Simply Seven: Seven Ways to Create a Sustainable Internet Business (IE Business Publishing)

From the publisher. Published as part of Palgrave Macmillan's IE Business Publishing Series, Simply Seven is a practical guide to Internet business for students, entrepreneurs and executives. The book presents a practical blueprint created to get entrepreneurs and executives started on finding the right Internet business model for their web site. It is based on the idea that there are seven business building blocks - which form the foundation of all Internet business models. Simply Seven emphasizes constant experimentation in selecting and fine-tuning one's business model and encourages using models outside of the narrow range of today's "hyped" candidates. Chapter by chapter, the book guides the reader through the lessons learned by the flagship pioneers of each business module: Skype for services, Blizzard Entertainment for subscriptions, Amazon.com for retail, Google for advertising, eBay for commissions and Apple for license sales. The Simply Seven framework of seven Internet business models was jointly developed by a successful entrepreneur, a technology consultant and a business school professor and is being used by them in their jobs every day. It contains original insight from leading Internet thought leaders and entrepreneurs, including Joe Gebbia of Airbnb, Trip Adler of Scribd, Esther Dyson, Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures, Mark Gorenberg of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Doc Searls Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 List of Tables......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 10 The Airbnb story......Page 14 "Dance like an idiot and don't sell anything"......Page 15 Don't think, just test......Page 20 The search for the perfect business model......Page 26 Getting started......Page 29 SimplySeven – that's it......Page 32 The making of this book......Page 36 Plain and straightforward......Page 39 A business model with problems......Page 44 "Can I skype you?"......Page 47 The heaviest weapon in the arsenal......Page 51 The rise and fall of AOL......Page 53 The "Bouncer Effect"......Page 56 In the "dog house"......Page 58 The future of clubs......Page 59 Getting people to subscribe......Page 60 Don't treat online like offline......Page 61 The million books project......Page 63 Early death in May 2000......Page 64 Being good at bricks is not enough......Page 66 The "Long Tail" vs. "superstar economics"......Page 68 Fighting the clutter......Page 70 The future of the shop is personal......Page 71 Don't believe your clients are stupid......Page 74 The beauty of C2C......Page 77 Listings * ASPs * Conversion Rates = GMV......Page 79 Fraud......Page 80 The B2B trap......Page 81 Beware of the smart client......Page 83 Reports of the death of the intermediary......Page 85 You force it, you lose it......Page 87 Spam and pushy banners......Page 90 Search revolution......Page 91 "The wisdom of money"......Page 93 The death of the newspaper......Page 95 The sexiness of statistics......Page 97 Advertising as a service......Page 100 You will need all your friends......Page 103 Intellectual property 300 years after Queen Anne......Page 104 The indecisive history of computing platforms......Page 107 Distributed distribution......Page 110 "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." – the rebirth of Apple......Page 111 Platform building best practice......Page 115 The "Battle of Platforms" in entertainment......Page 118 Micro license sales – evolution continues......Page 121 Making money with money......Page 124 The mysteriously slow growth of financial services online......Page 126 George W. Bush wrecks the party......Page 129 The brave and few......Page 130 Investment in Internet real estate......Page 131 Internet-based B2B, B2C, C2C and even C2B loans......Page 132 Our favorite so far: Weatherbill......Page 134 Paying nothing......Page 135 You can live on love alone......Page 136 Chris Anderson's 5%/95% rule......Page 137 A web powered by small deeds of heroism......Page 140 The reciprocal donation economy and innovation......Page 141 A fairy tale with a GNU......Page 143 One million lines of code......Page 145 Three million articles......Page 147 Donated power for business......Page 150 Competing with free......Page 152 The Facebook dilemma......Page 154 It's a freemium world......Page 157 Methods and tools to guide customers......Page 160 Flexible payment infrastructures......Page 161 Payment as web services......Page 162 Fast-track companies taking advantage of payment web services......Page 164 Virtual currencies and coupons......Page 165 Mobile payments everywhere......Page 168 Guiding the customer......Page 170 Examples of personal businesses on the web......Page 172 Reputation and trust as an opportunity......Page 173 Back to the basics......Page 174 The selection criteria......Page 176 Initial results: seven confirmed and unevenly distributed......Page 177 Retail leads in sales......Page 182 Market valuations – advertising, again......Page 185 Margins – the beauty of aggregation......Page 186 Key financial indicators......Page 187 Interviews......Page 190 Notes......Page 192 Index......Page 201 Simply Seven is a practical framework created to get entrepreneurs and executives started on finding the right Internet business model for their web site. It is based on the idea that there are seven business building blocks - which form the foundation of all Internet business models. SimplySeven emphasizes constant experimentation in selecting and fine-tuning one's business model and encourages using models outside of the narrow range of today's "hyped" candidates. Chapter by chapter, the book guides the reader through the lessons learned by the flagship pioneers of each business model: Skype for services, Blizzard Entertainment for subscriptions, Amazon.com for retail, Google for advertising, eBay for commissions and Apple for license sales. Regarding financial management, it is too early to tell which company will emerge as leader. However, Simply Seven does not just celebrate the successes; it also focuses on the biggest mistakes