there are several challenges that internet companies must overcome when starting their business:
1. since the internet is a much larger market, e-commerce start-ups are challenged to understand a wider set of consumers
2. the larger market also means internet companies are open to global competition
3. e-commerce differentiators can quickly disappear due to rapid change in technology
We saw during the Taxi Magic presentation that the founders initially had a hard time understanding their customers' needs and how to provide a value added feature to their site. The Taxi Magic team had considered their market to consist of business travelers and tried to develop applications specific to their needs, though it wasn't until they understood a much larger market of consumers that they were able to successfully implement Taxi Magic. Although Taxi Magic doesn't currently face much competition, it recognizes that it is a constant threat. Consequently, I got the feeling that Taxi Magic worked to understand its current and potential market, and made adjustments to its business model in order to stay relevant in an ever changing industry.
Based on MusicJuice case, its owners never really tried to understand the US music market and their potential customers until after the site was launched. It doesn't seem like they tried to determine the market factors and attitude drivers relevant in Europe that made similar sites successful, and whether or not those factors were present in the states. Furthermore, the founders were so emotionally vested in the project that they weren't objective and flexible enough to stand back and adjust their original business model in order to make it more viable in the US market.
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