Net Profit: How to Invest and Compete in the Real World of Internet Business

Cohan identifies nine segments of the industry--infrastructure, consulting, venture capital, security, portals, e-commerce, Web content, Internet service providers, and commerce tools. He judges each of the leading companies in the nine fields on its management, breadth of customer service, and most critical, ability to deliver a product that is so scarce and important that it carries a high price. Most Internet companies fail to meet all of Cohan's strict standards. Portal leader Yahoo!, for example, lacks economic clout over advertisers because of tough rivals in the traditional media. Cohan gives high grades to technology consultants like Gartner Group, venture capital firms, and network builder Cisco. He loves Cisco because it controls 80 percent of the router market, keeps customers by providing other network components, and shows a knack for acquiring smaller companies. Easy to understand, Net Profit features some key strategies for competing on the Internet. Cohan also helps companies evaluate whether it makes sense even to offer services on the Web. --Dan Ring

Product Description
The astounding growth of Internet commerce presents investors and businesses alike with unbridled opportunity. But the hype surrounding many publicly traded Internet companies often makes the objective evaluation of their performance difficult. In Net Profit, author Peter Cohan breaks down the complexity of the Internet market by answering two basic questions: Who makes money on Internet related business? And how do they do it? His incisive analyses of leading Internet companies, their competitors, and their chances for continued growth pinpoint the factors that investors in and managers of Internet business must examine to ensure future success.

The framework is nothing new but more or less a simplified business plan.

In Chapter 13, Advice for Internet Management and Investors sounds like a common sense and existing strategy using by most of the dotcom. Common Sense: Strategy 1 of those advices is moving the company into a more profitability region in short. (It dividies the market into 3 levels of profitability. so called Lossware, Brandware and Powerware. Well, no matter if it is New or Old economy, there is always different degrees of profitability.)

Existing strategies: Selling out of a porfolio builder, deep pockets and restructuring. We are seeing consolidation in the market a long long time ago and a lot of big or small players already know it is the way.

This book is more like a news reporting and a lot of newly invented words cannot make this book a standard of new economy rules but disappoint me only.


Net Profit   December 14, 1999
 12 out of 12 found this review helpful

This is the most lucid, sensible analysis I've read thus far of the likely implications of engaging in e-commerce from different strategic perspectives and business models. Cohan provides a valuable framework and applies it to scores of real cases. I find myself returning to his book time and again to apply his methodology. His only off-base advice: don't invest in companies led by folks over 35. I'll forgive him that one. The rest of the book is a real gem. It should age well.


Bringing Order to Chaos   November 30, 1999
 3 out of 6 found this review helpful

I enjoyed the book tremendously, and think Peter's done a fabulous job dissecting the Internet investment frenzy, providing the logic to the momentum everyone else seems to have missed.