Your next Internet Venture

Ever since I worked with an Entreprenual company Folio3, I came across many examples for innovative ideas and IT/Internet business strategies. A close analysis of some trends opened the door of hundred of new business ventures which are untouched. Here I'll discuss some of my theories that I think form the basis of many new ventures that we get to hear.

Before I start let me explain a couple of very important points. You don't need to create a whole new thing or technology in order to get a big market share. Take Google, the internet search was already there, all Google did was made it smarter and indexed more pages than anyone else had.

So the next time you think of a cool idea for internet dont go for fun stuff. A lot of the people when asked about their to-do plan, show their interst in creating a social networking portal or a job site, which is mainly because thats all that they have actually been to. To me this is completely wrong, frankly you can't beet Facebook so dont waste your efforts. Instead a networking site targeted to a particular group can do well.


I present four theories.


Let People Save Money:

Ever since I started using the internet I have believed that people prefer services/websites thhat save them money. For an example sending SMS message in Pakistan costs half a Rupee. A simple website like SMS4Smile which allows to send free sms is attracting visitors.


Let People Earn Money:

Websites that let people save money attract traffic but not even half in number than the websites which allow the people to earn from them, with dignity ofcourse. I present the Youtube Partner Program to prove my theory. Techcrunch's this article shows how cool it is to let people earn by using your services on a regular basis and infact make yourself a fortune.


The Broker Way:

This one's old, you don't build the product, instead you build upon someone else's products. Consider Good Guide, a simple website that lets users rate consumer products. This site attracts both the consumers, who want to buy the best product and the producers, who can get feedback about their products.


Desktop goes Online:

Now this is something interesting. The trend towards online computing is not new and we have seen many online applications by Google and now Microsoft which is taking its Office online. This opens up tons of opportunities for ideas providing daily usage appllications with Rich User Interface and some online storage. Cloud computing can help you get the speed you require.


I think there's still a lot more to do on the internet which can generate a good chunk of money. The right person to take advantage of this is who's a thinker and a hacker.

Happy Innovation.

Seminar at CTTC

Microsoft Pakistan has asked me to conduct a seminar on 15th May 2008, on 'Web Tools and Technologies'. The idea is to discuss latest technologies and emerging trends.

As ISPs (Internet Service Providers) increase their bandwidth offerings, high speed internet is quite common through DSL and WiMax connections. If users face a slow page load, the Server is responsible. One solution could be a scalable architecture, the other Cloud Computing.

My Power Point presentation can be downloaded from here.

Your comments are welcome.