B166ER - Made in Cyberspace

Several months ago, I had the pleasure of arguing with a young and gifted individual with a self-inflicted CEO position, a title that was claimed upon the launch of his small Web2.0 company. Being a low tech industry person with decent experience in operating commercial projects online, I stated that the Internet’s only real economy are merchants(sometimes of digital content) and services providers, and everything else is nothing but an advertising platform for these sites. So technically, no matter what kind of online company or project you lead, its complexity simply cannot compare to the challenges of managing the design and production of real product, even as simple as lets say, bottles.
I certainly went too far with that statement, but it was made in the heat of the argument and to emphasize a certain point. Surely enough, the response I got was “Why don’t you do it?“.

None of my acquaintances or even friends are aware of the full scale of my online projects, due to the simple reason that I never use my real name or claim any credit for running the communities, blogs, video services, directories, and ClickBank projects I own and operate on a daily basis. Anonymity has great advantages online, especially when you are in it for the money and the challenge, and not just ePenis. But running a full-scale company requires networking, and a certain amount of exposure in order to fit into your own industry, and in the Web2.0 “industry” exposure sure means a lot.

So, in order to prove a certain point, here “I am, doing it“.
You can visit Ixeest to see the company’s logo and the supported services. We are actually in early closed beta at this point, and when Ixeest enters any sort of open or invitation based beta stage, both Ixeest’s website and this Blog will be updated.

In the mean time, feel free to contact me via (shohat AT ixeest.com), and find more about me via my LinkedIn Profile.

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Slashdot has an item about Tech Heroes and contributors to internet technology -

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/04/1357230
Nothing too fancy or informative in the summary or comments , so I headed to the article . This is what the http://web2journal.com/read/331813.htm page looks like : Click here to see the worst adsoup on the web.

Brilliant table-based (not very Web 2.0) design , with a HUGE moving ad in the middle of the screen, and 12 more scattered around it .

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Universal Tube, which sells used machines that make tubes, has said it “has lost business because customers have had trouble accessing its site.” So now Utube is suing YouTube seeking a cease and desist on the youtube domain.

But this isn’t news now, at least not in internet terms - the story has reached every major technology/web2.0/news site on the (pla)net.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/02/0357210&from=rsse

http://digg.com/tech_news/Breaking_UTube_Sues_YouTube

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/02/pipes_youtube/

The readers’ reaction was the same pretty much everywhere; be it in direct responses to the news item, blogs and forums, everyone were talking about how stupid Utube is, and how it should “cash-in” on it’s traffic and free publicity. Because hey, when sites are being acquired for millions (and billions…) of dollars based solely on the amount of their monthly visitors and Alexa ranking, who the hell are Utube to say that traffic is worthless?

Who are UTube

UTube is a real company, the kind of company that depends on its revenue stream to survive, has a budget and client list, and is operating in a competitive market. Established in 1985, and led by a person with 30 years of experience in tube and pipe industry.

From the Company’s overview:

“We have one of the largest selections of used tube and pipe mills in the world. Utilizing over 125,000 square feet of warehouse space…. “

An example from their product line:

“Replacement Cost for a New Machine is approximately $1,900,000. “

The company was also smart enough to get a website early on, when most companies weren’t considering the Internet as part of their business model at all:

Domain Name: UTUBE.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Updated Date: 10-oct-2006
Creation Date: 26-oct-1996

(Youtube was registered in 2005)

But still, why not monetize the incoming traffic?

This question has been asked in many places (especially SEO and webmaster related parts of the blogosphere and forums), and the simple answer is - SMALL MONEY. Considering the amount of confused visitors (which will drop by around 90% when the lawsuit issue ends), this could probably bring in no more than 1500$ a day using the standard advertising methods. Which is less than what your local coffee shop makes, and is probably less than 1% of what UTube makes in a day. They stick to piping and don’t expand their business to the Online Advertising niche for the same reason webmasters stick to advertising and don’t expand their business to the Tube and Pipe business niche. Because it’s not their core business, and both companies and people should stick to what they know. Especially when what they don’t know brings a lot less money than what they do know.

For Dessert -the UTube Trademark

This is where things get funny, and somewhat ugly. It’s only two weeks old.

Word Mark	UTUBE
Goods and Services	IC 007. US 013 019 021 023 031 034 035. G & S: Tube and pipe mills, rollforming lines, and slitting lines. FIRST USE: 19961231. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19961231IC 037. US 100 103 106. G & S: Refurbishing of tube and pipe mills, rollforming lines, and slitting lines. FIRST USE: 19961231. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19961231
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code	(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Design Search Code
Serial Number	77023852
Filing Date	October 18, 2006
Current Filing Basis	1A
Original Filing Basis	1A
Owner	(APPLICANT) Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corporation CORPORATION OHIO 26202 Glenwood Road Perrysburg OHIO 43551
Attorney of Record	Richard G. Martin
Type of Mark	TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register	PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator	LIVE

This information was taken from the USPTO.gov website - notice the date, 18 October 2006. Just 9 days after Google bought Youtube for 1.65 Billion dollars in stock.

So, bottom line is : Yes, UTube is after Google’s money.

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