Home Page >  Who We Are >  Articles >  Dot-Bombs vs. What’s Working   Dot-Bombs vs. What’s Working (May 2001) Just like all the stories in the press two years ago about the "Midas touch" of the Internet seemed a little too good to be true, the recent stories about the demise of online business are also premature. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between. One thing is for certain; no company can survive for long with high customer acquisition costs and few ways to bring in money. Online business is no different than traditional business in this way. The failure of big-spending online content company Z.com is no surprise when compared to the "lean and mean" approach favored by surviving competitor Heavy.com. Another fact is that a business needs high-quality customer service to survive. There is no "Internet secret sauce" that changes this any more than in any other industry. High-profile failure eToys had many well-documented lapses in customer service at the critical holiday shopping season that ultimately led to their demise. After several failed starts, competitor ToysRUs.com cleverly partners with an industry-leader in customer service, Amazon.com, and is doing better for it. Here are some of the lessons learned by others the hard way: Find multiple sources of revenue Combine online with real world The "land grab" is long over – so keep costs under control and focus on results (c)2001 Zoomdot All Rights Reserved Did you find this information useful? Sign up here for the FREE Zoomdot electronic newsletter!