Was there something in the water? Back in Q3 1999, the Internet saw an explosion of sites based on the concept of knowledge sharing. At a rate of more than one startup a month, investors and entrepreneurs pumped tens of millions of dollars into this new category, in which a Web company functions as a forum - sometimes a broker - for the exchange of expert or everyday wisdom. These sites definitely draw people in (several are already counting more than a million unique visitors a month), proving that there's a huge audience for the facts, opinions, and miscellaneous dust balls cluttering our cranial attics. Making these mental swap meets pay off is another matter. Most of the sites are selling advertising against the content, some are licensing the expertise to others, and some take a cut of sales generated on sites that the content links to. However each business model plays out, the point is to get legions of enthusiasts talking, and make a buck off their pontifications. Here's a sampling of startups based on the egoboo model of ecommerce, along with a tally of who stands to prosper - and how they'll do it.
Gist The rawest and most homespun of the sites - and the first of the genre - Allexperts features a whopping 2,300 categories (ExpertCentral has fewer than 300), including an entertainment section that breaks down into expert Q&As about individual actors (and that means Calista flockhart). Conceived of and built by one guy, New York-based Steven Gordon, the site's raison d'être really isn't money but the thrill of watching itself grow.
Spin "The oldest and largest" (i.e., the rest are copycats).
Worker bees 10,000 - many of them fancy professionals - each screened and hand-picked by Gordon, who has signed up "opthalmologists from Yale, cardiologists from Johns Hopkins, hypertension specialists from the University of Pennsylvania!"
Paycheck Pure egoboo, pegged to special qualities: "knowledgeability, clarity of response, politeness, prestige, and timeliness." Participating experts can view bar charts and line graphs that track their performance. A top expert is chosen and showcased each month.
Business model Practically nonexistent. Ad banners, an afterthought, pay the bills.
Gist Slick, and growing: This Seattle company of 60 was founded by former Microsofties. The site claims 2.4 million unique visitors each month; its most popular categories include technology and homework assistance.
Spin Real folk, sharin' their wisdom.
Worker bees 60,000 - and they crank. The top 10 crankers answer about 1,200 questions in three months, with an average response time of eight hours.
Paycheck Egoboo, by way of gold stars, rankings, and points. (Contributors can also score score $25 to $500 each month in reward for being the highest-ranked members in their category.)
Business model Ad banners, affiliate programs, and what Askme terms "syndication": licensing the tech, the experts, and their answers to other sites.
Gist Witness the wonders of the human psychodrama. Though Epinions won't disclose its membership numbers, a fair estimate is that they're small - small enough to breed cliques and infighting. But on the biz-building front, the Mountain View-based team seems to be doing everything right: funding from Benchmark and August Capital, principals from AOL and Yahoo!, press attention up the wazoo.
Spin Peace, love, and brutal honesty.
Worker bees Undisclosed.
Paycheck Anywhere from a penny to 3 cents per read (reviews are read by users, who pay nothing to subscribe). Epinions reserves the right to rejigger this fee structure at will. But, it promises, it'll always deliver loads of egoboo.
Business model Ad banners, revenue sharing, and content-license agreements. As in: "You automatically grant to Epinions.com ... a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, create derivative works of, distribute, transfer, or sell any such Content ... without any compensation to you."
Gist With $29 million in venture capital to work with this year, Exp has built a busy, usable site with particularly active Business Services and Internet & Technology sections. Exp is planted in the heart of it all, Silicon Valley's Menlo Park, and its smart, unfussy design reflects its considerable Web know-how.
Spin "The convenient way to get expert advice and services."
Worker bees 50,000, all screened. Exp.com, which validates degrees and licenses, is shooting for "quality."
Paycheck Money! Not much egoboo to be had here - there's no Hall of Fame, and evaluations are limited to a simple 1 through 5. Instead, the site helps its experts expand their cottage businesses by drawing in new customers from all over the Net.
Business model Category ad sponsorships, plus revenue-sharing with small-business-oriented portals and a 20 percent cut of its experts' fees.
Gist A people-oriented site ("testimonials" from happy users perpetually scroll in a corner of the homepage) based in Newton, Massachusetts, with a fat, 250,000 registered-user base to date. Top categories are computers and the Net, health and fitness, and automotive.
Spin High-quality professional advice: "The search is over."
Worker bees 7,000 qualified professionals - most recruited by the site - each with a detailed c.v.
Paycheck "Honor, recognition, and success" - in a word, egoboo. Money, a secondary concern, comes in the form of the long-term professional relationships that develop online. Also, cash prizes here and there.
Business model Ad sales, 15 percent commission on paid advice, and a cut of sales made through the site's referrals.
Gist Though it says it's for everyone, this site's top categories - Visual Basic, Delphi programming, Win98 - would suggest otherwise. But, hey, the San Luis Obispo, California-based startup is working on it. This clean, easy-to-use site has an impressive 350,000 registered users.
Spin The "number-one knowledge sharing community on the Web."
Worker bees 57,000 experts: A typical Hall of Famer has answered 1,300 questions and asked 20; the site's experts crank out answers in a speedy two hours.
Paycheck Egoboo - aka "satisfaction grades" or membership in the Hall of Fame - plus prizes (scanners, PDAs, T-shirts).
Business model Ad banners.
Gist With a click of the mouse, you're on the phone - that's Keen.com's uniqueness. The site, an all-around advice-giving service, is the first to use the technology, which allows users to research available experts and click on a selection, thereby dialing the "KeenSpeaker" on the phone. (If you've got only one phone line, the system will wait until your line is open to dial in.) Keen, based in San Francisco, is generously backed by eBay, Benchmark Capital, Microsoft, and Integral Capital, among others.
Spin Say it, don't type it.
Worker bees 35,000: The hardest-working KeenSpeaker answered 494 questions in two and a half months.
Paycheck Money! Egoboo ops are scanty, though bees get a per-minute fee for each successful phone transaction.
Business model A 30 percent cut of the per-minute fees.
WHAT DO THEY KNOW?
What do they know?
Allexperts.com
Askme.com
Epinions.com
Exp.com
ExpertCentral.com
Experts-Exchange.com
Keen.com
