Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Selling out?

I read Gadgetopia quite regularly (really good geek site for various odd and interesting tech news)... and just recently Deane announced that they're joining FM Publishing network of sites...

I think it is a good thing for Gadgetopia, but it did get me thinking what is the difference between selling out and joining a quality network? Frequently if a company gets bought out by Microsoft it will be called selling out, yet if Google did the buying, then no, they're not a sellout, they're joining a quality company which will help them reach their full potential..

Is the difference purely market perception of the buying company? Or are there other factors? I don't really know, but interested to hear any thoughts...

B

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I think it determines much on the motive of the seller...cash or just pursuit of what their initial objective was only faster with new/additional resources and money.

2 things on the FM/Gadgetopia deal (For full disclosure, I do know Deane at gadgetopia):
1. I can assure you Deane loves Gadgetopia and did not sell out. He would like it to me a more sustainable and self-funding though.
2. The FM deal will not make gadgetopia rich and is not a whole lot different from AdSense in the network essence.

So, is AdSense selling out? It is a network as well.

Andrew said...

That's a good point on AdSense, it can mean that you're developing a more marketing revenue, sometimes it means that the quality of the articles goes down (perhaps they become little more than puff pieces for the advertisers?)...

I agree wholehearted on that Deane isn't selling out (don't know him, but he doesn't seem the kind to do so).

Sometimes you need to rejig your income if you want to see this site/product/group/company/whatever reach its full potential. It is a very grey area though, and perhaps the motives of the seller is the only real line in whether it is selling out or not..