Dot Com Vol 1

"There is a theory which states that if anyone discovers just exactly what the universe is for and why we are here, that it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. Then there is a theory which states that this has already happened." Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

The reason I open this entry with a quote from Douglas Adams is because I was reminded the other day how, just as I'm exiting the very long and tenuous tail end of that other bizarre and inexplicable event "The Dot Com Era", I find myself encountering the very nebulous and leading edge of the next big thing.

Except that for all intents and purposes the next big thing shows all the signs of being just another effort re-invent the advertising wheel, only (to quote Adams again)

"This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything."

Oy!

After all "Dot Com Vol 1" was basically founded on the idea that there was this very cheap and easy mechanism to put eyeballs in front of advertisments. This meant that all of a sudden advertising could be used to distribute, exploit and most importantly sell almost anything, to almost anyone, anywhere in the world. What followed had the characteristics of an hyperinflationary era of the value of advertising and the Internet as real things with real value.

Like money, both advertising and the Internet don't have any intrinsic value on their own. You can't keep the rain off your head with the Internet and you can't eat advertising for breakfast. No, its the information on the Internet that gives it actual value, and its the medium that puts advertising in front of eyeballs with the ability to consume that give it value. As such they appear to be perfect symbiotic partners. But it took a while for anyone to put some serious thought to the question: "If an adverts plays on the Internet and nobody buys, does it create value?". Inspite of all the red ink on balance sheets, for the longest time the perception was that the whole dot com era was really, genuinely, honest to Greenspan, creating value. Unfortunately all that value was based on investment, and investment attracting more investment, for all intents and purposes, a classic pyramid scheme.

Now what of "Dot Com Vol 2"?

... to be continued