edgeio Launches Paid Content System
Online classifieds startup edgeio has just launched a new paid content product, which will be of particular interest to online publishers and media producers. They're calling it "transactional classifieds", which is an awkward name for a potentially very useful e-commerce service. Other terms being bandied around to promote this are "distributed commerce" (better) and "peer to peer commerce" (hmmm).
edgeio CEO Keith Teare explained it in an email to R/WW as "a classified ad where the steps to buying the product or service advertised are reduced to a single "in-place" purchase flow. These transactional classifieds are entirely distributable via "share this" buttons." In other words, you can purchase a product or service online, on any website, via an e-commerce widget. All that both buyers and sellers need is an account with edgeio.
Premium content (reports, analysis, etc) is a business model that Read/WriteWeb will be entering into very soon - I've been planning this for some time. So potentially I could use edgeio for that. Indeed edgeio used R/WW as a potential example on the Paid Content homepage (I didn't find out till I was briefed on this news).
A taste of things to come?
How it Works
You can see it in action already on lockergnome, to complement an announcement being made today at Gnomedex. And here's another current real example from earningscast, a blog run by Keith Teare that enables you to listen to company earnings calls. On the webpage you see the following:
After you click the 'View content for $29.95' button, you get a pop-up like this:
You pay using a coupon code from your edgeio user page (which you pay for by credit card or Paypal). Then you can either view the content directly on the webpage or download it. Note that if you view on the webpage, you can always go back later and get the premium content - your purchase data is stored on your edgeio user page.
Checkout, then listen to the premium content...
More Details
Content creators can upload their content at http://www.edgeio.com/view/paidcontent one item at a time, or they can submit it in bulk using edgeio’s 'edgedirect' service.
In terms of revenue share, the content owner typically gets 80% and edgeio 20%, but edgeio's share could be more depending on the details.
Also note the "Resell this Content" option, which enables users to on-sell the content via a widget - if the content owner has enabled that option. For content owners this means they can distribute their content on multiple websites; while for sellers it means potential affiliate fees. The content owner defines how its 80% is split with an affiliate.
Inside the edgeio paid content system
Conclusion
This is probably going to be a well-used service for content and media providers on the Web - e.g. I can think of a number of ways to utilize it for my own business. The system works for Video, audio, ebooks, files for download, text for in-place reading or any combination. Also "micropayments" have long been a dream for the Web and this service by edgeio looks like it may 'unlock' that elusive business model.
One thing that came to mind when evaluating this new service is: doesn't eBay's Paypal already offer a relatively easy way to sell content or services online? Yes it does, although Paypal is essentially a fairly simple e-commerce service - it doesn't have an 'unlock content' structure, a paid content storage system, widgets or other distributed commerce mechanisms. Paypal also has a maddening fee structure! edgeio's system will take care of the e-commerce transactions, as well as the extra services, so it may well be a threat to Paypal.
Of course the proof will be in the pudding and while there will be no shortage of content producers signing up to the service, it remains to be seen whether 'consumers' accept this type of business model.
What do you think of this new service? Would you use it, either as a buyer or a seller?
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Hey, I love this blog and read it religiously and all, but what's going on with the RWW - TechCrunch posts going up almost simultaneously lately? Seems to be a bit too much of it going on. Not enough other topics or companies out there to cover that not only is RWW covering the same companies, but at exactly the same time?
Mike, this was embargoed news which I was briefed on yesterday. So the reason both posts went live at the same time is because the embargo time was 12pm Fri PST. That happens fairly regularly with tech news, embargoes.
Looks inviting. From the point of view to be a potential affiliate I might be very interested in the content.
Better than having an affiliate link to a lengthy sales page with big yellow and red text.
yeah but still, i mean they are not a big, nor exciting company, yet they get covered by everyone today. Doesn't make sense. I don't know one person who uses it. And yet it's getting coverage on all the main blogs. Must be Arrington's appeal then? Why else would you cover this? So many other exciting companies out there that would like to see getting covered more on here. But I've never seen this get picked up by anyone except the bloggers who all seem to know each other. Just my viewpoint.
with their firm's brand it's sad, they can come up with whatever cool new business model but their lunch will be eaten.
-srini
But Mike, this is a brand new product and I will almost certainly use it for my own business. Maybe I am biased in that respect, because it's a great fit for my business, but then it's not often I come across a new web app that I immediately want to use daily. Seriously, I think this is an awesome new product.
And just for the record, I haven't spoken to Mike Arrington about this at all. I only liaised with edgeio CEO Keith Teare.
And btw Mike, check our Weekly Wrapup for details of all the startups we cover. Of course we'd like to cover more and I am on the lookout for resources to provide more coverage. I only have two arms, so there's a limit to what apps I can personally review while also trying to run a business -- with no CEO or COO ;-)
Fair enough. I like that RWW tries to focus its niche not just on start-ups like some other blogs (which is great they do & that's their focus) but that RWW covers tools that a) have something to do with either reading or writing on the web and b) make lives easier - whether tools for work or personal.
It's just odd to see Edgeio hit by all the blogs - when no one I know is using or even talking about it. Maybe my conspiracy paranoid relatives are starting to get to me ;) (Arrington is on Edgeio's board & Nick covered it, which was smart/ and they disclosed it).
Well I appreciate your comments Mike. Note that our About page sums up our topic focus, which is to provide Web Technology news, reviews and analysis. I think this new product by edgeio is a great example of new web tech. But let's get these comments back on track: what do people think about the product?
I find Edgeio confusing - and that's a big problem considering how much time I spend on the Internet looking at startups. The name and slogan ('listings from the edge'?) are both ambiguous - honestly, are mainstream Web users ever going to crave 'listings from the edge'? They just want listings, and they'll want them from a service that has 'list' or 'listings' in the company name/dotcom. And they'll most definitely want to know exactly where this 'edge' is, too.
N. Cauldwell #10.
I wanted to address your "confusing" point. I tink you are right. edgeio has - like many startups - been building a platform through a number of stages, over about 18 months. Our edgeio slogan has changed a couple of times as we have rolled out each successive stage in our roadmap. "Listings from the edge" was in our ealy phase - when all we had was the ability to aggregate listings posted on an RSS enabled web site and have them aggregated and presented to a larger group of buyers than would be on the web site. "Search the World's Listings" was when we reached 1 million original listings and rolled out search abilities on edgeio.com.
These two phases in the life of the company were all about building out services for a listings advertiser (a person or a company) to get their listings in front of a larger audience.
Today, in August 2007 we have 5 million active listings (roughly the same as Craigslist to give a sense of scale) and in our pipeline we have 29 million and will hit that number by the end of September we think. The latest advertiser to join the platform is Walmart and many of the 6000 advertisers we now have are well know names in the jobs, real-estate, autos and general merchandise spaces. Yesterday we announced digital content (for fee or for free) can now be delivered via classified ad. This will add to the number and range of advertisers.
The slogan on the edgeio banner at Gnomedex is "The Classified Advertising Network for the Internet". Wow, changed again!
Why? Well, because we now have a partially complete publisher platform. It began in March of this year with the launch of Classified Boards. About 1500 publishers now have a classified board from edgeio. The best are sites with highly defined readerships like AlwaysOn, InfoWorld and Techcrunch. These sites are seeing eCPMs of about $1000 (yes one thousand) from job listings that target their readerships.
Now, with the launch of transactional classifieds, we have an additional product for publishers (and advertisers for that matter). The number of publishers earning revenue from edgeio will grow, probably to tens of thousands. As that happens we will be in the middle of a world of advertisers (who have listings and want traffic) and publishers (who have traffic and need revenue to pay for their editorial process). BUT, unlike the traditional Internet ad platfroms we will be serving listings into places that sit alongside their ads, not displacing them (a classified section of the site and, through transactional classifieds, the primary content of a site, in the editorial).
So ... edgeio is a Classified Ad Platform - at last. Our prior phases were just that, phases. We have not yet finished. By the end of the year our goal is to allow our advertisers to do business directly with our publishers through a Listings and Traffic Exchange. Advertisers with a focus on a vertical or a geography or both, will be able to be discovered by Publishers with a similar focus. So long as they both agree on terms (CPC, CPM, Pay to List, CPA, or even free) then listings will flow into the publishers site in return for revenue. Ad unites will emerge into this Exchange, paid content is really one type, others can be featured listings, enhanced listings, lead-gen listings (more on this in a couple of months).
So, I hope we are now less confusing.... Sorry for changing (growing).
Keith Teare
ceo/co-founder
edgeio
and
Ouch, snarky Keith (sorry for changing (growing))...
I'm afraid I don't quite get it either. Do you really have millions of customers (as per a comment on TechCrunch)?
Mike Hi
We do not have millions of customers (we have 6000 or so advertisers and 1500 or so publishers) and growing fast (Grown organic listings from 1 million to 29 million listings from the advertisers since January).
We do have millions of users however - actually just over 2.5m unique viewers of our site, widgets or hosted boards per month.
Mike Hi
We do not have millions of customers (we have 6000 or so advertisers and 1500 or so publishers) and growing fast (Grown organic listings from 1 million to 29 million listings from the advertisers since January).
We do have millions of users however - actually just over 2.5m unique viewers of our site, widgets or hosted boards per month.
As you might know we are a B2B company, so users on our site is NOT a primary goal. Still, it isn't a bad number.
Keith
ceo/co-founder
edgeio
www.darmik.com has had this service for 2 years
www.darmik.com has had this service for 2 years....so its not new.....its just hyped now because edgeio is a darling of the moment
Thanks for the vivid walk-through, Richard. I agree that the name is a bit much. It reads like an attempt to make something simple and useful sound like something technical and complex.
--Mike