms of handsets and presumably carriers. That's the lay of the land with Internet media in 2006 though, with partnerships being the prime currency in this environment.
Of course the proof will be in the pudding, so I look forward to trying the Go product range out in future - when it's ready to, er, go.
Update: The official press release is out now and it touts Go as a 'Beyond the Browser' experience: "Yahoo! Go allows us to free the best of what the Internet has to offer from the confines of the browser and provides consumers fast and easy access to the essential products and services they know and love..."
Which begs the question - how big a part will web browsers play in this new media world?
Apologies for light posting over the past few days, as I had to move web hosts (not once, but twice!) at very short notice. Comments have been down and you may have noticed some site glitches recently. But, knock on wood, things should be back to normal by end of today. I have a few CES-related posts sketched up in my notebook, so I can't wait to write those up!
