RE: UKNM: Wimps?

[Jamie Unwin]

>However, my original post was intended to draw attention to the fact that

>practically all the web innovations (and their commercial manifestations)

>have thus far originated in the US. While people on this list are winging on

>about the "impact" of such-and-such a piece of javascript, our counterparts

>in the US are drawing up plans that result in soon-to-be ubiquitous

>properties such as Amazon, Expedia, Excite, Yahoo, SixDegrees, AOL,

>AltaVista, Planetall etc etc etc.


Most of these site aren't NEW and have succeded because they were the FIRST in a fast evolving medium....


Yahoo - Stanford Graduates project, 5+ years old - start of the web

Altavista - same story, research turned money making, been around for a long time

Amazon - got in very early, still showing no profit....

AOL - got in early, may possibly die out ?

Expedia (Microsoft) - Huge amount of cash, and I'm sure smaller operations tried online hotel booking systems but failed because they didn't have the clout to sucessed.


I can think of other sites (I'm sure others have), similar to Expedia, ie. a large Property site, but unless you are a large established estate agent, or have the clout and money (ie. Microsoft) then it is extremly difficult to make this work.


Its similar to TV, one of the resons the BBC are where they are is because they have been around since the start of the medium,  this itself is an advantage, trying to start a new and innovative TV channel now is much harder (you also need alot more money !)


The reason that most "web innovations" originated in the states is because they had a head start on the medium and got in early....


Although I do agree Richard that it would be brilliant to have something new come out of the UK, and I feel fairly confident that this should  happen within the next wave of Web innovation, as the US may not have such a head start this time, although their venture capital situation may be better.


Finally software development, within such a fast moving industry is very risky, a risk I would not like to take with my own money and would therefore need an investor who would be wiling to invest in technology which may be out of date by the time it is realised and therefore unmarketable ?



jamie

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Jamie Unwin :

jamienml [dot] guardian [dot] co [dot] uk

 :  http://www.guardian.co.uk

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