Re: Re: Online Business Idea
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*Originally posted by Umar Talib: *
Oldexams, I like the idea, but what would be the revenue model for the online website? Also is there currently a website which provides a listing of desi restaurants? I haven't done my research on this, but a similar idea I had is more of a a variation/refinement of your idea whereby the e-Commerce revenue model will be a hybrid of a subscription model based on selling online listings, an advertising model based on query based placements and a brokerage model based on transactions.
On the supplier side (GTA restaurants), your model will operate on the basis of:
i) Subscription fees (very minimal) paid by local restaurants to be listed on your site.
ii) Advertising fees (on a cost plus pricing basis) for query based link positioning: this is where you will sell favorable link positioning (i.e., sponsored links) to restaurants that pay a premium on top of the basic subscription fees. If somebody is searching for restaurants catering Seekh kebabs for example, maybe Lahore Tikka will pay to be listed at the top etc.
iii) Percent of sale commission (again, very minimal) based on user click-though in which the users subsequently purchase a product, i.e. honor their reservations.* Say when the customer shows up at Lahore Tikka, and the restaurant knows they've come from your site, they'd pay you a certain percentage, say 2% hypothetically of the bill.
On the consumer side (savvy on-line diners), your model will operate on the basis of offering value-added services to users, including:
i)
offering a one-stop website for Desi Dining where they can either browse different listings, or search based on their specific desired menu parameters etc.
ii)
storing user preferences in a backend data warehouse. Your site will “remember” customer preferences overtime. These preferences can be built overtime as you build a critical mass of users, and once you reach that stage, you can start selling this information to restaurants for a certain fees. When you go onto doing this, you’ll be adding an Infomediary based revenue model to your portfolio of revenue generation schemes, i.e. this will become item iv in the list above.
Dunn forget to send me my share after you startup your business :o :D
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Thanks for the feedback, Umar. Revenue would be generated mainly through online sponsorship and possibly through restaurants, but I doubt the latter is a very realistic option. I'm not even sure how serious I am about this idea now that I've had a chance to reserach it a bit more and realize that given the technical expertise (which I don't have) that will be required to maintain an innovative website, the amount of money that comes in just might not be enough. I might still try it for ****s and giggles.....need some interesting activity for the summer...
On another note, most of the literature I've read points out to selling goods as the most profitable of online businesses. The problem with this is maintain an inventory etc, but there's a way to work around it. I'm not sure if I should mention it here though.