Understanding Nothing

Michael Dubelko was founder and CEO of DVD Express, which he set up after Cannel Studios, where he was president, was sold to Fox News.

In an interview with DVD Hotseat he was asked “At what rate – compared to new releases – do people actually order backcatalog titles? Are back catalog titles dead or do they sell at a steady rate?”

Bizarrely the company didn’t know this sort of information – even though it was over two years old at the time, and had turned over $16m the previous year: “We don’t have any statistics on this, but I believe it’s over 50% at this stage.”

Is it any wonder the company couldn’t succeed if they couldn’t even tell things like this?

Reminds me of the scary conversations we had with the Founder/CEO of another big-name US on-line DVD retailer we were considering buying, who not only couldn’t answer, but seemingly couldn’t even understand the relevance of questions about customer retention, repeat purchase rates, product split etc. That company no longer exists either. No surprise there then.

According to Hoovers:

“DVD Express merged with Maximum Holdings, which included a network of gaming Web sites and GameFan Magazine, in late 1999. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2001 and sold substantially all of its assets to Express Media Group the following June. Investors include Maximum’s founder David Bergstein and other top executives, as well as DVD Express founder Michael Dubelko and British game maker Eidos.”

If I’m reading this correctly it seems that Express Media Group was basically the same people as the bankrupt company, (which at the time of the merger had been valued at $500m). (Eidos paid $55m for a 12.6% stake).

The Google cache still has the Press Release from the relaunch in September 2001:

Express Media Group, Inc. recently purchased the assets of Express.com, Inc. With new owners, a new management team, and a precisely focused business model, the company looks to be profitable quickly … DVD Express has left the dark days of e-commerce behind them, moving forward with a plan that will benefit both the Internet industry and its burgeoning customer base.

That version never survived the 2001 Holiday Season.

The new site still claims to be owned by Express Media Group. I don’t give it much chance either.

Back in the days when they were pretty good, I bought some DVDs from DVDexpress.com

Today I got an email from DVD.com claiming: “We have acquired DVD Express and will be continuing where the company has left off.”

Further: “DVD.com also knew that with the drastic changes in online retail, DVD Express had difficulties meeting the expectation and needs of its customers.”

And to finish: “With our new management and site we thought it would be a perfect time to say hello as the only true online DVD provider.”

So, who are DVD.com?

Well, from what I can discover, DVD.com always has been DVDexpress!

The Wayback Machine’s earliest snapshot is from Feb ’98, but is a surreal “Favorite Brands” site for JET-PUFFED;® Marshmallows!

Their November 1998 site is the DVDexpress site. It’s branded as such, and is how I remember DVD express. I assume it was simply a server alias.

By October 1999 it has been developed into its own distinct information site – but still with the DVDexpress logo at the top, and credited at the bottom as “A DVD EXPRESS information source”.

By March 2000 DVDexpress has rebranded itself simply as Express.com, and DVD.com follows suit uses the new Express.com logo. But it’s still obviously the same company.

In March/April 2001 the DVD.com information site seems to have disappeared, and merely redirected people to the Express.com home page.

By May 2001 it was a server alias again, showing the Express.com site, as it continued to be until earlier this year, when Express.com and all its various domains shut down.

So what’s going on?

It seems to me that DVDexpress, which struggled over the last few year years, and seemingly collapsed in January, has decided to try to relaunch itself. It probably has indeed got new management. And quite possibly new investors. But instead of being honest about what’s going on, it’s tried to disguise it as a take-over by DVD.com, who are obviously meant to sound like a bigger, stronger, player.

Not a very promising restart in my books…

Everyone seems to be pointing to Meg’s column “What We’re Doing When We Blog”.

The “a-ha” moment for me was the paragraph:

Freed from the constraints of the printed page (or any concept of “page”), an author can now blog a short thought that previously would have gone unwritten. The weblog’s post unit liberates the writer from word count.

As Jonathon keeps pointing out “blogging can offer infinitely more than journalism”. I think this is one of the major differences. Blogging is mostly just sharing thoughts. Thoughts that, if you had to write 400 words on, whould never escape your own head. But in a format that allows, encourages, and even expects you to write less than 100 words, the thought gets written.

Of course, most of these thoughts probably aren’t really worth sharing.

But they’re out there. Waiting for someone to pick them up and expand on them or refute them.