真正来钱的是网站流量

　　外界常常指责互联网公司的经营从某种程度上说都是虚的。那让我们来看一组有趣的数字。

　　微软对雅虎的出价是242亿英镑；据报道Google给YouTube付出了8亿四千万；Kayak为其竞争对手旅游搜索公司Sidestep出了9000万；还有微型博客系统Twitter被估价为4700万英镑（译者注：微型博客Micro-blogging，在维基百科中被描述为: “一种允许用户及时更新简短文本(通常少于200字)并公开发布的博客的形式,允许任何人阅读或者只能由用户选择的群组阅读。” Twitter是其主要运营商）。

　　就拿YouTube的案例来说，很多人都认为这笔买卖是个精明的投资。事实上，找Google公司随便哪个人问一下，他们都承认在线视频的增长比他们的核心业务搜索要快得多。

　　此间，业界风传Stella Travel Services也加入了对Advantage Travel Centres的竞价，交易额将在600-800万英镑之间。Stella否认了这一传言。

　　现在，把一家全球搜索公司和一群的线下英国旅行社来比较显然是不公平的。然而，Twitter的估价高得惊人的原因十分简单——它用的人多。

　　Kayak的老板Steve Hafner在Travolution的某次会议上承认说，他的公司收购Sidestep就是看中了它的网站流量。

　　最近有人在Travolution Blog上也有提到，人们觉得对已具规模的事物的投资更有价值。

　　对于嗅觉灵敏的掘金者来说，能帮他们挣钱的正是网站流量，因为通过广告和纯粹的业务量运作，流量可以迅速地被货币化。在这里，仁义道德都是虚的，能赚到钱才是真的。

　　现实情况是，现在只要哪个项目是基于互联网的，投资者们就会准备多出点钱，正如他们所说，在美国，“要把数字做上去”。

　　原文来源：Travolution

Web traffic is where the real money lies

Outsiders often accuse dot-coms of operating in some kind of la-la land. So here are some interesting figures.

Microsoft has offered £24.2 billion for Yahoo!; Google paid a reported £840 million for YouTube; Kayak paid £90 million for rival travel search company Sidestep; and microblogging system Twitter, is valued at £47 million.

In the case of YouTube, many believe the deal was actually a sound investment. In fact, listen to anyone from Google and they admit online video is growing quicker than search, its core business.

While all this is going on, Stella Travel Services is rumoured to be lining up a bid for Advantage Travel Centres, a deal that would see the consortium trouser between £6 million and £8 million. Stella denies the rumours.

Now, it would be unfair to compare a global search company to a group representing bricks-and- mortar travel agencies in the UK. However, the frighteningly simple Twitter is valued as high as it is because it has large numbers of people using the service.

Kayak boss Steve Hafner admitted at a Travolution conference that his company bought Sidestep for the web traffic.

As recently suggested on the Travolution Blog, people see more value investing in something with scale.

And web traffic is where the growth is for the keen prospectors, simply because it can be monetised quickly through both advertising and the sheer amount of volume running through a business. Now there is no moral to the story here.

The reality is investors are prepared to pay more if a business is online-based and, as they say in the US, “has the numbers”.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution