Link: Google Starts Selling Domains For $10 Per Year.
Huh, Google’s selling domains? Maybe it seems weird, but my theory is that Google makes so much money through ads from small businesses that it’s in their best interest to subsidize EVERYTHING that small businesses pay for.
The more they can offer, and the more sticky that relationship is, the more they can ingratiate themselves on the advertising side.
So other than domains, transactions (Google Checkout), and analytics (Google Analytics), what else might be on the table?
- Server hosting
- Commodity storage and compute power
- Small business software (as services of course) like CRM/accounting/etc.?
- Supply chain or fulfillment?
- Banking services?
- Web design or outsourced programming relationships?
- Outsourced HR, accounting, legal relationships?
Obviously some of these are more likely than others, but it’s worth thinking about.
Interestingly enough, Amazon is way ahead of Google in offering some of these, as Businessweek’s recent article on Jeff Bezos mentions.