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The Transatlantic Education Mega-Site...
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The last few months have witnessed a bloodbath in tech stocks coupled
with a frantic re-definition of the web and of every player in it (as
far as content is concerned).
Others bet the farm on content creation and packaging. Bn.com invaded
the digital publishing and POD (Print on Demand) businesses in a series
of lightning purchases. It is now the largest e-book store by a wide
margin.
But Amazon seemed to have got it right once more. The web's own virtual
mall and the former darling of Wall Street has diversified into
micropayments.
The Internet started as a free medium for free spirits. E-commerce was
once considered a dirty word. Web surfers became used to free content.
Hence the (very low) glass ceiling on the price of content made
available through the web - and the need to charge customers less than 1
US dollars to a few dollars per transaction ("micro-payments"). Various
service providers (such as Pay-Pal) emerged, none became sufficiently
dominant and all-pervasive to constitute a standard. Web merchants'
ability to accept micropayments is crucial. E-commerce (let alone
m-commerce) will never take off without it.
Enter Amazon. Its "Honour System" is licenced to third party web sites
(such as Bartleby.com and SatireWire). It allows people to donate money
or effect micro-payments, apparently through its patented one-click
system. As far as the web sites are concerned, there are two major
drawbacks: all donations and payments are refundable within 30 days and
Amazon charges them 15 cents per transaction plus 15(!) percent. By far
the worst deal in town.
The Honour System looks suspiciously similar to the payment system
designed by Amazon for Stephen King's serialized e-novel, "The Plant".
Interesting to note how the needs of authors and publishers are now in
the driver's seat, helping to spur along innovations in business
methods.
Article by Dr. Sam Vaknin PhD, the author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"
and "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East".
He is a columnist in "Central Europe Review", United Press International
(UPI) and InternetContent.net and the editor of mental health and
Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101
and Searcheurope.com. He is the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.
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Invasion of the Amazons
By guest writer Dr. Sam Vaknin PhD
This effort is three pronged:
Some companies are gambling on content distribution and the possession
of the attendant digital infrastructure. MightyWords, for example,
stealthily transformed itself from a "free-for-all-everyone-welcome"
e-publisher to a distribution channel of choice works (mainly by midlist
authors). It now aims to feed its content to content-starved web sites.
In the process, it shed thousands of unfortunate authors who did not
meet its (never stated) sales criteria.
So, why the fuss?
Because of Amazon's customer list. This development emphasizes the
growing realization that one's list of customers - properly data mined -
is the greatest asset, greater even than original content and more
important than distribution channels and digital right management or
asset management applications. Merchants are willing to pay for access
to this ever expanding virtual neighbourhood (even if they are not made
privy to the customer information collected by Amazon).
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