Judy’s Book: What’s On Sale? WE ARE! Ten Reasons Why
Judy’s Book has a special answer today to its homepage question, ”What’s on sale near you”: WE ARE!
Founder Andy Sack chronicles the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the site characterized by Seth Godin upon its founding in the summer of 2004 as a “sort of Craigslist meets Zagats meets Orkut.” At the time, Sack himself expressed ambiguity about what Judy’s Book really stood for, posing company “positioning questions” out loud while seeking venture capital funding.
Zack actually began “modifying” the raison d’etre of the newly funded online “local” play way back then, even as it was in the process of officialy “coming out”:
I’ve been thinking about modifying the positioning of Judy’s Book…one thought is to postion the company as the world’s largest blog on local services, my other related thought is to actively pursue the group blogging space.
Astonishly, Sack also revealed his own significant doubts about what he nevertheless self-described as his “hot new ‘local-search’ startup idea”:
I’m concerned that Judy’s Book doesn’t yet solve a problem that needs to be solved everyday–or more accurately, that it isn’t yet a solution that engages sticky membership (return visitors).
Surprisingly, $2.5 million in venture capital financing was indeed allocated to Sack’s nebulous “idea” by Ignition Partners and Ackerley Partners.
The lack of deciciveness of Sack and his Judy’s Book is not a matter of one time start-up jitters. Judy’s Book has radically changed both its rasion d’etre and business model, at will.
Despite Judy’s Book’s propensity to redo what it does, Sack’s admission of defeat today stems from what Judy’s Book set out to be: A user generated content platform for local reviews.
The consumer local review business model entails inherent challenges, from both the user and advertiser perspectives. Here are ten reasons why:
USER GENERATED LOCAL REVIEWS
Attraction and retention of posters and readers,
Haphazard quality of consumer review contributions,
Hidden agendas of anonymous posters,
Sarcastic, promotional and revenge reviews,
Obsolesence of reviews and business listings…
LOCAL MERCHANT ADVERTISERS
High-cost, high-touch, long sales-cycle,
Low price point of ad products,
Resistance to uncontrolled consumer environment,
Lack of proven ROI…
AND…SCALABILITY ISSUES!
What’s next, for Sack, Judy’s Book and the local search space?
Sack: Looking forward to his next (fifth or sixth) startup,
Judy’s Book: Operations scaled back and seeking a strategic acquiror,
SEE YOU THERE? CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN
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