The world according to GRP — Wednesday, March 12, 2008:
Amazon should buy WordPress.com!
Amazon is both an advertiser and a retailer. Google, in contrast, is essentially an advertiser; it doesn't have many revenue-earning products except ads. In terms of vertical integration, Amazon's weakness is that it doesn't have an ad-delivery platform whose reach compares with that of Google's search engine or video hosting service (YouTube) or blog hosting service (Blogger).
As a solution, Amazon could acquire the blog hosting site WordPress.com (or its parent company, Automattic Inc). According to Alexa, WordPress.com doesn't yet have as much reach as Blogger, but it's gaining ground. And WordPress.com already has more reach than Amazon.com.
At present, WordPress.com's free services are funded (at least in part) by displaying Google ads with some posts. So the procedure after acquisition would be:
- Replace the Google ads with Amazon ads — on all posts;
- Allow non-paying WordPress.com users who have Amazon Affiliate accounts to claim and modify the ads, but not remove them;
- Make some paid WordPress.com services free (as Google did with Blogger);
- Promote WordPress.com on other Amazon-controlled websites;
- Introduce a paid feature whereby WordPress.com users can remove Amazon ads and/or insert other ads.
[Featured in "a make money blogging carnival" (March 14, 2008) at SuccessPart2.Com, and "Electronic Commerce" (March 18, 2008) at My E-Commerce.]
Copyright © Gavin R. Putland except as otherwise attributed. Posted at The world according to GRP under the title Amazon should buy WordPress.com!. You may republish this item verbatim on your website or blog provided that you include this notice (with hyperlinks).
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