I still think that the plausible way to make money from this type of web
service is to work through a content "consolidator" who pays for the various
information feeds and repackages them in useful ways for its users. The most
logical companies to play this role would be the big web portals (Yahoo,
AOL, MSN). It is implausible that an end user will put up with the hassle of
paying for a zillion individual services and verifying their reliability,
trustworthiness, etc. Nor would they likely get much value directly from an
XML-based web service. On the other hand, if I pay a fixed fee to Yahoo and
count on them to make sure that all the services I am using (indirectly)
perform as required and are paid for, then I should be able to get great
value from gluing these services together (using tools that Yahoo would
provide).
This is of course different from how Fortune 1000 companies will use web
services. Exchange of business documents for EAI might use a lot of the same
infrastructure, but the tools and business model will be very different.
Matt
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Don Park [mailto:]
> Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 9:44 PM
> To: Xml-Dev
> Subject: [xml-dev] Web Service Business Questions
>
>
> All,
>
> While SOAP vs REST discussion is interesting, I have to ask a more
> fundamental (at least to me) question that must be answered:
> can Google
> make money with its SOAP or REST-based API? I am not sure if such
> question is in-topic or not, but I think many of us want the answer to
> the question.
>
> More specifically,
>
> 1. Who would pay to use Google web services and why?
>
> What value does it offer to Fortune 1000 companies? What kind of
> value-added services can one build on top of Google? Why would
> consumers pay for such services? Is it possible to delegate
> advertising?
>
> 2. What is the cost of operation?
>
> With no payment and billing infrastructure in place, dynamic
> relationships between web service businesses are difficult to setup
> automatically. Forging static relationships take significant time and
> resources to setup.
>
> 3. How will accountability and liability be distributed?
>
> If I rely on a value-added Google service and something goes
> wrong, who
> is responsible? When something goes wrong, how does one find out what
> went wrong, where it went wrong, and who is responsible for
> fixing it or
> paying for damages? Without good answers to these questions, web
> services is a highway of Dominos just waiting to fall.
>
> Until we have convincing answers to these questions,
> arguments over SOAP
> and REST are no more interesting than sports bar arguments.
>
> Best,
>
> Don Park
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an
> initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org>
>
> The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription
> manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl>
>
