6 Steps to Commercialize Edge Aggregators

March 6th, 2006

I’ve been extremely interested in Edgeio for two reasons:

1) For consumers, the future potential of edge aggregators is huge.
2) The commercialization challenges these ventures face isn’t trivial. The challenges are numerous, each one posing a uniquely different puzzle that needs to be solved.

Lots of discussion about the future of Edgeio thanks to their inability to down-geek

But, from the Edgeio blog, a shimmer of hope.

Edgeio was launched with a set of features specifically designed for bloggers who are familiar with tagging, and with ping servers. Some have said (correctly) that this is too narrow an audience for a listings network… We are almost ready to roll out features for bloggers who are less familiar with the technology, and also for non-bloggers.

I’m anxious to see what they do. On the one hand it sounds like they may understand the challenge to commercialization, but then you listen to the podcast and it’s not so clear.

While the issues of Edgeio may get ironed out for geeks the proposed value proposition for a non-geek isn’t great enough to attract consumer users. And that’s the rub - without the consumer market the value for geeks will never reach potential and the service fails to commercialize.

So what’s an edge aggregator to do? I’m thinking through my thoughts - they’re not settled yet - but here they are, in rough:

1) Start by building a service that isn’t about edge aggregation. If the service isn’t of value without the consumer market and the consumer market can’ t support an edge aggregator that is geek approved, then don’t please the geek crowd by building an edge aggregator. Instead, build a service that attracts the consumer market (it may be Web 1.0, but that’s what consumers are ready for).

2) Design the service for future edge aggregation ability. Not aggregating the edge today through geek-centric ways doesn’t preclude the service from edge aggregation in the future. Build a service that can easily adapt edge aggregation support. This way, consumers can walk down the path towards edge aggregation from within a service they already trust, value and use, while they start to understand, trust, and use new technology (RSS, tags, etc.). Going about it the other way means a constant uphill struggle to educate consumers to new technology that they need to use to understand the value in the service.

3) Focus on a small segment. Classifieds are the Holly Grail of online listings and the competition reflects this. To break into this market is next to impossible. Doing so while trying to educate the average consumer about the value of edge aggregation and new technology makes the task all but impossible. So don’t focus on traditional classifieds. Tackle a listing segment that is underserviced online (possibly because the value to do so is small). Competition will be low, and you’ll be able to get a foothold for the service. If you execute properly you’ll be able to develop a customer base of average consumers without a lot of competition. This is the homerun at the early stage.

4) Introduce edge aggregation-like services to the current service/listing segment. Slowly walk your existing user base - that trusts, values, … the service - towards the light that is edge aggregation. It will be a challenging task, but a lot less challenging than trying to educate consumers who aren’t familiar with your service.

5) Connect the dots. Your users will already be enjoying edge aggregation benefits within your small listing segment. Slowly introduce the idea that the same benefits of edge aggregation for the specific listing segment can be enjoyed for all forms of listings. Watch the light-bulbs turn on. At which point, you’re ready to…

6) Turn on the light switch. Open up your service for all forms of list aggregation. Your users will help give edge aggregation credibility to other consumers (and help spread the word) and the geeks who already understand edge aggregation will have a edge aggregation service with enough users to enjoy real value.

The list is far from perfect - my thoughts are still developing. But you can see the challenges a young start-up faces. Each one of the points sounds painfully counterintuitive to “smart” strategy.