Waiting for the ViewBar

I have just got word from our Shanghai based tech team with an update on the Viewbar status. Most of the QA tests are going well with the exception of the ad servers. The team is currently integrating the Viewbar with the ad servers so that the Viewbar will have ads (and revenue) ready to go when it launches (it would not make too much sense to release a Viewbar that was not making any money). So, while the Viewbar is still on track for release this month, making the April 2nd to 16th window is getting more difficult – and, yes, the Shanghai team has been working seven days a week for quite a while now and will continue to do so until the Viewbar is released.

There is some good Viewbar news for most of you. As I mentioned in my last post, we are initially releasing about 50,000 Viewbars to those Members that signed up first. Our current plan is to release another 50,000 Viewbars every day until every pre-launch Member has a Viewbar (which means all Members should have their Viewbar within the first 10 – 11 days). This should alleviate some of the fears Members have expressed that they might have to wait weeks or months for their Viewbar. We recognize that there have been delays on the front end of the release, so we are trying to tighten up the back end of the release as much as possible.

Also, as some Members have correctly pointed out, AGLOCO’s early revenue will not immediately translate into cash distributions to Members. While we do not know how large our initial revenue will be, we do know that AGLOCO has operating costs to pay. It is important to remember that AGLOCO is not a “get rich quick scheme”, and we maintain that the most prudent way to build AGLOCO as a sustainable company is to calibrate Member distributions to company earnings. As such, the cash payouts will not begin until there is a comfortable balance between AGLOCO’s free cash flow and AGLOCO’s expenses. It is important to add that all Members will begin to accumulate hours from when they first start using the Viewbar (and referral hours will also be earned). Those hours will not be wasted. Both overall hours and monthly hours will be used in determining distributions to Members.

I’ll keep you posted as relevant updates continue to come up.

Brian Greenwald
AGLOCO Development Team

Interesting site of the day: Well, this morning I read the most interesting site of the day for me. It was two comments on my last post written by David North. I have put them at the bottom of this post for easy access, but I also wanted to add that while some of the ‘chatter’ that gets in the comment section of this blog is not meaningful, many of the thoughts expressed there do register and do help shape the priorities and progress of AGLOCO. With hundereds of thousands of AGLOCO Members thinking about how to improve the company, AGLOCO should avoid the trap some companies hit when only ‘insiders’ do the thinking. And this should only grow stronger with time when the Viewbar is released and the number of AGLOCO Members moves into the millions. Here are David’s posts:

David North said,
April 11, 2007 @ 5:56 am

Hi Saket,

Don’t forget that you ARE putting something into AGLOCO, it just doesn’t happen to be cash. You are providing AGLOCO a free billboard on your computer screen and helping AGLOCO locate other free billboards on others’ computer screens. You are essentially a service provider to AGLOCO, supplying space in front of eyes. In that regard, you are no different than Google’s service providers, webmasters that give Google free space in their web sites to display ads. Google in turn monetizes that space in front of eyes (similarly to what AGLOCO will do) and pays the webmaster a portion of the money. In fact, Google pays many millions of dollars to webmasters every month, and makes a nice profit doing so.

There is another similarity between Google and AGLOCO that is worth noting. Google’s naysayers are many. Many of Google’s naysayers are smart people who have very valid concerns about Google’s ability to sustain its momentum, among other things. The presence of Google naysayers, and some of what they had to say, helped me decide how much risk I was willing to take investing in Google, as both a service provider to - and stockholder of Google.

David North said,
April 11, 2007 @ 6:29 am

Hi Volin,

With opportunity generally comes risk. The 2005 hurricane season was the most costly ever for big insurance companies, who racked up many billions of dollars in underwriting losses. What’s more, scientists, global warming activists and others were predicting it would only get worse. Nearly all insurance companies reduced their exposure to hurricane-prone regions, but Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway increased its exposure to hurricane prone regions. Many analysts (none of whom have amassed $40 billion personal net worth) thought Buffett (who has amassed $40 billion personal net worth) was nuts. And when the 2006 hurricane season was unusually mild, Berkshire Hathaway posted the largest annual book value increase of any company ever, thanks to record insurance underwriting profits. You can find Berkshire Hathaway’s annual reports for 2005 and 2006 at www.berkshirehathaway.com to see for yourself that Buffett did weigh seriously the predictions of scientists and others regarding future hurricane risks. Then he made a rational decision about the risk and reward potential of insuring hurricane-related damages.

What does Warren Buffett and insurance have to do with AGLOCO? AGLOCO represents an opportunity that comes with risks. Make an honest effort to understand both the opportunity and the risks, THEN make your decision about how much or how little effort to invest in AGLOCO, and you’ll be doing just what one of the world’s wealthiest people has done all his life to get to where he is.