The demise of XS-Media and Alive boast a number of uncanny
similarities.
Both operations had great ideas and visions behind them and they had
some of the most experienced staff the Asia-Pacific industry had to
offer.
But changes in their positionings several times in the course of their
brief lives only confused the market, still grappling with what they had
to offer in the first place. Were they content sites or were they online
sales sites? Needless to say, the changes were to have a detrimental
impact.
The lesson is simple: do the homework on the business model and its
place in the market well before starting out and then build on it.
