Meckler spoke about the overemphasis on spending money on branding. He said an enormous amount of money is wasted on branding. He believes that a good product is what counts and that online shoppers value the brands that they already trust. He also spoke about the necessity of focusing on a particular market niche. Specialization is of paramount importance, which is why Life magazine failed after being a household staple for decades and why portals fail to generate revenue.
Portals allow users to simply pass through on the way to somewhere else.
There is no guarantee of revenue or stickiness no matter how many users go to a portal. The opposite of a portal is a specialized web site. He gave many examples of extreme specialization in web sites that brought financial success to their owners. But he stressed that a successful consumer web site is no reason for a company to go public. At the end of his presentation, the Breakfast Forum attendees had dozens of questions on ecommerce, finance, and Wall Street.