Thursday, July 31, 2003
History's Biggest Money Loser?
I came aross this via Rajesh's blog. Brendan Koerner writes an interesting profile (including some historical background) about Masayoshi Son, erstwhile ruler of the Internet, now the biggest loser of money in history, and his ambitious plans to build a huge gigabit ethernet network to provide high-speed broadband connectivity to Japanese consumers.
Softbank has spent close to $2 billion building out a gigabit Ethernet network and leasing copper wire from Japanese telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. The result is a service, offered under the Yahoo! BB brand, that provides Internet access to Japanese homes at 12 megabits per second - eight times faster than what Americans are used to - for about $21 a month. Every day, as many as 7,000 new subscribers fire up their plug-and-play DSL modems, making Yahoo! BB the world's fastest-growing broadband service.
I have to admit, there was a time in past when I used to think Son had figured it all out, especially after the huge success of Yahoo Japan. I am not so sure anymore. However, if I were offered 12MBps for $21, I'd drop my Road Runner service in a jiffy.
Softbank has spent close to $2 billion building out a gigabit Ethernet network and leasing copper wire from Japanese telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. The result is a service, offered under the Yahoo! BB brand, that provides Internet access to Japanese homes at 12 megabits per second - eight times faster than what Americans are used to - for about $21 a month. Every day, as many as 7,000 new subscribers fire up their plug-and-play DSL modems, making Yahoo! BB the world's fastest-growing broadband service.
I have to admit, there was a time in past when I used to think Son had figured it all out, especially after the huge success of Yahoo Japan. I am not so sure anymore. However, if I were offered 12MBps for $21, I'd drop my Road Runner service in a jiffy.
