they could generate revenue quickly enough to solve their cash crunch. Besides, they would have to hire people to monitor what was happening in the Grotto, identify the opportunities for virtual goods, and create them, and that would add more cost just when they were struggling to keep going. It was such a great idea, it might eat them alive before they ever got to see it work.
Rather than trying to create virtual goods, Ben suggested simply taking a cut of the transactions.
‘Dude,’ retorted Kevin, ‘you’re turning into the government!’
‘No, we provide the Grotto, so it’s like we’re providing the real estate and we’re taking a rent—’
‘We’re taking a sales tax!’ said Kevin, picking up the fly swat and whacking the armrest of his chair with it.
‘It’s a service fee.’
‘It’s a tax. No! We’re not taxing anybody. We’re creators, not taxers!’
Andrei agreed. He then came up with the idea of developing virtual money for the transactions in the Grotto, taking a fee for issuing and managing the currency. Kevin didn’t think that was much better than Ben’s idea. ‘Dude, you’re turning us into the Fed! If you guys want to do stuff like that, why not just charge a membership fee?’
‘Don’t be an idiot,’ said Andrei. ‘No one’s going to pay a fee.’
‘We could say we’re not for profit. We could ask for donations.’
Andrei gazed at Kevin suspiciously. Of the three of them, he was the least likely to propose that idea.
Kevin laughed at the preposterousness of his own proposition. ‘And you can kiss goodbye to any of the development ideas we’ve got. We’ll be lucky to raise enough to keep going.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Ben, ‘it’s possible—’
‘Dude, someone else will start up and do exactly what we’re doing for free, because they’ll let in advertising. And not only will they make a shitload of money, they’ll build a better, faster, smarter service for their users, and nobody’s going to fork out anything for the slow, shitty service that we’ll be offering. Anyone who does this is going to let in advertising, because that’s the only way to make this thing work.’
There was silence.
‘I like the currency idea,’ said Andrei.
‘That’s because you thought of it,’ muttered Kevin.
‘We’ll call it Fish Food. Fish Food comes in all shapes and sizes.’
Kevin shrugged. If he had to choose between Ben’s idea and Andrei’s, he preferred Andrei’s, but only marginally. But in any event, like his own virtual goods proposal, it would take time to get going, and would impose more costs up front.
‘Maybe we should take an investment,’ said Andrei, when they found themselves hashing over the problem again a couple of days later and another few thousand dollars down in their bank account. Apart from Mike Sweetman’s $100 million offer for the whole company, he had had some calls from venture capitalists asking if they could come and talk to him. Some of them had even made preliminary offers over the phone.
‘Sure,’ said Kevin. ‘And you know the first thing they’re going to say to you? How do you monetize this business? And if advertising isn’t part of it, that’s the first thing they’re going to ask for. At least this way we have control. We don’t hand it over to a bunch of corporate suits. And we can be smart about this. I’m not talking about banner ads. I’m not talking about anything that’s going to deface the site. Say you log on to your home page and you get a message about a some selected aspect of your specific interest. You know right away it’s about something you’re really interested in. It’s giving you knowledge as much as trying to sell you something – it’s giving you information you need to know because of your interest. It’s a service as much as anything. This doesn’t have to be the same as everybody else. We can do it in a totally Fishbowll way.’ Kevin leaned forward. He waved the fly swat for emphasis.
‘Do you know what we have here, Andrei? We have the most targeted list of audiences for advertisers in the history of the world. This is fucking awesome or awe-inspiring or whatever the word is. Most sites, you know, people say what they’re interested in, and you try to target like that. Or on the basis of searches they’ve done or stuff they’ve previously bought.’ Kevin snorted. ‘Like advertising for what you bought yesterday isn’t closing the door some time after the horse has bolted! How dumb is that?