Game changers. It’s the key to any new business. It’s the key to economic growth. It’s the core of digital business.
Some quick thoughts on changing the game for:
Microsoft- Are you a Windows company or an operating system company? What’s stopping Microsoft from creating its own flavor of Linux? Baskin-Robbins sells 31 flavors; Microsoft sells one.
MSN- Forget trying to be AOL or Yahoo, those horses have left the gates and the model they were built on is waning, the generic Internet. Ditto for the name “MSN”, it connotes “cable TV” acronyms. The original name for MSN was “Marvel”, a much better name. Although the Spider-Man folks didn’t allow it. In terms of “digital”, Microsoft needs to create game changers, because the old games are dead and they lost those battles (portal, news, video, search). Google won because it made browsing archaic and ranking #1, a direct hit on Yahoo (AOL, MSN, Excite, Lycos, Alta Vista) as a result.
AOL- Buried in Time Warner, a merger I disagreed with originally. AOL was a platform, it became a destination which was a mistake to marry content with distribution. It’s why DirecTV has HBO and not its own home-made programming. AOL needs to focus on AIM and IQC and advertising.com. ICQ was a game changer that became commoditized. What can AOL do that’s new?
Yahoo- Like a foraging squirrel, gathering content. However, it’s bloated and jammed with too many ads, too many places. The homepage is half ads that nobody wants, and certainly doesn’t need. Aside from web email and Yahoo Finance nothing here looks compelling, and those have lost their edge in 10 years of serving them up. Where’s the must-have experience at Yahoo? It missed YouTube, Doubleclick, Skype. The M&A team needs to find compelling apps. Yahoo has too long relied on its “brand” and today it’s just not as strong as 1995 when the name was cute. Yahoo needs a direction and clear “must have” experience.
eBay- The auction model is dying. Nobody wants to babysit auctions, buyers or sellers. Skype made no sense as part of eBay, spin it out to Tim Draper as a tracking stock. Skype is a major game changer that is undervalued and lost amid the auction clutter. Ditto for PayPal, it’s the real money maker, spin it out, release the value.
Skype- probably worth $10 billion, even today. It’s the world’s only global telecom with more than 200 million users.
Facebook- As the heir to the Six Degrees, Friendster, legacy, you are trying to make a social network something it’s inherently not, an ad network. Like mixing milk and tequila. Find the value in the network, not the ad route.
Myspace- I said long before News Corp. bought it that the value was in distribution of music. Music was how Myspace got its footing in the first place. Now it’s very cluttered and overcome with ads/spam. To those that remember the interactive TV trials in the early 1990s, Myspace is a precursor to interactive TV. But News Corp. may mess that track up.
Expedia- Booking online travel is now commonplace. What’s the game changer for you? Acquire Tripadvisor and a handful of others, valuations are good now.
In every business the first question that should be asked is “how do we win?” you win by changing the game. The old economy and ways of business are not efficient. Tremendous waste exists at every level. Compete with rivals but also compete with yourself to be lean, mean and solve practical problems in fresh ways.
These are the times when game changing will be rewarded greatly.