While billionaires such as Rupert Murdoch storm into the Internet with major acquisitions, Virgin chairman Sir Richard Branson is taking a different tactic that seems Luddite in comparison. While Virgin just launched an online music site called Virgin Digital, Sir Richard concedes there is much more the company could do on the Web. "One of the problems is I do things I'm very interested in personally, and I don't do the Web very much," he said during an interview earlier today after Virgin unveiled plans for a two-day music festival in Toronto this September.
Skype's Strategic and Monetization Potential
As Vonage's brand and stock comes under siege, it is interesting that Skype continue to enjoy growing goodwill as it becomes more of a mainstream tool (the free SkypeOut offer for calls in North America doesn't hurt). Nicholas Carr had a post last week critical of eBay CEO Meg Whitman's assertion during an interview with the Financial Times the company will eventually figure out how to monetize Skype. Here's Carr's take:
“We'll figure it out.” “There's something here.” “We already have some
ideas.” “We'll see.” I wonder how many other multibillion-dollar
acquisitions have taken place before the acquiring company had “figured
out” how to actually make money from the deal. I know there've been
plenty where the acquirer's money-making strategy turned out to be pure
fantasy, but how many have there been where there wasn't any strategy,
where the justification boiled down to “don't worry, we'll figure it
out later.”
ideas.” “We'll see.” I wonder how many other multibillion-dollar
acquisitions have taken place before the acquiring company had “figured
out” how to actually make money from the deal. I know there've been
plenty where the acquirer's money-making strategy turned out to be pure
fantasy, but how many have there been where there wasn't any strategy,
where the justification boiled down to “don't worry, we'll figure it
out later.”
While eBay will have a difficult time to ever justifying the $4.1-billion it spent to buy Skype, I would argue Carr's assessment is somewhat off-base and too dismissive. First, Skype is a high-margin $200-million, profitable business (unlike Vonage) that is growing as it becomes more of a mainstream tool with a variety of premium services. Second, Skype is starting to be more integrated in eBay's e-commerce operations. This will generate soft benefits such as better customer service and more efficient transactions, as well as hard benefits such as revenue from premium services. Skype was a major strategic gamble for eBay, which fumbled the ball when it bought whole-hog into the master M&A sales pitch of Niklas Zennstrom and Tim Draper. At the end of the day, however, Skype will become a good strategic vehicle for eBay – and a variety of “monetization” opportunities will emerge to generate plenty of revenue – contrary to what Nicholas Carr opines.
Canadian E-Commerce Alive and Well?
Now, this is interesting: eMarketer has a story that e-commerce in Canada is thriving. According to Statistics Canada, e-commerce sales (public and private sectors) were $39.1-billion in 2005 compared with $28.3-billion in 2004. As well, the number of Canadian retailers with a Web site climbed to 42% from 38%. I'm not sure how StatsCan formulated their numbers but it would be interesting to see how Canadian consumers are spending their money online. Anecdotally, Canadians aren't the most enthusiastic online consumers. Part of the problem is the a chicken-and-egg situation. Canadians don't shop online so retailers are leery about setting up e-commerce sites, and because there's a lack of e-commerce sites because Canadians are reluctant to shop…and so it goes around and around. It is interesting that Canadian Tire operates one of the most popular retail sites but it is mostly used by consumers are a research tool. As a result, it is difficult to measure the site's success in terms of dollars and cents given many people will do their shopping at a retail outlet.
Google Check-Out
There's already lots of chatter about the launch of Google Checkout, highlighted by how it will be an eBay-PayPal killer. Not to dismiss Google Checkout's features, which seem interesting, but when was the last time Google launched a new service that kicked some serious butt? It may be Google doesn't look for home runs when it unveils something new. Instead, it could be more interested in slowly complementing its core search and AdSense efforts. Nevertheless, people would be wise to not get too caught up in the PayPal-killer rhetoric. Forrester analyst Charlene Li has an extensive review of Google Checkout.
Update: BusinessWeek has a story (July 10th edition) looking at how everyone gets excited about new Google services that fail to grab a market leadership position. The first quote is by Paul Kedrosky, who greets every new Google service with a healthy dose of pragmatism.
Show Me the Strategy
My column in today's National Post looks at Nortel's need to spill the beans on where it's headed strategically. CEO Mike Zafirovski has been working away for more than seven months on his corporate makeover, and now analysts and investors want in on his master plan. By the way, Nortel's annual meeting is today.
Update: Here's my story in Friday's National Post on the AGM. It includes some interesting details about some new stock options granted to Mike Z. at a lower strike plan than the ones he received last year when he was hired.
Even Six-Year-Olds Get Wi-Fi
A funny story from a friend that's far too good not to share. After picking up his son from an appointment, my friend gets into a conversation and lets his six-year-old son play with his laptop in the backseat of the car. When my friend starts to drive away several minutes later, his son yells “Stop!”. “What's the matter?,” my friend asks bringing the car to a quick halt. His son excitedly replies, “I've got a wireless [Wi-Fi] connection and I'll lose Nick Jr. if you drive away”. That's funny.
