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about Asia Buzz
Asia Buzz: Glib Is Good
The New, New, New, New, New, New Thing
By ADI IGNATIUS
May
22, 2000
Web posted at 1:00 p.m. Hong Kong time, 1:00 a.m. EDT
There has never been an industry more in love with glib, sweeping pronouncements than the Internet business. It's a function, no doubt, of the speed in which the technology is changing and a lack of bona fide experts.
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 ASIA BUZZ
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Culture on Demand: Aloha!
Part One of a two-week series from Hawaii
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May 20, 2000
Letter from Japan: Hail Emperor
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Asia Buzz: Last Supper
The Asian Internet boom runs the risk of being over before it really began
- Tuesday,
May 16, 2000
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'CONTENT IS KING,' was an early mantra. Good content, ranging from hot new writing to exclusive video clips, would rule the Internet.
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Then everybody got into the game, and 'content' began to include less elegant artistic offerings, like train schedules and Game Boy prices. It got fuzzy out there. So 'QUALITY CONTENT IS KING' became the new line. The problem is, few people seem to want to pay for, say, top financial analysis when they can watch an animated dancing hamster for free. So, natch, the current glib, sweeping pronouncement (GSP) is 'CONTENT IS NOTHING.'
Mind you, the life span of these GSPs can be as short as a month or two. But great fortunes are being won and lost in such instances, so there's no time for reflection. 'IF YOU EAT LUNCH, YOU ARE LUNCH,' is one of the more memorable aphorisms of this age.
Consider the evolution of the debate over how websites are supposed to make money. 'THINK TV,' was one early slogan, which imagined a model where banner ads atop Internet pages would function as successfully as commercials do on television. The more viewers, the more advertisers would want to be there, the higher rates the sites would charge for the ads, the more profits, etcetera.
But no one really notices online ads--let alone click on them. [Think about it. Why should I "Visit Us!" at www.dietcoke.com? I happen to enjoy very much this particular beverage, but why would I spend some of my free time "Checking Us Out!" online? Sorry.] So, of course, the latest GSP seems to be that 'BANNER ADS DON'T WORK.'
In terms of e-commerce, the original excitement was all about B2C, sites in which businesses, like Amazon.com, targeted consumers, like you and me. But it's tough to make money that way, so the market decided 'B2C IS DEAD.' Everyone then got excited about B2B, businesses transacting with other businesses. But just as we started to absorb that truism, Wall Street began telling us that 'B2B IS DEAD.' There was Y2K, of course, which was lucrative for a while for a few computer firms. But 'Y2K IS VERY DEAD.'
What's next? Well, typographically, we haven't fully explored C2B, in which consumers would sell to businesses. I can't quite figure out the revenue model, but it could well become tomorrow's (though surely not the day after tomorrow's) new new thing.
My advice is to not be intimidated by the so-called experts. Just leap in and make some GSPs of your own. Before you know it, you'll be an Internet guru. And if you can't think of any, you can always pull this one out in a pinch: 'GLIB, SWEEPING PRONOUNCEMENTS ARE DEAD.'
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