business model Archives - MICHAEL REUTER

Leo Laporte: Anekdoten zwischen Web und TV — und: wie man mit Podcasting 1,5 Mio Dollar verdient

michaelreuter — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:52:51 +0000

The post Leo Laporte: Anekdoten zwischen Web und TV — und: wie man mit Podcasting 1,5 Mio Dollar verdient appeared first on MICHAEL REUTER.

Why German Venture Capital doesn’t take off

michaelreuter — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:45:14 +0000

In Germany there are 4 (four) VC companies with considerable funds within the range of EUR 100 million or above. Taking into account that Germany is one of the biggest economies worldwide this fact is a shortcoming, to say the least.

Why is that?

One possible answer you’ll find watching this talk with Marc Andreessen. Marc describes the “American Way of funding a Start-up” as “fund it, scale it, and then look for a business model”. Now — call a German VC, show him your powerpoint and explain the Andreessen strategy to him. Or quote Facebook’s Peter Thiel by saying: “We’re also focused on getting the product right,” says Thiel. “Getting ads right—that’s not the top user demand.” Unless you aren’t Marc or Peter himself or you have sold a company successfully before — the VC will throw you out.

In other words: invent the next facebook or twitter (don’t take this literally — I mean the next big thing) and no single German VC will fund you — promised. Maybe it’s unfair to limit this to German VCs — the reason for Loic LeMeur with Seesmic to move from Paris to San Francisco or Jajah to move from Austria to Silicon Valley were the same — they felt having scalable businesses — but they lacked a business model at that period. This did not prevent US-VCs from funding.

Haven’t European VCs read Talib’s Black Swan? Do they think inside the box — are they trapped in induction? Is there a lack of vision? Or is it — plainly spoken — too risky to invest into a facebook or twitter in its first months?

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Media Business Models on the Web

michaelreuter — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:44:29 +0000

Chris Anderson started a list of Business Models on the Web and Fred Wilson added his thoughts what Dave McClure also did. So far there are 28 different models:

- CPM ads (“cost per thousand views”; banner ads online and regular ads in print, TV and radio)
— CPC ads (“cost per click”; think Google ads)
— CPT ads (“cost per transaction”; you pay only if the customer brought to you from a media sites becomes a paying customer. Here’s an example.)
— Lead generation (you pay for qualified names of potential customers)
— Subscription revenues
— Affiliate revenues (think: Amazon Associates)
— Rental of subscriber lists
— Sale of information (selling data about users–aggregate/statistical or individual–to third parties)

- Licensing of brand (people pay to use a media brand as implied endorsement)
— Licensing of content (syndication)
— Getting the users to create something of value for free and applying any of the above to monetize it. (Like — Digg or our own Reddit
— Upgraded service/content (ed: aka “freemium”)
— Alternate output (pdf; print/print-on-demand; customized Shared Book style; etc.)
— Custom services/feeds
— Live events
— “Souvenirs”/“Merchandise”
— Co-branded spinoff

- Cost Per Install (popular with top Facebook apps who can help others get installs)
— E‑commerce (selling stuff directly on your website)
— Sponsorships (ads of some sort that are sold based on time, not on the number of impressions)
— Listings (paying a time based amount to list something like a job or real estate on your website)
— Paid Inclusion (a form of CPC advertising where an advertiser pays to be included in a search result)
— Streaming Audio Advertising (like radio advertising delivered in the audio stream after a certain amount of audio content has been delivered)
— Streaming Video Advertising (like streaming audio but in video)
— API Fees (charging third parties to access your API)

- Feed Sense (Enable platform users to earn money by sharing in platform revenue from clicks on the News Feed)
— FeedSearch (Create a Search bar at the top of the News Feed that enables people to search for activity in their network by keyword or suggested example)
— FanPageApps (Connect Developers directly with Advertisers, by allowing Advertisers to set open bids for clicks, users, or other activity that occurs via platform apps)

To that impressive list I’d add the B2B side:
— Market Research (information on user behaviour)
— Drive traffic to media partners (e.g. blog widgets)
— PR Portal (Offer PR agencies publish their content on your site)

A long list compared with the typical answer of Web CEOs how their companies generate revenues: “Advertising and premium fees.” Any more ideas?

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