
There are seven online business models - BvS
http://www.simplyseven.net/?p=238
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swombat
... among the top 100 companies in the Nielsen Top 100 websites in January
2010.

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reitzensteinm
No kidding. I don't see extortion on the list for instance.

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ohashi
Yelp Business Model

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neworbit
or the BBB

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zipdog
There seems to be a bunch of problems with them making a definitive statement
about internet business based on this research.

First, the Nielson list doesn't include data from two of the G8: Japan and
Canada. It also doesn't include China, but we could guess (perhaps wrongly)
that there's not serious money being made by internet companies there yet.

The list also only includes websites, which does not correlate to "internet
businesses" (They freely admit this problem in relation to B2B, but what about
something like Blizzard?).

The restriction to the stock market is necessary for the reason they give, but
massively narrows their sample based on an awkward criteria (Facebook isn't
listed and is making $100 million or something)

21 companies does not have much statistical significance against seven
criteria. I think (I'm not in stats) you'd need more like 600, and then I'm
pretty sure you don't start with a list and see if they fit (if you start with
a larger potentially overlapping set of business models then you could run a
series of algorithmic tests to see which subset provided the best fit).

Their list looks somewhat generic, although even at a pinch it looks
incomplete. What about selling real goods on subscription? This model has been
viable enough offline, and in a way that should translate to online (eg
magazine subscription, regular home care product delivery) but it doesn't fit
into any of their models.

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_pius
For a more interesting (yet still incomplete) rundown of business models,
check out The Art of Profitability by Adrian Slywotzky:
<http://sivers.org/book/ArtOfProfitability>

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DanielBMarkham
I'm looking for a new book. Has anybody read this and/or could recommend it? I
hear it mentioned on HN from time to time. Any good? More to the point, has
anybody read the book and created something of value from it?

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erikstarck
It's a very good read. I liked its style, it's written as a master/tutor
discussion a la Socrates. It's also a fairly quick read. Recommended!

After reading it you will be thinking: if a business model can't be explained
with four strokes of a pen it's too complex. :)

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tst
I would recommend reading the book recommendations in each chapter. It takes a
while but you'll read a lot of good stuff

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acconrad
I feel like blogging and trolling are now synonymous.

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steveklabnik
Wait, so Apple gets excluded

> We would have loved to have seen this innovative company included in the
> financial analysis, but Apple still makes far more than 50% of its revenues
> off hardware and devices.

But then Dell is included...

> Dell is known for being the classic direct sales company – without a bricks-
> based retail presence

Apple's brick and mortar stores are doing well, but not _that_ well, right?

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cjeane
'the typical 6,000-square-foot Apple store rang up sales of about $4,700 per
square foot in 2008, which was "undoubtedly the highest among retail chains in
the country"'

Source: [http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/apple-stores-now-
just-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/apple-stores-now-just-cheap-
entertainment-for-broke-shoppers-aapl)

~~~
steveklabnik
Impressive.

Frankly, I'm still not sure that Dell or Apple would be a good choice to
include here anyway; of course a place that sells $1000 - $2000 objects is
going to have incredibly high revenues, and as you can see on the graph, it
kind of skews it a bit...

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EGreg
I would hardly say there are only seven.

[http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/07/10-business-models-that-
roc...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/07/10-business-models-that-rocked-2010/)

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ggordan
This is partly related, but fascinating nonetheless:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8552410.stm>

'mapping the growth of the internet'

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bhousel
8\. Cybercrime

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adamdecaf
Yep, and one of them is to apparently make your site load, then disappear when
JavaScript is disabled. Classy way to throw away business...

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polynomial
The eighth business model is of course offering a reward to anyone coming up
with a viable business model that is not on the list.

