V3.com VS TwitterCounter.com
In 1997 I started working on an idea I had for a redirect service based on domains from Tonga. I registered come.to, surf.to and welcome.to and together with two friends (Hans-Poul and Eric) we started a company called V3.com. We ended up selling our company in 1999 to Fortunecity.
That is a short version of that story as I have talked about it a lot before. What I wanted to talk about is how similar V3.com was to TwitterCounter.com. Don’t get me wrong: they served completely different purposes and technically they were very different too but there are a few very distinct similarities which I would like to show you:
| V3.com | TwitterCounter.com |
 |
|
| Yes, both services have a button. With V3 only people who were really happy with the service (a lot!) added this button to their homepages. At TwitterCounter you could say that the button IS the service so that makes this viral growth aspect even more powerful. | |
| generated money from advertisement | generates money from advertisement |
| Well, that sorta makes sense right? The funny thing is that most people (now and then) don’t realize how powerful this service is when it comes to advertising. Both services are pretty low maintenance and with every new member you get a few extra new ad views a day. All you have to do is increase membership and with it ad views will increase as well. | |
| Disgarded as ‘funny but not a real business’ | Disgarded as ‘funny but not a real business’ |
| Not that I’m complaining here but this one keeps amazing me. When I was working on V3.com I had to defend myself all the time. When I explained the concept I would either get a blank stare or people would say “You are out of your mind, this isn’t going anywhere, who would be interested in THAT’. I never understood that people couldn’t see the potential for the service. Same goes for TwitterCounter. Yeah, it’s a funny little thing I threw together in a few hours. But with every new member I get another banner, and link to TwitterCounter generating a few more visitors a day, generating a little more advertising revenue, and new members. Repeat that last sentence 10 times and you might get an idea of the potential behind TwitterCounter. | |
| Weak spot: Domain prices? | Weak spot: Twitter future? |
| Another similarity is that there was a big weak spot that is easily recognizable in both services. At V3.com it was clear that as soon as domain names would become really cheap we wouldn’t really have a business left. At TwitterCounter I am completely depended of Twitter. If they stumble, close down, change their policies and become less open, or even lose their market share because of the Next Twitter I’m gone. | |
| Excitement: high! | Excitement: high! |
| I’m really excited about Twittercounter in a very similar way as I was with V3.com. It is very exciting to browse the web and just randomly see your own product featured on blogs and websites. My partner in V3 (Hans-Poul) once told me he was driving around in his car and felt slightly depressed for no particular reason. When he stopped for a red light he looked out of his side window, through the rain, and saw a sign on a restaurant. In big yellow letters they had printed “Surf.to/Shoarma” on their window. He felt a lot better right away! I get a similar feeling when I brose to Leo Laporte’s website and see a TwitterCounter (leolaporte has 51,738 followers!) displayed prominently. | |
Ok, I hope that gives you some insight into what I liked about V3.com and currently like about TwitterCounter.com. To finish this post I will answer a question that you might have right now: Do I think that I will sell TwitterCounter for a lot of money (or shares) just like I did with V3.com?
The answer: I don’t know, but lets find out…
Filed under Business, Business Theory, Fun, Innovation, Inspiration, Money, OpenIdea, Personal, Programming, Twitter |
5 Responses to “V3.com VS TwitterCounter.com”
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Great blog Boris, and interesting to compare the two projects. I think twittercounter is great - and I know from tracking on my own sites and blogs that the counter itself helps not only get ads to you, but draw more followers to me. So we both benefit.
Both concepts are broadly ones that appeal to human vanity - we want followers, and we want to be seen to be popular - as in 1997, we wanted a snappy, easy-to-remember URL, and registering domains and setting up our own sites was too complicated and too expensive.
By the way, I really like the new look of the blog - very clean and cool.
White space is good.
Boris thank you!
I like your way of doing business.
I believe the issue is, and moreso in Holland than some places, that people don’t know how to differentiate between the empty dotcom BS that has no hope and the empty dotcom BS being started by people that can execute. You nicknamed me “Fake it ’til you make it,” but the same applies to you.
However, I love this phenomenon rather than get annoyed by it. If everyone thinks I’m doing something smart, there’s way too much competition.
He he he, thanks Scott, I meant the “Fake it ’til you make it” nickname as a compliment and am happy to adopt it for myself too.
In general I’m too perplexed to be annoyed if people don’t get it.
Well, look at it this way: you’ve probably made more on TwitterCounter than Twitter has ever made!