if you look at it from one perspective, it was a stroke of luck/genius for them to get picked up by Wired for their end of the year "technology meets porn" article they always like to do.
But from another angle, hopefully WantedList can survive the onslaught of new competition that article must have created. Even I took a long hard look at their business model and realized ANYBODY with a bit of cash can compete with them... no barrier to entry... WHY oh WHY do people enjoy getting their business model profiled, examined, analyzed and then share the idea with the entire fucking world.
why create your own competition unless you have something that prevents or impedes competitors from entering the market, i.e. patent, category-killer domain, exclusive contracts, anything... and if you don't have any of those then SHUT THE FUCK UP andoperate in stealth mode for as long as possible.
that article in Wired was less of an "attract new customers" and more of a "compete with us" type of article.
Now that I think about it, I would have taken the STUFF magazine "blurb" over the Wired article anyday. The STUFF blurb pretty much said "rent adult DVDs" netflix-style... blah blah blah... WantedList.com --- short sweet and a lead generator... effective, not counter-productive like the Wired article.
but does anyone agree that sometimes getting that kind of attention backfires by creating future competitors that may not have even realized the market existed?
my rant is over.
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