Sunday, January 4, 2009

The Success Mantra--C2B Portals/Media Platforms

The Success Mantras of Internet Portals—Introducing C2B portals or Media platforms

Since joining the Internet/Media bandwagon about 2 years back, everyday seems to throw a new thing to me.

We all agree on one thing that it is always easier to make money from people who make money by giving you some money rather than those who have to shell out money and buying stuff to consume. In Simple language, it is B vis a vis C. So any transaction which involves B at both ends is most likely to succeed. On the other hand, a transaction which involves C at both ends find very hard to complete.
So, we have B2B businesses, transactions or in Internet, portals making lot of money. On the other hand C2C portals are facing the toughest times. The B2C portals which are in majority falls in between (All major sites Yahoo/Rediff or even Google) falls into this bracket.
Now, all this is very common and known worldwide. So what is new that I am trying to share? Here I Go.

Within B2C portals, have you ever wondered why Job portals are generally very succesfull, loan generation portals (apnloan.com) are next, whereas some others are not ( Matrimonial, Real Estate etc).

I observed a very interesting thing. In the B2C portals also, we have two segments. In one segment, Business asks Consumer to buy/respond to something for which he/she needs to shall out money but in other segment, they pay consumer in the end. So it is a reverse model, should I call it C2B. Let me explain

In job Portals, it is the business side which pays the media house to get C and C gets the most coveted thing in life ‘Job’ free of cost. Yes, as a consumer, you never pay in the entire transaction , you are paid eventually when you get a job.
Similarly, the bank loan lead generation is a similar example. The consumer is getting loan ( money) from the banks especially the personal loans. I now most of you which are reading this blog do not want to receive unsolicited calls but there is huge chunk of Indian population who would like to get as much as loan as possible and then personal loan for which you need not give any guarantee. So, they would be jumping to get these loans.
This is the model where B chases C , pays media company also to do so but eventually pays to C also when he gets them. So, media models where Business’s pay Media to get Consumers but eventually also pay consumers in the end ensures maximum success to Business and eventually to Media.