In which I try, after 25 years of blogging, to drop my ironic stance a bit.
Update: looks like it’s been in use since 1975 – and the first use is from the revered Financial Times!
When did we all adopt the Daily Mail-ism ‘fraudster’ and abandon the perfectly serviceable noun ‘fraud’? I can find ‘fraudster’ in none of my dictionaries – even those supposed to contain ‘new words’ – so its origins are obscure. Google, inevitably, reports 14,900 instances, so it can’t be brand new.
School teachers, tube workers, firefighters. Now monks? How will we know they’ve gone back to work?
I have no idea whose link I followed to find Hugh MacLeod’s gapingvoid.com but I think these cartoons drawn on the backs of business cards are just about the most New York things I’ve ever seen.
I think Danny’s wrong to knock David Docherty’s ‘Cookie Monster‘ analogy. David may have been on a hiding to nothing from the beginning at Telewest, but the nub of truth in his frustration is that the conduct of Internet users is important (how could it be otherwise?). As actors in the networked economy we have obligations and our good faith will be critical to the success or otherwise of digital music, film, whatever. If a whole generation of users really has decided that it’ll never pay for music again (which is arguable), then music will inevitably be driven off the net.
As usual, I’m mister middle-of-the-road. Where David and the suits see a field of high concept ‘broadband content’ and Danny and the geeks see an untenanted void waiting for settlers to fill it – I see a bit of both. In fact, I think it’s economic lunacy to suggest that either could be sufficient unto itself. No one but no one will bring dark fibre to my curb without some value added ‘content’ to subsidise the utterly commodified pipe and users will never accept the media owners’ vision of content-driven broadband heaven unless it looks a lot like the net. As usual, the outcome is more likely to be a messy ecology than a nice, clean monoculture.
A long overdue enquiry into the BBC’s investment online should be a good thing for all parties but it must strike a delicate balance. If it turns into a mugging for the corporation orchestrated by its competitors it will not serve the interests of industry or citizens. Likewise, a whitewash that leaves the BBC’s hugely out-of-proportion investment unexamined will not answer vital questions about the proper role of a public service broadcaster in the networked era. If this enquiry is real, it presents an unlikely-to-be-repeated opportunity to straighten out the regulatory and funding context for BBC Online and to set some goals:
BBC Online should not fear the inquisition. It’s likely to be critical and may close off some of the department’s activities but the current uncertainty is more damaging. Lambert’s report on News 24 is hardly flattering but, by taking the project seriously, it has secured the channel’s future nonetheless. A close examination of BBC Online should have the same effect.
Expanding on the three goals:
Rachel Frank runs an online wine store called Arthur’s Bar. It’s a good site – excellent customer service, next day delivery, single bottles (most sites require you to buy a case or more) and they have lots of specially-sourced wines you won’t find elsewhere but there’s one product that really stands out. Rachel’s father, David Hallgarten, is a whisky blender and he bottles the only 35 year old blended Scotch whisky in the world. This stuff is gorgeous and very unusual. Most top whiskies are single malts. This is a blend – but to my taste it’s as good as any single malt I’ve tasted. The current batch was distilled in 1964, which is the year after I was born. You can’t buy it anywhere else and you’ll need to remortgage your house to buy a bottle (or move to a caravan and buy two) but if you’re trying to think what to buy me for Xmas, you can stop thinking now.
After four years on the rollercoaster running another.com – and nearly ten years in the industry – I’m a free agent again. If you know me, you already knew this, but here’s the press release (or download a PDF) that will go out on Monday 9th. another.com is now making a profit so I’m off to look for new projects and challenges. I’ll remain a director of the business and I’ll certainly still help out from time to time. Stuart Tily, the firm’s CTO since the beginning, is now running the firm from an office in Brighton.
another.com PRESS RELEASE
0870 043 4086
pressoffice@uk.another.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 9 December 2002
another.com makes a profit. Pioneering founder, CEO Bowbrick moves on
another.com, the subscription email service, has passed a critical milestone and is now making a profit. Steve Bowbrick, founder CEO and veteran of nearly ten years in the Internet business, is leaving the firm.
The British company has become symbolic of the effort to convert loss-making dot.coms to direct charging models and is now one of a handful of profitable subscription-funded businesses on the web. Steve Bowbrick, outgoing CEO, says “Many didn?t believe it was possible for a free service like another.com to switch to charging. Others didn?t believe a consumer-focused dot.com could survive the crash at all. We?ve proved them wrong.”
Started at the end of 1998, a year before the dot.com boom reached its hysterical peak, another.com raised money at a first round valuation beaten only by boo.com. Later, as the bust unfolded and investors took cover, Bowbrick and another.com battened down the hatches, made lay-offs and cut costs. The result is a successful business focused on the delivery of a useful, distinctive personalised email service to a growing subscriber-base.
The lessons learned from the switch to charging will see the business through to its first full year?s profit in 2003. Bowbrick says “It hasn?t been easy. We?ve continually reworked the business plan, trying many new approaches. Initially it was all about survival. Now we?re experts in everything from boosting ARPU (Average Revenue per User) to minimising churn and exploiting data. I think there might be a book in it!”
Nearly 25,000 subscribers have signed up so far – a fraction of the site?s huge free userbase – but the case is proven: it is possible to make a profit from a subscription service on the web. “We?ve got this far in a collapsing market. The exciting part is going to be watching the business really take off once the recovery begins” added Bowbrick.
Stuart Tily, another.com?s long-standing CTO, is taking the reins and will operate the company from a new Brighton office. Bowbrick remains a non-executive director. Robin Klein, chairman of Retail Variations and founder of the Innovations catalogue, remains Chairman.
Notes to editors
another.com timelineNovember 1998 Company started by Steve Bowbrick and Graham Goodkind (Graham subsequently left the firm) with seed funding from web designer Jeremy Kerner. Largest database of Internet domain names registered to provide personalised email addresses to users.
May 1999 Service launches under the brand name Funmail.
August 1999 First round of funding from VC Eden Capital proves to be the second-highest first round valuation for a UK Internet business so far. Robin Klein joins the business as non-exec Chairman.
February 2000 Service relaunches as another.com and runs national advertising campaign targeting young people. Service passes 1 million users within 9 months.
March 2000 another.com moves into a custom-designed North London office complete with Britain?s only indoor lawn and a set of swings in reception. No one thinks this is in the least bit strange.
February 2001 another.com is the number 1 UK email service and the number 1 youth web site. Site traffic puts the site within the UK top ten consistently. The site is the fastest growing in the UK.
November 10th 2001 Registrations pass 1.8 million. another.com starts to charge new users of the service ?15 per year. Take up is good.
February 18th 2002 Encouraged by the November experiment, the free service is switched off. All users now have to pay ?15 per year for their email service. another.com is the first email service in the world to switch off a free service entirely. Take-up beats all expectations. 15,000 subscribers have paid up within two weeks. Response from users is overwhelmingly positive.
October 2002 another.com shows an operating profit. Subscribers now pay ?23.95 per year and pay extra for storage top-ups, domain names and personalised merchandise.
October 2002 Steve Bowbrick leaves the firm. Bowbrick retains a board seat and will continue to be involved in strategic and commercial decisions. Stuart Tily, the firm?s CTO since the beginning, will take over the day-to-day running of the firm. Robin Klein remains non-exec Chairman.
Steve Bowbrick summary biography
Steve is one of Britain?s best known Internet entrepreneurs and a pioneer of the net in the UK. 2003 will mark his first decade in the industry. John Browning, founder of First Tuesday and European Editor of Wired Magazine, called him ?Britain?s most experienced web entrepreneur?. In 1993 he was editor of 3W Magazine, the first print magazine about the net anywhere in the world. The following year he started Webmedia, the first specialist web design shop in Britain, building the firm into the number 1 UK agency, employing 50 staff across three divisions and three offices. In 1996 he secured an investment from Maurice Saatchi?s Megalomedia, the first significant investment made in a web design house in the UK. In 1997 Webmedia span off domain name registry Netnames. In 1998 Steve closed Webmedia and, later that year, founded another.com and held the post CEO throughout. He has written and spoken on the net continuously for nearly ten years for organisations and publications from the FT to ETRE, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Marketing Week, The BBC, The New Statesman and The UK Government. Steve?s weblog is at http://www.bowblog.com.
another.com: background
London-based another.com has defined a new category of personalised email services. Users create the funkiest email addresses on the planet and use them to make a statement: ?I?m a free agent. I have a sense of fun and I will not be told who I am by a big, dumb brand?. another.com?s personalised service attracted over 1.8M users as a free service and they created over 6,000,000 personalised email addresses between them?from giggler@hysterical.co.uk to sweetiebaby@chocoholic.co.uk. The site was ranked number 1 amongst UK sites in the email Services category by Hitwise UK and was the number 1 youth brand on the web. Since February 2002, users of the service pay an annual subscription (currently ?23.95) for use of the service. 25,000 people have subscribed so far.
Danny and Quinn interviewed Brewster Kahle.
(Things I have written about Kahle and the public domain recently: Public domain in Peril? Not again! “It’s just not that big!”).
I just found Douglas Engelbart’s 34 year-old SRI demo in which he introduced the mouse, word processing, outlining, graphical displays, a nifty chord keyboard and dozens of other concepts that we now take for granted – all put together in a single RealVideo file a couple of years ago by Mike Lee.
Judith Kerr, much-loved children’s author, on why Mog had to die.