That's easy: This person has no idea why Walmart is successful. Walmart's success has little to nothing to do with convenience. It has everything to do with economies of scale, being able to apply pressure to your suppliers, and efficient inventory tracking and prediction. The proposed website benefits from none of these...
I disagree. In the physical world, a "one-stop shop" like Walmart adds value because it costs time to travel between many different stores. What our author fails to realize is that there are already "one-stop shops" on the web: namely Google and Bing.
Even if you have to go through the arduous task of typing a website into your browser's address bar to get from YouTube to eBay, it's still a fraction of the effort required to get from Ace Hardware to Target, no matter how close the stores are situated to each other. The Internet doesn't need a one-stop shop as badly as "real life".
If that was THE website to go to for all of the services they offer, saving a couple seconds of typing might be advantageous. But they're not. Why should people switch? It's not particularly superior, as far as I can tell.
I applaud the effort, but will most likely never use it, and I doubt I'm alone.
I'm not sure on you guys reasoning, but this could work. You can't get a job on Facebook, or post your classifieds on Google, or Fiverr on YouTube. If it becomes integrated seamlessly with one login and you can do the same things as the other sites then it may work...just maybe, but I don't think this guy really knows what he is doing.
That's why they're so profitable, but that's not why customers like them, at least not directly. Those things all contribute to low prices, which is one of the things he lists. All of the things you listed are benefits of extremely large scale, but Walmart wasn't born being huge. How did they get there?
It's almost as though someone built this as an object lesson in the horrors of losing focus. This idea is terrible – and the design tells you all you need. Look at all that. It's like a piñata full of services exploded all over their homepage.
Wal-Mart also has one of the worst customer experiences ever – so we can snark all we want but this guy has succeeded in his goal in at least one dimension.
edit: Also, who is giving this "business" $20k to work with?
>"Wal-Mart also has one of the worst customer experiences ever"
Really? Every time I go I leave with a big smile. It might not be Zappos, but it's good enough considering the insanely low prices (even on commodity products!).
Every Wal-Mart I've ever been to has been crowded with loaded pallets and filled with sullen, unengaged employees. It's emphatically my least favorite place to shop.
The customer experience is great for their customer. Lots of stuff, cheap. Don't expect to find a valet at the front of your local Wal-Mart, the people who require a valet are not Wal-Mart's customer.
I don't think that is the founder..just someone working on the site or something. I think that video was purchased from Fiverr or somewhere because I bought one from that same guy.
Checking out the site, it's actually pretty impressive. Not in the well-designed sense, but in the having-an-actual-product sense (even if it's, you know, a blatant ripoff of the sites he listed...http://www.globalcommunity.me/blog/ feels like it takes the cake in that regard). I'm curious about where he got his funding from.
Edit: The alt-text for his "Blog" image is literally 'scritter'. My co-workers are giving me funny looks.
That's actually a free icon from a Twitter icon pack. I've seen it in a few roundups. Nice that he's using a creative commons artistic twitter rendition icon as his mascot.
He's just cobbling together existing software. The auction is a default skin of PHPProBid.
I don't recognize the other sections, but none of them have the same look and feel (other than the logo...which is still a stretch). I think it's safe to say each section is just white-labeled software someone else created.
The fact that it takes longer to get to the auction section of the site than to just type in "http://www.ebay.com is a warning sign too. I bet he did this on a free server, because it's really slow.
It looks like he intends to create his vision by buying a domain, buying a "{x}.com clone script" for each of the sites he mentioned, and installing them each in a subdirectory of his domain. They're not connected in any meaningful way, be it in terms of unified login or design.
Not to be overly skeptical, but if you have to pay $5.00 to get someone to give you an opinion, you may not have the critical thinking skills that I see most successful entrepreneurs display. Unless this was some kind of viral marketing seed that went wrong. Then again, it did hit HN so who knows ...
What successful entrepreneurs do you actually know? Go back to the Global Community website and did you know that both banners on the homepage are the founders businesses and they both make over 20K per month. Silly as it may seem..the marketing strategies work, and the best part about it is it only cost $5 and they made that back in adsense revenue easily with the 2000 views today. Wait until the website is finished and talk then.
I'm having horrible flashbacks to Rentacoder and all of the competitions calling for clones of popular sites. I can't believe someone managed to bring them all together. This is madness!
The only thing it's missing is a Rentacoder clone full of requests to clone this site.
Here's a hint, dear webmaster. If you find yourself saying things like, "I am shocked that no other website has thought of doing this", you're probably missing something.
The Global Community is a content driven social networking site that has the functionalities of most common social networks. It is a place to share with others using pictures, music, and video. It is a place to chat, a place to find a date, a place to sell your goods or sevices, a place to host your photos. a place to buy and sell music, a place for blogging and more. It is not only a social network. It is a place for business. We have made it easy for any size business to benefit from using our site. Businesses can advertise their goods and services, sell goods or services, sell music, post jobs, search resumes, and even schedule events. Businesses can benefit tremendously by using our site by building their brand name right here. We have many things coming down the pipeline that are designed to help your business succeed. We encourage all businesses to be a part of the Gloabal Community. The Global Community is a site to help you connect with others and helps you do the things you normally do while online. Wherever you are in the world, use The Global Community Website to connect with millions, make new friends, search for employment, sell or buy goods, and keep in touch with others. The Global Community is open to everyone 18 years of age or older. The Global Community is your online social network! More than a social networking site. The Global Community is a place for business. We hope you will share in this journey with us. Your World...One Place...Global Community
Of course if Global Community turns into the next Google+Facebook+Amazon, we'll all look like fools...
I don't think the site is finished yet, as it said they would launch soon. I think you guys are wrong here...don't know why but I get that feeling. If they could get a massive user base and people click on ads they should make enough from the Google ads and search. I would list my business page on there and set up shop.
Basically his 'one stop shop' is a website version of the browser favorites toolbar, only where the links take you to a shittier version of your favorite site with no userbase.
I am sure this is an elaborate joke.
One of the ad that shows up on the landing page is this:
Arrogant garage - Where customers are treated like friends.
OK, I felt compelled to check some of the source. Aside from references to tripod.com and every js library out there, here's what I saw where there were credits:
Auction: Professional Auction Script Software by PHP Pro Bid
44 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 82.5 ms ] threadIf that was THE website to go to for all of the services they offer, saving a couple seconds of typing might be advantageous. But they're not. Why should people switch? It's not particularly superior, as far as I can tell.
I applaud the effort, but will most likely never use it, and I doubt I'm alone.
http://globalcommunity.me/
It's worth checking out.
It's almost as though someone built this as an object lesson in the horrors of losing focus. This idea is terrible – and the design tells you all you need. Look at all that. It's like a piñata full of services exploded all over their homepage.
Wal-Mart also has one of the worst customer experiences ever – so we can snark all we want but this guy has succeeded in his goal in at least one dimension.
edit: Also, who is giving this "business" $20k to work with?
Really? Every time I go I leave with a big smile. It might not be Zappos, but it's good enough considering the insanely low prices (even on commodity products!).
http://www.globalcommunity.me/videos/video/index.html
More videos about the site in his youtube account. I feel a little bad for the guy...
Edit: The alt-text for his "Blog" image is literally 'scritter'. My co-workers are giving me funny looks.
I don't recognize the other sections, but none of them have the same look and feel (other than the logo...which is still a stretch). I think it's safe to say each section is just white-labeled software someone else created.
... and he's trying to do this on $20k?
... and he wants to have a global consumer-oriented business website without a .com domain?
... and the whole "one-stop shop" concept stops becoming appealing when going to a specialty store takes two clicks instead of driving two miles.
Also, the design of the actual site leaves ... something to be desired: http://www.globalcommunity.me/
The only thing it's missing is a Rentacoder clone full of requests to clone this site.
The Global Community is a content driven social networking site that has the functionalities of most common social networks. It is a place to share with others using pictures, music, and video. It is a place to chat, a place to find a date, a place to sell your goods or sevices, a place to host your photos. a place to buy and sell music, a place for blogging and more. It is not only a social network. It is a place for business. We have made it easy for any size business to benefit from using our site. Businesses can advertise their goods and services, sell goods or services, sell music, post jobs, search resumes, and even schedule events. Businesses can benefit tremendously by using our site by building their brand name right here. We have many things coming down the pipeline that are designed to help your business succeed. We encourage all businesses to be a part of the Gloabal Community. The Global Community is a site to help you connect with others and helps you do the things you normally do while online. Wherever you are in the world, use The Global Community Website to connect with millions, make new friends, search for employment, sell or buy goods, and keep in touch with others. The Global Community is open to everyone 18 years of age or older. The Global Community is your online social network! More than a social networking site. The Global Community is a place for business. We hope you will share in this journey with us. Your World...One Place...Global Community
Of course if Global Community turns into the next Google+Facebook+Amazon, we'll all look like fools...
But, I'm not holding my breath.
http://www.globalcommunity.me/classifieds/flashLander/gc_lan...
Some people should not be allowed to own a computer.
Auction: Professional Auction Script Software by PHP Pro Bid
Microblogging: scritter
Classifieds: not sure, source credits BearBones.us (which accepts barter: http://bearbones.us/index.php?p=1_14_Barter)
Social Network: partuza
Dating: not sure, but seems to be the same script running webtryst based on a quick google search
Jobs: scribble