How much longer can it last? (dooyoo.co.uk in general)

Member Name: robkingston

Product:	dooyoo.co.uk in general
Date:	04/12/01 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great opinions

Disadvantages: For how much longer?

I realise that this opinion might not be a popular one, but I had to get it off my chest. I simply cannot see how Dooyoo can continue in its present form.

Admittedly I haven't been a member for long - I only joined a few weeks ago - but I think I understand the basic economic principle. People recommend goods and services, and visitors to the site can link to advertisers who sell them. Brilliant. If an online shop gets high user ratings (such as CD-Wow), Dooyoo can approach them and say "Our users love you - why not advertise on our site?" Dooyoo gets some income, and passes some of it on to us. Everyone's happy (as long as people like me don't spoil things by pointing out that SmokeCDs.com is actually cheaper than CD-Wow, of course....)

So far, so good. But take a look at the opinions that are posted. It's now just after midnight on a Monday night - hardly prime surfing time - and yet a new opinion is being posted on Dooyoo evry 3 or 4 minutes on average. The number of opinions is going up so fast that it'as a wonder anyone reads them - you can usually hope to get 4 or 5 people reading them when they're still featured as the newest opinion, but after that they vanish into obscurity.

The choice of categories, too, seems strange from an economic point of view. For every useful opinion on expensive electrical gear, there's a dozen 76-worders on Speakers' Corner saying "Gosh but wasn't September 11, like, really awful?". Dooyoo, I challenge you to get any advertising revenue out of that opinion. Or this one, for that matter. See what I mean?

It's quickly become clear to me that earning any serious reward from this site is very unlikely, but I still enjoy writing opinions so I do so regardless. Don't get me wrong - I love the site, and there is some great writing on here. What worries me is that the forum could be taken away from us as Dooyoo goes belly-up for want of rev
enue. Even before I joined, the payment structure had been "adjusted" (in fact it's probably fairer now as it doesn't rewar churners so much). Was that the start of the end, though?

Summary: