Plaxo & Comcast: I Don't Get It
Plaxo, having been on the block for a while according to rumors, is acquired by Comcast. TechCrunch puts the price at $150m-ish. I think it's a loser in the long run.
I don't mean this financially. I have not seen any figures on Plaxo but I presume the Comcast team considered many scenarios. They may end up very happy with the accretive value they receive. I mean the deal makes little sense to me strategically.
Comcast is a pipe owner. Its competitive advantage lies in the old economy. Access will continue to get commoditized.
Plaxo is not a true social media company. It has the wrong DNA: It grew through spamming. It may have lots of data but it has little engagement or passion. I find Pulse totally useless. It know almost nothing about the context in which i am connected to others through its system. It's the anti-Facebook.
I commend Comcast on the boldness and vision. But they picked the wrong company. I suspect it will try to offer Plaxo's quasi-social graph to its subscribers or lay it over its media properties and affiliations. Well meant, but it will not work. I think Plaxo's recent signals of openness, like its participation in Open Social, were decoys and PR moves. They remain closed in their DNA.
Comcast is not just a pipe though, they are also content and with the emergence of content on demand, tivo etc... the boundaries between Internet and TV are becoming blurry, so I think we'll see Comcast emerge as more of a content player.
Check out http://www.mojohd.com/
it's a TV channel they own with heavy web presence.
Posted by: Honor Gunday | May 23, 2008 at 01:25 PM