"This Wall Street Journal article lays out one of the most perplexing things about how established companies, leaders in their industries, behave with an incumbent's mind-set...
"The situation shows how sticky things can get when free, nonrevenue-generating gimmicks blossom into hits. In 2006, Disney boasted that one million avatars had been created inside VMK, though the company declines to say how many users the site actually has (individuals can create multiple characters). The site, which operates from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Pacific time, still boasts a few thousand daily users."
Couple of remarkable takeaways from this little quote.
1. Disney managed to get a million folks to translate their off-line affinity for Disney parks into some online activity. It fizzled in growing users from there of course, since the whole thing was designed just as a short-term "promotion" for the perennial off-line properties.
2. Disney actually had off-line operating hours for an online site, which presumably can be accessed 24/7, from anywhere in the world.
Some of these questions popped into my mind reading this saga:
1. How much does it cost to keep the site running? How does that cost compare to other promotional initiatives by Disney for it's off-line properties that last for years or indefinitely?
2. What are the pros and cons of moving the site from it's marketing/promotional departments, to the operational side? What if this were turned over to some in-house employees with a "start-up mentality", and ask them to see how something like this could be turned into a sustainable virtual presence of Disney's real-world properties? Could it be morphed into being both a permanent promotional and an entertaining online property in it's own right? And of course, could that be turned into a profitable operation in the long-term?
3. Would an effort like this cost anywhere near the $700 million it cost Disney to buy Club Penguin last year from outside entrepreneurs with the right "startup mentality"?..."
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Source: *michael parekh on IT* Ruminations on the Internet, Technology, and Interesting Trends around the globe.
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