A few quick thoughts on things I’ve seen around and about this past week, centered on the question of whether or not appropriating a good idea is a business model.
1) Twitter doesn’t have a revenue model, but Yammer does. I’m pretty sure Yammer is Twitter, only they say it’s for “businesses and their employees” and they charge for premium features, which are to be utilized by the administrator of the company. It won the TechCrunch50 in 2008.
2) ChaCha is free, but they don’t have the revenues to advertise. Someone liked ChaCha’s idea enough to start KGB.com, which comes complete with an onslaught of television advertising and a $.99 per text charge.
3) I hope the Palm Pre is just an iPhone clone, so when I get one in two weeks, I can finally be happy with my Mobile again.
4) Amazon has such a great product with the 2nd generation Kindle, they appropriated themselves with the Kindle DX (I’m only half kidding, I mean… it is a little bigger…).
5) Facebook’s New App, Farm Town, which I’m sure will hit full viral within the next 10 days, is Facebook’s old app, Mafia Wars, with a sleak new interface and Flash based Gameplay. It’s also much nicer (Growing Plants and Animals vs. Robbing and Killing). The game also launched with a full-on revenue model, which the iPhone versions of Mafia Wars took weeks to apply.
Isn't it cute...?
6) Rick Reilly, the incredibly highly paid, formerly talented sports writer, has no problem appropriating other people’s material, or his own. You might not think this is “business” in and of itself, but this man has turned himself into a franchise with his columns.
Deadspin doesn't like Reilly very much...
7) Hulu is Youtube done right. Hulu has a revenue Model, advertising to break into the market, higher quality, and broadcasting deals. YouTube has hampster dance. I still love Youtube, but it’s been “jacked,” and I’m curious to see what Google can/will do about it.
My biggest fear is that the current marketplace disincentivizes innovators. If you want to be successful in business, is it more important to have an idea or a plan? I personally think that both are important, but the planning portion is easier. If the plan is being disproportionately rewarded, then more business-minded entrepreneurs will flock to appropriation, and sooner or later we’ll end up right back where we started. This whole “internet 2.0″ deal is cool, but I’m ready for round 3. We don’t need more Wikipedia, we need more of this (Microsoft’s pretty incredible photo thing). Reward the scientists, not the hustlers!
Just started reading The Stimulist, and so far, I’m a fan. I even applied to write for them, but have yet to hear anything. Feel free to apply pressure on my behalf. Send ‘em to the roll.
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