Lesson learnt in E-Commerce

It was 2001, at the end of the dot com bubble burst. More and more internet companies are going belly up. But one of my friends said, "Hey why don't we set up a web hosting company?" He was completely oblivious to the fact that the bubble had just burst and he was thinking on catching the "wave" that just wasn't there anymore.

But the group of friends with him, were similarly oblivious and was wondering if such a venture would work. I was one of those friends. So we decided to try it out, 8 years ago. And I heavily invested in a high bandwidth internet connection and the hardware for the server. Among all of the participants, I suppose I was very optimistic that this would work in the beginning.

But as time wore on, we realized that we bought the equipment too early and did not even have any customers who wanted our services as of yet. Probably the dot com bubble bursting had a huge impact on our business prospectus but in the end, I was badly burnt by the experience because I had put in so much of my own money in at the time.

It wasn't a great amount by today's standards, but it was my personal savings and it was a lot when I was still a freshman at Nanyang Polytechnic and not yet earning much from my games reviewing that I just started a couple months before I decided on the venture.

Looking back almost ten years ago, I realized that we would have required a huge amount of luck, dedication and tons of publicity. Obviously we did not have that or I wouldn't be here typing this blog right now. Anyways, it was still a valuable lesson learnt in how to do an E-business, in fact not just an E-business but any business in general is to have a solid vision of your business model right from the start or your not going to go anywhere fast.

Alauz Out!

Idiots of today, Geniuses of tomorrow
今日の馬鹿，明日わ天才