Smugmug killer by Microsoft ?

Dna

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but Microsoft is thinking of moving into Smugmug's / Flickr space ...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071111-first-a-youtube-clone-now-microsoft-takes-aim-at-flickr.html

Andrew

(Admins: please move if required.)

peestandingup

Those who can't innovate, imitate ;-)

claudermilk

Howto put this as nicely as I can? I don't see a huge success for MS in this venture.

Pupator

claudermilk wrote:

Howto put this as nicely as I can? I don't see a huge success for MS in this venture.

I don't know. They're main target is Flikr and I've never been impressed with them. Maybe they can compete if the product is outstanding.

They'll never compete with Smugmug even though they claim to want to. They don't realize just how different this user base is from Flikr.

Richard

Pupator wrote:

They'll never compete with Smugmug even though they claim to want to. They don't realize just how different this user base is from Flikr.

Agreed. The only possible danger is that Msft will buy Smugmug outright if they are seriously interested in getting into the market.

bwg

rsinmadrid wrote:

Agreed. The only possible danger is that Msft will buy Smugmug outright if they are seriously interested in getting into the market.

xris

Hmmm. More Grey Hairs?

rsinmadrid wrote:

Agreed. The only possible danger is that Msft will buy Smugmug outright if they are seriously interested in getting into the market.

I'd be very interested in knowing if SM would be receptive to such and offer....?

:tiptoe:tiptoe:tiptoe

Moogle Pepper

uh oh. Well if they can make it glitch/bug free ....

Pupator

xris wrote:

I'd be very interested in knowing if SM would be receptive to such and offer....?

:tiptoe:tiptoe:tiptoe

I think Baldy answered this question long ago in a blog post (the answer is "no.") I'll post back if I can find it.

claudermilk

MS buy SM? rofl I don't see that happening. Like Pupator said, Baldy commented on that--there have been some offers already which have all been turned down.

Considering MS' previous "successes" in the imaging field, it seems they still don't get it and I don't see any reason for this venture to be much different. Sure, they have some background in web-based apps, databases, etc. But the browser-neutral requirement and imaging specific requirements will likely trip them up badly.

Richard

claudermilk wrote:

MS buy SM? rofl I don't see that happening. Like Pupator said, Baldy commented on that--there have been some offers already which have all been turned down.

I don't think the notion is laughable. Msft has very deep pockets. Baldy and family could certainly find other ways to pursue their love of photography (and everything else) with a few hundred million dollars in their pockets. Take a look at what Msft has spent to acquire less successful companies when there was a strategic reason to do so. Google also has money to burn and is making frequent strategic acquisitons.

I agree that a Msft takeover would be the end of everything we all love about Smugmug, which would bother the Redmond gang not at all. IIRC, the Flickr core community was not overjoyed when Yahoo took over. A Google takeover would at least be platform neutral, but somehow I can't imagine Sergey Brin or Larry Page answering questions on Dgrin.

I'm not predicting this is going to happen, of course, and I sincerely hope it doesn't. But change is inevitable in business, especially on the Internet. Don't you remember when it was obvious that Microsoft couldn't compete with Netscape?

Regards,

sayntbrigid

gosh, i hope NOT

Hindsight

rsinmadrid wrote:

I don't think the notion is laughable. Msft has very deep pockets. Baldy and family could certainly find other ways to pursue their love of photography (and everything else) with a few hundred million dollars in their pockets. Take a look at what Msft has spent to acquire less successful companies when there was a strategic reason to do so. Google also has money to burn and is making frequent strategic acquisitons.

I agree that a Msft takeover would be the end of everything we all love about Smugmug, which would bother the Redmond gang not at all. IIRC, the Flickr core community was not overjoyed when Yahoo took over. A Google takeover would at least be platform neutral, but somehow I can't imagine Sergey Brin or Larry Page answering questions on Dgrin.

I'm not predicting this is going to happen, of course, and I sincerely hope it doesn't. But change is inevitable in business, especially on the Internet. Don't you remember when it was obvious that Microsoft couldn't compete with Netscape?

Regards,

That would be depressing, but I could see it happening. $$ talks. I can also see MS just trying copying the innovations of others and then integrating it into their OS. Basically it's .Mac meets SM for Vista.

Richard

sayntbrigid wrote:

gosh, i hope NOT

Hey Brigid Where have you been hiding? We missed you.

sayntbrigid

it could be tempting if Microsoft offers continuing percentage of profits in addition to a huge up front deposit :cry

sayntbrigid

rsinmadrid wrote:

Hey Brigid Where have you been hiding? We missed you.

i wuz a little short of funds for a while, and wasnt sure i would make it back, but i MISSED you ppl a LOT ......and hope that never happens again. SO HAPPY TO SEE U clapclaplustlust

xris

rsinmadrid wrote:

I don't think the notion is laughable. Msft has very deep pockets....

Very well put. That's why I'm a bit worried. I haven't been here long, but from what I've seen Big Bro and SM just aren't likely to be a good mix -- from the SM users' standpoint.

remember when it was obvious that Microsoft couldn't compete with Netscape?

I think it's still very obvious that MS isn't competeing very well with Netscape; FF appears to be growing greatly in popularity while IE is still a dog's breakfast!! In fact, I'd be interested in knowing the ratio of IE/FF users SM sees day-to-day?

Baldy

rsinmadrid wrote:

Msft has very deep pockets. Baldy and family could certainly find other ways to pursue their love of photography (and everything else)

I think it's really hard for people to imagine how much we love this business and working together.

Maybe this 2-minute video clip of support hero Anne and me from 18 years ago will help:

http://cmac.smugmug.com/gallery/3801270#219476586-A-LB

Love of family and photography runs deep in us. We like Microsoft but there is no price they could pay to tempt me to sell our dreams to them.

We dream of building a great company together. It doesn't have to be big, but we want it to be Apple, Starbucks, or Harley Davidson great.

Richard

Baldy wrote:

Love of family and photography runs deep in us. We like Microsoft but there is no price they could pay to tempt me to sell our dreams to them.

Whew, that was close.

Glad to hear it.

bwg

xris wrote:

I'd be interested in knowing the ratio of IE/FF users SM sees day-to-day?

no, you woudn't. It makes me cry.

DavidTO

Baldy wrote:

I think it's really hard for people to imagine how much we love this business and working together.

Maybe this 2-minute video clip of support hero Anne and me from 18 years ago will help:

http://cmac.smugmug.com/gallery/3801270#219476586-A-LB

Love of family and photography runs deep in us. We like Microsoft but there is no price they could pay to tempt me to sell our dreams to them.

We dream of building a great company together. It doesn't have to be big, but we want it to be Apple, Starbucks, or Harley Davidson great.

Pretty fancy two-camera set up you got there!

Very cute.

Baldy

Hahaha. One of the cameras sucked, as I'm sure you noticed. Tough to be cameraman, director of a 5-year-old, and Larry King all at the same time.

sayntbrigid

Baldy wrote:

Hahaha. One of the cameras sucked, as I'm sure you noticed. Tough to be cameraman, director of a 5-year-old, and Larry King all at the same time.

u did an AWESOME job......barb

Moogle Pepper

Baldy wrote:

Hahaha. One of the cameras sucked, as I'm sure you noticed. Tough to be cameraman, director of a 5-year-old, and Larry King all at the same time.

haha by the end, it looked like she was almost gonna say a tongue twister! Cute lil girl, btw.

Mmmm... starbucks...

photodoug

Pupator wrote:

I think Baldy answered this question long ago in a blog post (the answer is "no.") I'll post back if I can find it.

Everyone has a price.

Pupator

photodoug wrote:

Everyone has a price.

You must have missed Baldy's response.

Everyone has a price for "things," but Smugmug is more than a thing. I think, from what I've ready from these guys before there are two key reasons we don't have to worry about a sale:

1) This company is their dream, and the dream isn't complete until the name and brand-recognition rivals that of the greats (Starbucks, Apple, MS, etc.) They want Smugmug to be THE name everyone thinks of when they're talking about photography and the internet.

2) They're way too young to retire, so what would they do with their time? They'd have to work or they'd go nuts with boredom. If you have to work, why not work in your dream company with some of your favorite people around you and customers who are as passonate about your product as you are?

Maybe the day comes when they do sell. But I would bet it's a long, long way off when none of them have the ability or the desire to work here anymore. Even then I bet they don't sell out to MS or Google until after they give all of us first right of refusal.

Just my two cents, but I think its pretty accurate.

Ben

photodoug wrote:

Everyone has a price.

This is absolutely true. If Microsoft walked in and offered us $100 billion for instance, I am sure we wouldn't just slam the door in their face.

What people don't understand is that OUR value for SmugMug so vastly exceeds the paper value for SmugMug that it wouldn't be anywhere near feasible for any company to really entertain the idea of purchasing at that price.

It really would have be such a enormously ridiculous sum of money as to make everyone laugh at the company making the offer.

So while there might be a price, it is so astronomical that there is no threat of anyone being rich enough and dumb enough to offer it.

xris

Thanks!
Thanks folks, for the straightfowardness. That's one of the many things I'm growing to greatly appreciate here at SM. (Thus it's one of those things I'd hate to loose.)

Nice to hear you're in it for the long run!!

Icebear

Ben wrote:

This is absolutely true. If Microsoft walked in and offered us $100 billion for instance, I am sure we wouldn't just slam the door in their face.

OK, so now we're in the negotiation stage. How 'bout $99 billion?

Queen

Baldy wrote:

Hahaha. One of the cameras sucked, as I'm sure you noticed. Tough to be cameraman, director of a 5-year-old, and Larry King all at the same time.

She was so sweet in that! Although her favorite foods list had me chuckling and thinking "hmmm...not very veggie".

ShepsMom

Is SM hiring? I want on board

On a more serious note, everything about MS is disgusting. Let's sell our souls to Devil! Monopoly never stops, does it? :nah