I am seeing a trend in the web 2.0 sector where start-ups are forgetting about the actual web product but are focussing primarily on externalities in order to compete with the latest competitor.
You can ‘dress’ up a website with a whole range of the latest (and the not so latest) buzzword technologies such as the very useful APIs, microformats and development packages such as AJAX, Ruby on Rails…etc It will certainly woo the web technologists, journalists and early adopters. But one needs to ask, am I relying too heavily on latest buzz around our new facebook app, widget or development language to bring in mass users?
Am I focussing too much on reacting to our latest competitor but missing the bigger picture of the end user?
Web connectivity and reacting to competition are both important. But are not as important as having a site which has an intrinsic mass market appeal - i.e. a site which is not only understood by the early adopters – but its objectives are easily grasped by general users. If a site doesn't have this, then however much you may boast through PR channels about the latest web connectivity and competitive advantage - is all futile!
Focus on getting the web product right - by developing and marketing a web product whose features are readily understandable and accessible by all users and not just a small niche - then you can think about the clothes with which to 'dress' it!
No comments:
Post a Comment