Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 4th May 2009
30 COMMENTS 
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
A few weeks ago I met a magazine publisher. We spoke about the future of publishing and the web. It was an interesting discussion because he knew a lot about publishing and I knew a lot about the Internet.
At one point he asked me what magazines and newspapers I subscribed to. I thought for a moment and had to admit that the only magazine I read is Wired magazine which I buy at a newsstand every month. Then he asked me where I got my news from and I explained that I am subscribed to several local and global news sources online. Did I pay for any of these, was his next question. No, I didn’t, I answered. He smiled, and said:
“Don’t you feel guilty for getting all that content without paying for it?”
Of course I explained to him that I didn’t and that although I didn’t actually transfer money to any of these sources I did pay with my attention to their advertisements and that I might even, at one point, consider paying a fee for certain content.
Although the discussion moved on after that the ‘guilty’ question kept lingering in the back of my mind. Somehow I couldn’t find a satisfactory answer. In his line of thought I was guilty of the demise of the newspaper industry, and I had admitted as much. It is all my fault.
Today Reuters reports (for free) that Warren Buffett is giving up on the newspaper industry. In an incredible reversal of fortunes he goes so far as to say that “the reeling industry may never recover because it lacks a sustainable business model”.
Wow. That is what most newspapers are reporting about most Internet companies. No sustainable business model? Really? There is more: “Twenty, thirty years ago, they were a product that had pricing power that was essential,” said Buffett. “They have lost that essential nature.”
Yes, they lost it, and are proud of it.
The editor I spoke with proudly proclaimed that he didn’t get a computer until about a year ago. He refused to check out Twitter, thought blogs were just a waste of time and regarded email as a mere nuisance.
Then it hit me; I couldn’t find an answer to his question because it was the wrong question.
I don’t feel guilty for getting my news online just as I can only assume nobody felt guilty for trading in their horse and carriage for an automobile in 1910. I’m sure the local farrier wasn’t too happy about the whole thing but blaming the customer surely didn’t help.
As it turns out the newspaper industry had a healthy lifespan of about 300 years. Their business plan worked out fine. It just wasn’t sustainable.
Was this inevitable?
No, it wasn’t. They owe it to themselves. They didn’t cause their own demise but stood by, ignorant, arrogant and too proud to do anything about it, as the world changed.
Ask yourself this; if ads are so damned important to newspapers, why didn’t any of them invent Google Adwords? Or buy into them when they were just getting started?
If classified advertising was such a huge cash cow, why didn’t anyone buy eBay?
The answer is because these newspapers refused to evolve. They refused to acknowledge the fact that the world is changing. They thought they were big, powerful and strong enough to stay relevant.
Unfortunately for the newspaper industry survival of the fittest isn’t about strength but about who is most adaptable to change.
UPDATE: also read this latest post on Techcrunch on the future of newspapers. one quote: “It’s not the “paper” part of newspaper that’s the problem, it’s the “news.” As in, newspapers are way too slow at delivering it in the age of the Internet. People are unsubscribing from newspapers because what’s the point of reading something in print a day after you’ve read it online?”
Written on 16th March 2009
10 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Mark Radcliffe owns a £700,000 pound home, a £150,000 Ferrari and a £188,000 Aston Martin. His company employs 19 staff and has an annual turnover in excess of £3 million. What you may be surprised to hear however is that Radcliffe’s success stems from an eBay shop he set up from his parents garage ten years ago.
Today, Mark Radcliffe is the UK’s first eBay millionaire, running the business from an enormous warehouse near Southport, he sells over 3,700 different items and with monthly orders of around 36000 – he is officially the 6th largest eBay business on the planet.
In 2003, he established his brand “First 2 Save” and left his parents garage to move into his current 30,000 sq ft site.
In an interview with the DailyMail, Radcliffe said:
“I could have continued working at Tesco and become a manager, which would have been a safe job but it would not have stretched me. I couldn’t have got where I am today without the right people to help. Also being aware of the latest technology has always been important,”
He ends with wise words that should ring true for many an internet entrepreneur:
“The internet means that virtually anyone can succeed in business from a low start-up point. All it takes is a lot of hard work and determination.”
Image Credit: Daily Mail
Written on 10th March 2009
10 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
As part of an “information revolution”, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that UK will soon be able to rate and review public services just as you would on online services such as Ebay.
People will be able to give feedback on doctors, hospitals, schools and councils, and Brown has specifically mentioned consumer sites such as Amazon, Tripadvistor and eBay for the inspiration.
“We have clearly got the balance wrong when online businesses have higher standards of transparency than they public services we pay for and support”
Gordon Brown
A website comparing local council services is due to go live in May, and from this summer, patients will be able to comment on local services and provide feedback on GPs via the NHS Choices website. (more…)
Written on 9th January 2009
5 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Germany’s no. 1 blogger Robert Basic: “I’m selling my blog!”. After a hundred blog posts, comments, a GPR increase of 2, and extra ad revenue. “Oh, you know what, I love my blog so much. I won’t sell it! Thanks for your support though”.
Whether he’s the Scoble or Arrington of Germany, one thing is for sure. Robert Basic knows how to get attention. After a few years of successful blogging – last month Basic Thinking attracted 85,000 unique visitors and served 254,000 page views -, he decided to put up his blog on eBay (expecting to receive an amount between €10k and €100k). Allegedly because he wants to “start from scratch again”.
Yet some sources believe it’s just another trick from Basic’s sleeve. Linkbaiting so you will. If that really is the case, Basic did a great job. The auction goes on for six more days, he already has coverage from major blogs (including an article from Robin Wauters on TechCrunch).
The question is, can he resist the temptation of just taking the money and run? The score already is €20.150,00. Let’s see what happens!
Written on 8th January 2009
7 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
In Holland, we know the Rabobank as the sponsor of the Dutch cycling team. Apparently, they’re also providing financial backing to start-ups. Just ask Jelmer de Jong, Product Manager of eFresh.com – a B2B trading portal for the perishable industry. He emailed me that eFresh closed a 4.250.000 euro funding round with participation from one of Holland’s largest banks, the Rabobank.
eFresh offers a live direct trading platform for buyers and sellers in the fresh industry (meat, coffee, fruit, vegetables, dairy, etc) and cuts out the middleman. Their 2.0 catch phrase? ‘eBay for the fresh produce industry’. It’s competing with Alibaba and Global Sources, but has a strong focus on perishable products and international. Plus, they’re not only big in Asia.
Because of the direct trading, less fresh products get spoiled. Rabobank applauds this environmental-friendly approach of eFresh and pumps in some money. It’s probably a good investment, plus great marketing. That learns us one thing: the credit crunch is a rather influential trend, but don’t rule out the green lifestyle selling point yet.
eFresh.com and her holding company GET Holding NV will use the money to improve the usability of the portal (the UI really needs a makeover). They will also continue their buying spree. In the past years GET Holding NV bought over 15 companies and small portals.
Written on 2nd January 2009
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Reddit user mattyrules submitted the below picture to the social bookmarking site with the title: “Are eBayers really this stupid?“. As you can see, people are bidding more money for a gift card than it’s actually worth (click for a larger version)
Are some people really that stupid? Maybe. But there are two better explanations. One: money laundry. Two: earning money through the Paypal cashback program. Kraftmatic explains:
[He] means that some businesses, namely Paypal and MSN Shopping, offer coupons that can be used for discounts on eBay purchases. So presumably eBay bidders who are willing to pay more than face value for gift cards are doing so because they have coupons that will make up for the overage, thus resulting in a net gain for themselves.
Is this illegal in some way? Or is it just being creative with money on eBay?
Written on 4th December 2008
14 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need…of some…strangers hand
In a…desperate land
Jim Morrison, 1967
Wikipedia received $890,000 from the Stanton Foundation in order to make the encyclopedia easier to use. A wiki edit page currently has too much knobs and twiddly bits for an average user. Three newly-hired developers will take these complex details away.
“Wikipedia attracts writers who have a moderate-to-high level of technical understanding, but it excludes lots of smart, knowledgeable people who are less tech-centric,” Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner said in a press release. “One of our key priorities is to attract those people and persuade them to help write and edit the encyclopedia.”
Will a lower barrier to edit mean the end of Wikipedia?
Making the crowd-sourced encyclopedia easier to edit will make it easier to abuse. The fact that there is a hurdle to overcome is what prevents Wikipedia from becoming a mess. Some even argue – Andrew Keen anyone? – that Wikipedia already is a mess. Just imagine what will happen if even Joe Sixpack starts editing pages about brain surgery.
Or will it make Wikipedia even more interesting?
“Ideally”, CNet writer Caroline McCarthy notes, “[Wikipedia's] millions of articles will have a broader depth of coverage”.
I don’t know anyone who regularly edits Wikipedia pages. A few thousand attic room geeks decide what kind of information we get to see. So yes, it’s good to welcome some ordinary citizens to share their specific knowledge on hobby’s or their field of expertise.
It all comes down to…
Whether you believe in people are not. Are you an elitist, like Andrew Keen, who sees Web 2.0 users as an infinite amount of monkeys and therefore as a threat to our culture? Or are you the Jimmy Wales-kinda guy? When I asked him some tough Wikipedia questions during an interview in January, he replied: “It’s very difficult to fool a community”. Wales repeats the same mantra as eBay: “People are good”
[poll id="18"]
Written on 17th November 2008
1 COMMENT
Patrick Cushing, Early Entrepreneur
Earlier this week, Boris wrote a bit about the things he hates about the web. After reviewing the new group socializing startup, MIXTT, yesterday, I was thinking about one of my favorite things about the web. It’s those rare moments, when ideas, computer code, and virtual screens somehow turn into fresh air and real conversation. I love when the web helps me get outside and talk to real people.
These days, no matter what your profession, it’s hard to avoid constantly being on the web. You write emails, text messages, and 140 character status updates. You talk to people on Skype, your cell phone, and your iPhone (which isn’t really a phone — especially given it’s lackluster reception). You have all of these ways of trying to recreate real, flesh and blood conversation. Every once in awhile, why not use some of the web’s tools as a way to experience the real thing? Go meet some real people. Go visit some real places.
Go to an event
Back in the days before the web, finding out about an event was a bit of a crap shoot. You might see a flyer for the event somewhere or an ad in a magazine or newspaper. With the web, you can find just about any type of event you can imagine. You can find business and tech events on sites like Garysguide or get a list of events by your location with Eventful. You can even find tickets to professional events (i.e., you have an overpriced ticket with a bar code) resold for extra high prices on StubHub, Ebay, or craigslist.
Create your own event
Services like MeetUp and MIXTT help you form both online and real life groups to help both your business and social life. You can create an ad hoc gathering focused on learning something new with a BarCamp event. If that doesn’t work, there are all kinds of other “unconferences” you can create — you can even create your own overpriced tickets with tools like EventBrite.
Find a date
It’s hard to watch TV these days without seeing the dueling ads between Match.com and eHarmony. Real people are using these services, and you can use not-so-real compatibility tests to find them. If that doesn’t work for you, try finding dates based on religion with sites like JDate, MuslimFriends, or, Christian Cafe.
Go to China (or somewhere similar)
Ernst-Jan has been traveling around China for the past week with other bloggers. What a great idea! You can find great travel deals on sites like Kayak, Orbitz, or Travelocity. Read about about whatever the places you choose to visit with Lonely Planet (or get paid to write about them) or crash on a couch with CouchSurfer.
Go outside
When all else fails, fire up one of your favorite directions services and walk or drive to somewhere new. You can look up a nice park using one of your local park websites, or find a team to play sports with using site’s like New York’s ZogSports.
The future of the web is all about getting away from it!
Written on 13th October 2008
18 COMMENTS
Toivo Tänavsuu, Next Web Estonian Web Tipr & founder of TigerPrises.com
What do we know about Nigeria? That it’s one of the poorest nations in the world. Nigerian GDP per capita is only about 4% of what US has. But one certainly can’t say that Nigerians aren’t smart. Defrauding, for example an iPhone or a laptop from some naive and not-too-smart European is piece of cake for some of them.
Forget about chain letters, and spam, where someone unknown desperately begs you to send just a bit of money to his account, so that he could “buy out” a huge unexpected heritage from passed away relative. And split it 50:50 with you afterwards, of course. That’s an old way of cheating people online. And it’s history.
In 2008 swindlers use considerably more sophisticated, yet very simple scams. And surprise-surprise, they gave a fling on me!
I had an iPhone. Bought it in the US, brought it to Estonia, unlocked it and used it for a while. But about four months was enough for me to realize: this “superstar” gadget is not worth all this buzz around it. If you want to know why I think that, please stay tuned, there will be a follow-up on that from me.
But today I want to discuss the fraud attempt of some Nigerians. Here’s how they wanted to fool me:
Juliet Malcos from Liverpool wants my iPhone
I had just put my iPhone for sale in local Estonian commercial announcements website Soov.ee, when I received a surprising purchase request via Gmail. Apparently from a lady named Juliet Malcos, according to her Yahoo e-mail address. She was claiming to live in Liverpool, UK (that’s 3000 kilometers from where I live) and she was interested in “immediate purchase” of my item. Her desperate cry for my abandoned iPhone was so loud, that she offered me 600 euros for the piece (175 euro more than I wanted at first place), plus recoup of the shipment costs.
We exchanged several e-mails. But here’s the funniest part: She said the phone was needed for her daughter’s school project. Her daughter was about to leave from Heathrow airport to Nigeria for this project.
So I had to hurry up. ”The British lady” asked for my account number, but more importantly, she asked me to send the phone via DHL or FedEx over to address “Temitope Johnson, 1 Balogun Street, Mokola, Ibadan city, Oyo State, 23402 Nigeria”, while she would “rush” into her bank for money transaction.
Confirmations from Citibank
The next day an email pops into my Gmail-box, letter with some copy-paste logos from CitiBank:
Sender: CitiBank Service citibanktransfer@citigroupservice.com
Subject: ***FURTHER UPDATES FOR SHIPMENT REQUIRED***DO NOT REPLY***
Message: Transfer money between your Citi and non-Citi accounts.
ONLINE TRANSFER OF FUNDS.
Dear Valued Customer:Toivo Tanavsuu,
We have received the order for the transfer of the full payment of EUR 600.00€ from our client,the buyer of your item Mrs Juliet Malcos.
We have authorized the immediate transfer of the full payment to your bank details provided below.
We have concluded the procedure for the transfer of the full payment to your account with authorization code: 401-280190-1-59-0
Estimated Date Of Transfer : Thursday,09th of October ,2008
19:23:12 %2B4000 (EDT)
Based on our security measures for the protection of our customers,the payment transfer has been encrypted with a password prior to the receiver of the proof of shipment by our client.
We will send you the password for the release of the money to your accounts after you have sent the scanned receipt of shipment to Mrs Juliet Malcos. Alternatively you can send it to our account section with the contacts provided below.
This is the new directive from our Risk Management Team.
You can go ahead now to ship out the item to Mrs Juliet Malcos.
The CITIBANK MANAGEMENT will send you the password to activate your bank account within the next 72 hours of your sending the evidence of shipment to your buyer.
THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS
Tell:+447024079092
Tell:+447024096947
Tell:+447024096951
Tell:+447737063918
Fax:+448704783490
e-mail : Citi-Bank Correspondent:citibanktransfer@citigroupservice.com
Tell?
So what she wanted me to do was to send my iPhone over to Nigeria. Only after I have made the shipment and sent the shipment verification number to the so-called Citibank, they would be able to complete the transfer of my 600 euros. But we all know that the abbreviation for word “telephone” is not “tell”, but “tel”..
Anyway, only few hours later I received another e-mail from “CitiBank Service” saying the payment of Mrs. Malcos had been processed successfully and that it could take 24 to 72 hours till my bank would confirm this. That is, whenever the shipment was verified.
Some people actually fall for it
Well, eventually I had to disappoint my “Nigerian pal” Juliet. Didn’t send the phone to Africa. I guess there’s no need to say that I saw no 600 euros in my account either. She underestimated me big time!
People, please warn your naive friends about this! Some offers are too good to be true. And I am not the only one targeted with breath-taking offers “from UK”.
Estonian daily Eesti Päevaleht published a story about an Estonian, how he was selling his smartphone, just as I did sell mine. Apparently “Mary Jones“ from UK contacted him and wanted to purchase the piece for her friend who lives in Nigeria.
DHL wants you to think twice
The exact same story: just send the piece over to Nigeria please, via DHL and you will have 500 wasy euros in your account! Confirmation e-mails from “CitiBank Service” and everything. The guy was also lucky, because he saw this through as well. But played along for a while.
But unfortunately some of us, Estonians, haven’t been that fortunate. I was speaking with DHL Estonian representatives and they told me that one other guy fell for the scam. He sent his laptop over to Nigeria, believing all these nice promises coming from UK. The fraudulent pilgrimage of his laptop was stopped by DHL in Nigeria, but poor guy had to pay several hundred dollars for the shipment forth and back, before the item was returned to him.
So from now on, every time somebody wants to send something from Estonia over to Nigeria, DHL asks to double-think. They say from their wide experience that Nigerian con men are also pretty active in environments like eBay.
Where things stand between me and Juliet iss hard to tell, because the situations is bizarre. She is still writing me e-mails asking for the shipment receipt.
Written on 16th September 2008
8 COMMENTS
Robin Wauters, Next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer
Danish entrepreneur turned investor turned local media mogul Morten Lund has founded or co-invested in more than 40 high-tech start ups in the last decade, most famously Skype, which was snapped up by eBay for $2.6 billion in 2005. In May 2008 Lund made headlines again with the sale of Danish social networking and mobile backup site ZYB to operator Vodafone Europe for a sum believed to be in the region of $49m.
But another venture of his, a free daily newspaper owned by his startup catalyst LundXY- Global Ventures, wasn’t meant to be a big hit. Nyhedsavisen, as the publication was called, closed last month with a reported deficit of approximately $100 million, admittedly generated mostly under the previous ownership.
Lund is now suffering significant personal and professional financial trouble because of Nyhedsavisen’s death, although he’s evidently bound to bounce back on his feet some time. No motivational speech necessary there.
Critics have pointed out that Nyhedsavisen suffered with funding issues from the outset, when it was revealed to have posted total losses of DKK 426m ($89.7m / € 57m) on its accounts for 2007. However, under his stewardship it officially claimed the position of most widely read newspaper in Denmark, with a daily circulation of 551,000. On July 30th 2008, American venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) reportedly invested a significant but undisclosed sum in the newspaper, enabling Lund to increase his stake in Nyhedsavisen from 51 to 85 per cent, until it was eventually closed down in late August 2008. There is some doubt if DFJ actually ever made the investment (see comment below).
Lund’s directness has always been refreshing; check out the ‘Stupid‘ section on his blog to get an idea of just how honest he is. But his blog post about what happened with the newspaper, in which he lists 5 reasons for failing to survive, is worth a read too.
I’ll share the special note at the end as a teaser:
“Call me stupid – not trustworthy – whatever - it’s OK – I fucked up. I take all responsibility. It was MY MONEY (and all I had and had access too) – and it will be 18-24 months in hell from here – but I will start and invest with my knowledge and build companies for life – and I’m scared but not stopping – Im just back to ventures without money. Sorry.”
Takes a man with balls to write this up.
A few weeks ago I met a magazine publisher. We spoke about the future of publishing and the web. It was an interesting discussion because he knew a lot about publishing and I knew a lot about the Internet.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
