I was reading a MSN news report today that focused on the 10 most money making millions with crazy ideas. It was so neat to read about some of these things. Here is the list.
1.CROCS-was invented in the late 1990s by three pals from Boulder, Colo. On a sailing trip in Florida, the trio became intrigued by the commercial possibilities of a comfortable spa shoe. They eventually acquired the shoe’s maker, a Quebec company called Foam Creations, to secure the rights to the foam resin called Croslite, responsible for shoe’s squishy, form-fitting sole. Crocs executives wisely played up the shoe’s ugly factor in ad campaigns. Annual sales reached $350 million by 2006, the year the company went public. (Yes, all 7 of us have Crocs. I buy them at the Crocs website when they have their sales.) My husband even has a pair of their rain boots.
2.Pet Rock-Invented by Gary Dahl who was 38 years old at the time (I clearly remember the day my mother took my brother and I to get our glow in the dark Pet Rocks. They were 2.99 each on sale. They were brite blue! lol)
3.DOT.COM-Invented by Tony Hsieh, who sold it to Amazon for $888 million dollars
(This obviously was a brillant invention. Between my husband and I, we have a dozen DOT.com websites that we host.)
4.FarmVille- game was developed by the Zynga Game Network. There are 80 million registered users. (I will not say too much about Farmville, As I have already blogged about it a couple weeks ago on my FaceBook, Nay or Yay Post.) I read that it has made several couple file for divorce in the past year though. That speaks volumes.
5.Zappos- is a billion-dollar company with customer service characteristic of a mom-and-pop shop. Shoe buyers respond favorably to the company’s no-hassle return policy and its offering of hard-to-find styles and sizes. But what really sets Zappos apart is that it has figured out how to insert human contact into the normally chilly void of Internet shopping.
(I have never heard of this company before today. Sounds good though.)
6.Twitter-that is worth One Billion right now. 750 Tweets go out per second around the world. There are 100 million registered users at the moment. Who has the most Tweet follows? Ashton Kutcher! (I do Twitter several times a week.) I could live without it though.
7. Roomba- a robotic vacuum cleaner sold by its creator, iRobot (IRBT), that automatically navigates a living space and its obstacles while sucking up dirt and debris from the floor. (I remember when this came out. I would see the informercial on TV and think how crazy this was. My question is–does this do a good job? If anyone reading has one, Please share! )
8.Virtual Products- Real money is being spent on nonexistent goods!! $90 on average , per person was spent.. Global revenue from all virtual-goods transactions last year(2009) was estimated at $10 billion. This company was created by Second Life. (WOW! This may be the craziest of them all. Buying things that you do not actually own. I do know people who buy virtual pets. They claim it is easier then having the read deal…Hmmmm? lol)
9.Amazon.com-In 1994, when a financial analyst named Jeff Bezos hatched the idea of selling stuff over the Internet, the idea of building a store in cyberspace was fairly radical. Time magazine named Bezos its Person of the Year in 1999, five years after he founded Amazon.com Amazon has 65 million users each month! (I do not think it will be going anywhere soon. I use Amazon several times a year. I buy books, sometimes food.
10.FedEX-were sown in 1965 in a report written for an economics class by Yale University student Fred Smith. Smith outlined an overnight air-freight system for time-sensitive shipments such as medicines, computer parts and electronics. Smith later said he couldn’t recall the grade given to his paper, but he guessed it was his “usual gentlemanly C” (.pdf file). Regardless of the impression it made on his professor, Smith said that he knew the idea was profound. Smith launched his overnight delivery service in 1973 with just seven packages for the first night’s run. The young executive looked for cash anywhere he could find it, at one point high-tailing it to Las Vegas to play the blackjack tables and wiring his $27,000 in winnings to FedEx so it could meet a payroll. (I have only used FedEX twice in my life, thus far.)
So there you have it. I think the craziest one, is the virtual products. Then the Roomba Vacuume comes in as a close second. Anyone else?
