Markets are changing and they do this fast if you are in the Internet business. We see Internet service providers grow in the number of subscribers and in the way they do their business. They start to grow to a service center. More and more hosting services, Content creation, financial services for payment over the Internet become part of their core strategy. On the other side large publishers become aware of the same market, the Internet for content providing and a service center facilitating this. They start to think of solutions that help them providing their content and they want to learn what their business will be in the future. Content Providers are companies that have information available for a (large) group of consumers and want an interactive relation. Content Service Providers are the facilitators of the solutions that content providers need to do their job properly. The larger content providers have their own service center and that makes them a combination of both. For Content Providers Traffic is the key to success. Traffic is generated by: Brand Products Community Service A company has a complete value chain with as goal to generate this traffic. Content Creation Content Packaging Market Making Transportation Delivery Support Content Distribution With these steps it is possible to define service areas, that enable content providers to meet their goals. It translates the value chain to a more practical view of the world. I defined the following service areas, and I'll name the companies that are in these areas: Editorial Systems - StoryServer - Netscape publishing system - Twinspark Internet Publishing System Generated Content - Tailored work done by web building companies Hosting - Apache - Netscape - Microsoft - name all those webservers Restricted Content - MCIS (Microsoft Commercial Internet System) - Netscape - the new planet Closed User Groups Personalization - Firefly - BroadVision - Microsoft (of course) Communities - WELL engaged - Motet Advertising - Netgravity - DoubleClick E-Commerce - Open Market - Intershop It is possible to enter the selected market with parts of the services mentioned. This is the concept till now, a techie perspective. I'm working on procedures etc.... I'd like some comments on the concept and the blind spots.

Will do...

It doesn't matter what you do, there are three things to think of (it's me stating the obvious again: "eternal truths of business" - sorry if I bore you, fellas): (1) Marketing - lure potential customers to your offer. It doesn' matter how good the product is if nobody buys, because nobody knows. (2) Be different - it's no good to be as good as the competitor, if they are on the market longer or also offer other things ("one stop shopping"). A fresh idea and distinct character might enlarge the total market, or at least allow to carve a niche. (3) Stay attractive - if you can't grow from (2) on and hold any consumers lured in step (1) -, a niche is all you'll ever achieve; this might not be sufficient to support even a small team. Hmh, my personal project is well defined concerning (2). Sales aren't too hot, so we give more attention to (1), in the hope that growth kicks in (meanwhile using up time, effort and capital that would otherwise be put to use in production, but without sales, we can stop the whole thing). While the basic profile is agreed upon, we can't neglect (3), though in our case, we need to get some more issues out and see how the market responds, to see what defines "attractive": Is that new stories and scenes, or are we more attractive if sticking to certain subjects?

Are you working on anything specific, Terry? And Wer, how about you? Somehow seems to me both of you have some ideas... Out with it! Spill 'em!

me? ideas?

Well, like an adult website... Been on your mind lately... Admit it!