About Papandreou…
Alarming if we think about the dependency, annual consumption, and population growth.
For more information check GE visualization
Retail e-commerce had a strong fourth quarter (Q4) in 2010, growing 11% more than in 2009 (Q4).
Comscore reports that:
- The top-performing online product categories were Computer Software , Consumer Electronics, Books & Magazines , Computers/Peripherals/PDAs, and Toys & Hobbies. Each of the aforementioned categories grew at least 15 percent in Q4 2010 vs. year ago.
- The top 25 online retailers accounted for 68.4 percent of dollars spent online.,
- 84 percent of U.S. Internet users conducted an online transaction in Q4 2010, up from 78 percent last year.
Read more at : Comscore
Mobile frequency for Q4 of 2010 in US
In every industry there is room for copycats or how they’re also known as “me too” companies. The emergence of other “me too” companies happens usually right during the Growth stage of the Product Life Cycle.
And it’s indeed that the growth that trendsetters experience which lures other companies to replicate their business model. On the Growth stage information such as industry trends, competitors’ data, consumer needs P/L analysis and at times also the learning curve are easily accessible.
Think Groupon… Remember that in just two years the company has accumulated 60 million subscribers, raised more than $1 billion in venture capital, established itself in 565 cities around the world and earned $760 million in annual revenue by becoming the one of the fastest growing web company. Smart right! Of course their simplistic business strategy and their high return has attracted copycats to imitate their business model.
Similar sites are LivingSocial,Yipit, TheDealist, GiltCity, DealOn, BuyWithMe, tippr, kgp deals, Scoop St, SignPost, Boom Street, zozi, VillageVines, HomeRun, GroupPrice, DailyPride and lately even the gossip site PopSugar got into it. I’m not sure whether I’m overwhelmed or underwhelmed at this point.
While I like entrepreneurship and how it drives consumer needs I’m not sure if I like clones. Looks like they are everywhere. Another example. About.me, Connect.me and Falvors.me. The three allow users to do fundamentally the same thing, which is to create a page and emerge all their information of their social presence into one. I don’t know which came first and I’m not yet convinced if these companies have a tangible business revenue model apart from advertising which is dependent on their popularity and page hits.
I have a problem with their long term vision. How will they make money, how will they adapt to trend changes, who they will be after growth, how they will react to competitors and to other market players which are more established and already use the same revenue model? How will they be able to differentiate when all they did was conservatively imitate. Remember these companies have skipped introduction and they are fighting fiercely with other more established players in the industry. Is market consolidation what they are looking after? Sure that would mean a blossoming M&A opportunity, a lucky IPO, a buyout or a dieout. Eventually not all of them will have the opportunities Groupon, LivingSocial (which recently has confirmed a $175 million investment deal with Amazon) or even About.me (which was acquired by AOL in December 2010) have had. It’s times for the clones to imitate less, redefine themselves before they ingloriously decline.
-a.h
