Saturday, July 14, 2007

Hedge Funds.. Pah... I want to be an Internet billionaire

Its Saturday and I have dispensed with all things stock market, bowler hatted and secret bank accountish for the weekend. I have sat out in the Sun for a few hours and even had a workout. Only problem is the lure of my computer was just too much.

It just sits there looking all cool and inviting (its an Acer Ferrari one) and I cannot resist its charms, even on my day off, so here I am. It may also have something to do with the fact that my son and wife are Eastenders fans and that is on. I would rather stick hot pokers in my eyes than watch it so the good old computer looked even better.

One of the things that has been fascinating me recently is looking at all the new business models that are coming online. Our business is involved with a technology business that is an acquisition vehicle for tech businesses, so I have been researching. Have you seen how many Wiki things are out there, its astonishing!

The community space sites are taking over the world and the guys who own them are becoming zillionaires. Then I came accross a site called 'Agloco' (I have no idea what it means) and had a look at what they are doing.

Essentially it is a toolbar that sits at the bottom of your screen and puts up small ads (which are one liners and unintrusive). Apparently, you get paid in shares for how long you are online and for how many people you refer and for how long they are online for (^%$ Stay with me here!!). So if it is sold for a zillion pounds it is split between the members. Personally I like the toolbar because it allows me to select Google without it defaulting to German all the time but I am easily pleased like that. I am sure the more tech savvy will find other gizmo's it has that are great...

On the other hand, I love the idea of free shares under any circumstances so I, obviously think this is a good idea. This is from their site:

"You accumulate hours in your account for your use of the Viewbar™ software, up to the maximum monthly hours (which is country-specific). These hours can be convertible into shares of AGLOCO™ stock. See below the country specific restrictions on conversion. You can also accumulate hours in your account for the usage of Viewbar™ by your direct referrals and extended referrals. You become eligible for the shares when your account reaches your country's minimum payout limit."

So please sign up below and lets make some free money! Or at least be part of what is, in my opinion, an interesting experiment.

If you want to have a go take a look here.

I do think that this may be a future boom in the industry. After all, how long is it going to be before consumers are just going to get very bored (or very anti) sites that make billions for their founders, but who are driven buy the users themselves (who essentially work for free).

This is why I am thinking of how I can exploit this keen insight and make myself a billion dollars doing it....er which I can then share with all my lovely users.... hmmm not sure this is going to work...

Well... there is always the day job.

2 comments:

Dan said...

I'm not sure I'm a big believer of these new internet platforms which are ad driven. But, I do like the sort of shift in thinking to user-driven sites which give something back to the user. Revver.com, ebates, and any number of sweepstakes sites (netwinner, moola, blingo). Do e-mail me and get a referral if you would like to join one! haha...

But yea, it's a great trend and I think its the right trend as you made the perfect observation that before long users have to start questioning why it is that they're making billions for other people with their own content. I am starting to question this resurgence in internet marketing and the buzz around ad driven sites, though. It's starting to feel a little like the original internet boom. And, I don't necessarily know that the kinks in internet advertising have really been worked out. Sure, google better targets ads and people sure as heck aren't paying as much as they used to be willing to, but internet ads in general are less effective than ever. I straight up ignore google adsense when I see it. And, with the fact that google AdSense is driven mostly by individual people's websites I can't help but think there is likely a very large amount of click fraud which will ultimately hurt the internet ad industry in and of itself.

Asset Manager said...

Thanks Dan valid comment