Feb 09
25
P2P Pays Homage to eBay.
In the beginning was the Internet and the investors
wanted to know – “But from where will we make our money?” (Sounds more
authentic when said with a yiddish accent….frum vere vill ve mak our money?)
So Business to Business E-Commerce became the catch phrase of
the day. B2B will give the investors a return, said the Wall street spruikers.
A year went by, and internet startups were still tearing
through investors money with no return in sight.
What we need said the business analysts is a Business to
Consumer focus. B2C will give the investors the return they are looking for. And
the money continued to be shoveled in.
For the most part, consumers were slow to respond. FUD hit the
industry in early 1995 with the “Ausnet Hack” where 1200 credit cards were
released onto the internet by a disaffected job applicant.
I will never forget the phone call I took (as the Ausnet CEO) from a well known Adelaide
reporter in the week after the Channel 7 “expose” on Ausnet security.
Mr. Koltai what are you going to do about these debits on my
credit card?
I’m sorry miss, what debits?
There are all these debits on my credit card statement and I didn’t
do it.
I will look into it immediately. Could I just have a few
details; what is your login name?
What’s a login name?
All Ausnet customers are identified by their Ausnet Login
name.
I’m not an Ausnet customer.
Did you give your credit card details for someone to use as
for payment on the Ausnet service? I asked.
No – of course not.
Then how could we have your credit card details on file and
how could the hacker have obtained access to them to them and what the hell are
you doing wasting my time.
For two years, the industry languished whilst the banks decided
how to handle internet merchant accounts.
Then came the revelation led by eBay, the 1995 start-up that
hired corporate (Hasbro) whiz Meg Whitman to brand the company in 1998. Meg
announced early on her plan for success. eBay doesn’t sell to customers, eBay
is a company that's in the business of connecting people.
Wow! We had it all wrong – It wasn’t B2B or B2C it was C2C or
person to person that was going to be the sure fire big thing.
P2P became a money maker. Everyone had something to sell,
swap, or exchange.
So thought Shaun Fanning the following Spring when he thought
about ways he could increase his music collection. Napster was born and
everyone started swapping.
Unfortunately, P2P via Napster didn’t have a Meg Whitman at
the helm. No-one has successfully monetized the Napster model.
Had Shaun Fanning thought to charge a nickel per swap, (like
the comic book swap shops of the seventies) we would be living in a very
different world.
What we have learnt is :
1. Consumers
don’t trust big business.
2. Consumers
trust other consumers.
2. Social
Networking (P2P) sells more products faster.
Thank-you Meg Whitman.