Buying out smaller pet sites?

[cpvr]

Do you guys believe larger pet sites should start buying out their small competitors that may have some type of potential? If so, how do you think they should go about doing it?

[nintendods]

I bet they could, but the main pet site would need the money for the server and such.

[FuRom]

Meh, they have to be able to persuade the owners to sell. Some people will refuse to sell unless their losing money and then someone like me would refuse to sell come hell or high water.

[gscs]

I am totally agree!
One reason is the potential of the future market of that site and another is they afraid will threaten their position one day.

The business world today is "the bigger eat the smaller", sometimes you have to sell it even thought you don't want to do that.

[BrianE]

If i was a huge VPS such as Neopets i would only buy out pet sites that were a harm to me like Marapets. I would then keep that website open just for profits until it ran down. or I would forward to domain to my domain.

[TheTeen]

I really see no point to it. Say neopets wanted to buy out marapets and they did. How would they transfer information? Money, pet stats, inventory. You would have a lot of upset mara cititzens who would get pretty angry if they lost everything they had. Then just think I am sure most people on mara have neo accounts. So just another neo account...and since neo is the only big petsite to allow more than one account, then smaller sites would have to make sure they get everyones two accounts and merge them. To much hassle.:/

[shadowpwner]

When you say "smaller pet sites" it acturally depend on the size of the smaller pet site.

I agree with The Teen, if you wanted to buy out another pet site, how will you migrate/transfer the information?

One part I disagree though, how did the migrate google/youtube?
google/blogger?
etc etc etc.

Regards,

Edward

[cyopets]

Thats the thing. The site usually is killed, or ran by the same people who are then paid by the larger company who keeps it running.

[cpvr]

I really see no point to it. Say neopets wanted to buy out marapets and they did. How would they transfer information? Money, pet stats, inventory. You would have a lot of upset mara cititzens who would get pretty angry if they lost everything they had. Then just think I am sure most people on mara have neo accounts. So just another neo account...and since neo is the only big petsite to allow more than one account, then smaller sites would have to make sure they get everyones two accounts and merge them. To much hassle.:/They wouldn't... They'd hire staff members to run Marapets and continue to work with it.

[CaseytheGRAND]

I think it sucks that bigger ones, are buying out the smaller. I mean the smaller are better, less scammers.

[cpvr]

I think it sucks that bigger ones, are buying out the smaller. I mean the smaller are better, less scammers.Why does it suck? It would be better in the long run. If the small one is dieing, then the big one buys them out.

[CaseytheGRAND]

I just don't like the idea of only big petsites.

[OwlManAtt]

I agree with The Teen, if you wanted to buy out another pet site, how will you migrate/transfer the information?

One part I disagree though, how did the migrate google/youtube?
google/blogger?
Google Video and YouTube aren't very integrated. Google simply added YouTube's collection to their video search index. Google Videos still show up in the Google Video UI, and YouTube is still YouTube.

They are gradually phasing Google Video out (the DRM'd videos that people bought are no longer useful because Google turned something off and broke them all).

The Blogger/Google merge isn't really applicable in this case. Google did not have any blogging platform prior to the acquisition. There is no data to migrate to or from either platform. There was only Blogger. They added Google accounts as another authentication realm and were done.

As for the main question - why bother? I cannot fathom why a large site would want to buy out a smaller site. Businesses do this to gain some advantage - Google bought Blogger to get some blogging software really quickly. Microsoft bought some small security company to get their spyware-removal tool as quick as they could. DSL.net bought NAS to get their hands on all of NAS's equipment in central offices that they did not already have a prescience in (ie, they expanded their covered area really quicky). MegaPath bought that little SSL company to add an easy-to-use managed VPN product to their catalog of managed internets services - something their customers wanted *right now* - in the blink of an eye.

But what benefit does a petsite get from buying another petsite? In case you guys haven't noticed, every petgame is exactly the same. There is no originality. At all. Sure, Subeta has those nifty dress-up avatars. But integrating that one feature into your app - and then merging all of the accounts, pets, items, and other stuff into one app - does not sound like it's worthwhile. With all that time, you could very well just implement the feature yourself.

There's absolutely no point to buying another pet game to get your hands on the users, either. They are fickle, probably have an account on your site already, will be angry that THEIR PRECIOUS SITE IS NOW PART OF SOME SHITTY SUPERMEGASITE, and have nothing tying them to Subeta. There is no subscription fee or early termination fee to keep them playing. Many of those without an account on your site already will simply stop playing. There goes your purchase.

It makes sense for companies who own other types of games (like the CyberNations guy!) to buy a petsite. They might legitimately want to start one up, and buying one to run is easier than writing it from scratch. The headache of migrating the data from one to the other does not exist - the game just Keeps Running, albeit under new management.

[cpvr]

But what benefit does a petsite get from buying another petsite? In case you guys haven't noticed, every petgame is exactly the same. There is no originality. At all. Sure, Subeta has those nifty dress-up avatars. But integrating that one feature into your app - and then merging all of the accounts, pets, items, and other stuff into one app - does not sound like it's worthwhile. With all that time, you could very well just implement the feature yourself.How are all pet sites the same? Every pet site begins with the same features - create a pet, shops, mail system, etc. It's all about unique game play. Not every pet site is the same, each one has different economies and different audiences.

Saying they're all the same is like saying all cars are the same, they aren't.

[virtubots]

I can agree. Let's take cars, as mentioned, as an example. Cars basically do all the same thing - they take us from Point A to Point B and finally to Point C. They all are different in what they feature (mechanically and inside for comfort). They're the same but they're not the same. That's the same sort of concept with Virtual Pet Sites, but not only just Virtual Pet Sites, you can say the same thing about eMail Websites (Hotmail and Gmail for instance).

- Mike.

[Kaylynn]

well sometimes its good cause they can use that money to open up a new one. pet sites are not cheap to make u kno...

[cpvr]

There's absolutely no point to buying another pet game to get your hands on the users, either. They are fickle, probably have an account on your site already, will be angry that THEIR PRECIOUS SITE IS NOW PART OF SOME SHITTY SUPERMEGASITE, and have nothing tying them to Subeta. There is no subscription fee or early termination fee to keep them playing. Many of those without an account on your site already will simply stop playing. There goes your purchase.

That's a good point. If you buy out a smaller pet site - and it has its own community, then continue to run it. Hire new staff members to help it grow faster. There's no reason to merge an already established virtual pet site.

[OwlManAtt]

There is no such thing as unique gameplay. I am doing exactly the same thing on Neopets and Marapets and Subeta and any other Neopets clone. I get a pet , play arcade games to get seed money, and then become a merchant. Maybe I'll even send my pet into battle with some nice equipment, if I get lucky and sell a lot of stuff. There's your petgame for you.

The car analogy makes my point. What's the difference between a Ford Focus and a Ford Tempo? Between those and a Toyota Carina?

Not much, really. The implementation details are slightly different (there's this kind of engine in this car, and that kind of engine in that car...). Some look nicer (ooh, this one has leather interior, AC, and a 6-disk CD changer!). Some perform better. But, at the end of the day, they all do the same damn thing and have the same interface. High-end cars just have more bells tacked on (GPS, oh yeah!).

That's a good point. If you buy out a smaller pet site - and it has its own community, then continue to run it. Hire new staff members to help it grow faster. There's no reason to merge an already established virtual pet site.What's the point? It's just adding more work to somebody's plate.

[cpvr]

There is no such thing as unique gameplay. I am doing exactly the same thing on Neopets and Marapets and Subeta and any other Neopets clone. I get a pet , play arcade games to get seed money, and then become a merchant. Maybe I'll even send my pet into battle with some nice equipment, if I get lucky and sell a lot of stuff. There's your petgame for you.
Correct. But what if a pet game implements rpg features such as; dress up your own characters and such? Is it still your generic virtual pet site?


What's the point? It's just adding more work to somebody's plate.
Not really. You can leave it running without updates.

[virtubots]

Well there's a lot of things that can be different with pet sites. It's just up to the owner or programmers of the pet sites to make them different. That's a big point in which makes or breaks a pet site.

Maybe cars wasn't a good example. Let's take food for another example.

Let's compare a hamburger with a hotdog. They both do the same essential thing - they satisfy your hunger. They're different in the fashion of how they taste and how they're prepared to eat. Making your hotdog or hamburger set out from the rest would be adding your condaments onto it - be it ketchup, mustard, relish, whatever. That's the same sort of thing with pet sites, they contain these little additives including the "basic and essential" features that a petsite seem to have.

- Mike.

[OwlManAtt]

Correct. But what if a pet game implements rpg features such as; dress up your own characters and such? Is it still your generic virtual pet site?There's your on-board navigational doodad. Like I said with my Subeta/Mara example - is getting your hands on the code for dressing-up your character worth the money and the time it will take to integrate that code back into your application? Wouldn't it be easier to just write it yourself?

It makes sense for the Loldithia fellow to buy an existing game to get her hands on all of that code. It's a working, tested app that she just needs to re-brand. In a week, Loldithia would be more-or-less up. That would be worth the money. But I can't see many cases where it's worthwhile for a well-established petgame to buy out other petgames.

Not really. You can leave it running without updates.But why pay for it in the first place if you're just going to run it into the ground? It doesn't seem like a good use of funds. How do you guarantee you'll break even on the purchase if your only plan is "let it sit and die"?

[cpvr]

But why pay for it in the first place if you're just going to run it into the ground? It doesn't seem like a good use of funds. How do you guarantee you'll break even on the purchase if your only plan is "let it sit and die"? Well... You can improve the current content structure - and improve the game aspect. It's possible. If you can improve its current structure, then it'll be fine to run without updates.

[Unlimited Lumpia]

But see, why would they spend money on that when they could use those resources to further better their "primary" pet site instead? And if you let it run without updates, how are you going to make up for the lost revenue from purchasing the said pet website? Since it won't get updated, players will begin to drift toward more regularly-updated sites instead.

[cpvr]

But see, why would they spend money on that when they could use those resources to further better their "primary" pet site instead? And if you let it run without updates, how are you going to make up for the lost revenue from purchasing the said pet website? Since it won't get updated, players will begin to drift toward more regularly-updated sites instead.
Revenue won't be lost. If you make the investment - then you'll introduce new and bigger features that'll make your investment worth while.

[Kibble]

it sounds kinda illegal almost, probally is'nt but it reminds me of entrpenuers like rockafeller ect.
The ends justify the means, if some big sites are doing it ruthlessly its probally bad, but then again pet sites are'nt railroads, and I think the owner of the petsite useually makes them in order to make others happy, and should'nt be concerned too much with making money.
Thus let the big pet sites buy the small, the small ones are'nt being forced to sell, and if they do sell it shows thier true intentions.

[stuffradio]

How is it illegal? It's pure business...

[Alan]

If you get offered over $1,000,000 for a site then your a fool to reject it, unless you know the site will be able to sell for more later.

[Kibble]

How is it illegal? It's pure business...

lol just sounds it, I knows its not illegal.
Been drawing so much political satire lately for art that captialism has near turned me to a communist lol, you can make it look so evil if ya really wanna try to be radical.

Alan:
hmmm 1 mil, depends where your priorities are, some things are worth more then money lol, although with that much i'd probally just build a better pet site after I sold you my small one, then take some of the features that I sold you, change and improve upon them, and still claim the original idea of them on my forums. I'm kinda cold hearted to ppl who build sites just to sell them though, although its great for money making, that sites never gonna feel right to those using it I think.

[cyopets]

To respond to the issue of illegality - There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying out competition in the business world. You may be confusing a buy out with monopolizing an industry which is illegal.

Now should some uber powerful site successfully buy a lot of the current pet sites, we might have something to fear. Just lay back and relax until that happens though.

As someone who has bought out competition before I'd like to explain my reasoning. I wanted to test out the success with parked domains, so I bought a dead site domain and parked it.

I plan on buying a lot of additional pet sites also. This has a lot to do with the success I have found by parking the peekypets.com domain. I also want to give people a heads up. If you are planning on using a unregistered 6-9 character xxxpets.com domain, I would do it as soon as possible, because I have a list of over 150 domains I plan to buy when my project is released

The only reason I would keep a site up at this point is if I thought it had the potential to be good. Then I would fill the site with ads and allow the current staff to work on the site should they so desire. (ads would be to balance the cost of maintaining the site I bought.

I don't want to hear any more of this nonsense about buying people out being bad. It's a fact of life that sometimes gets misconstrued in this industry. I would bet money that the only reason that this is a sensitive subject is because so many teens and children are involved in this industry people are worried about 'hurting peoples feelings'. If someone really didn't want to sell out, do you think they would?

[Andrew]

mm, cyopets is right.... I'd sell out if someone offered a good price xD

[erapets]

mm, cyopets is right.... I'd sell out if someone offered a good price xD

we know you would :P

you already tried to sell kikipaws before

[Andrew]

it almost worked too. BUT the person who was going to buy it said he couldn't pay. I was mad, then i decided to make it 300% better and I did.... Anyways, your being a sellout too :P trying to sell sorpets.

[Kibble]

lol never said it was bad or illegal you're misinterprting me. No hard feelings, i see why you would buy a pet site, and i understand how this works in the buisness world. I dunno how i feel about the petsite owners who are so ready to sell out though, if you can understand, I dont think a pet site owner's first goal should be to make as much money as possible, and any money you make should go into your site. Yet this is the artist in me saying that I should view my pet site as a piece of art and put my soul into it rather then view it as strictly a buisness.
Though I had in mind it was like trying to make a monopoly when I first read the topic lol.

[cpvr]

it almost worked too. BUT the person who was going to buy it said he couldn't pay. I was mad, then i decided to make it 300% better and I did.... Anyways, your being a sellout too :P trying to sell sorpets.Well - if you're offered a good price for your small pet site you wouldn't sell out? Just come back with a better site. I'd never sell VPL - and I don't care what the price is. It's my baby.