SM: You are saying that the middle does not have a business model supporting it. The first mile and last mile have business models, but the middle does not. TL: Right. The middle mile is where you get into a lot of problems with the Internet. It is because there is no money flowing in
Conclusion Viacom is a formidable force in the youth entertainment segment, especially in music and gaming, particularly focused on teens and young adults. Its kids focused offerings are also significant, although perhaps not quite at the level of Disney. Viacom has entered in an agreement with Yahoo! for a multi-year sponsored search and contextual ads
Acquisition Targets In the past one year, Viacom has acquired Quizilla, Harmonix Music Systems, Atom Entertainment, Xfire, and Y2M: Youth Media & Marketing Networks. These acquisitions are strategic and fit well into the Company’s overall theme of youth focused entertainment. Viacom, through its Nick brand, is popular among the kids. Presumably, the Company would acquire
SM: Even though you had entered the 50K competition, and had started talking to potential customers, Akamai was not a company yet? TL: We really had no desire to make a company out of our research. We were all academics and we liked writing papers, proving theorems, and giving talks. We were not businessmen in
Web 3.0 Framework discussion Below is a quick overview of the Web 3.0 framework for the Viacom sites. We have not gone into the details of all the properties, but you can review the Web 3.0 section of this site for detailed discussions on some of the vertical categories, especially Online Music, a Viacom mainstay.
Web 3.0 Framework discussion Context Some NYT sites have very good contextual nuances. If you want to know how much calories you are taking in when you are having your favorite chocolate ice-cream or how much calories you have burned by jogging for 15 minutes in the morning or if you are looking for some
SM: How big is the market? How do you calculate TAM? What is your business model? VH: We believe the overall TAM is very large – Wikipedia is a good proxy. They are #6 on the Web in traffic. Our business model is ad supported and very robust as we have very targeted and high
SM: Where did you get the idea for your current venture? What is your domain experience in the segment? VH: We started with the thesis that the Web is like the library of Alexandria – the repository of all human knowledge. The only window people have into this repository today is search. Our vision was