
The site www.pop-fashion.com is an interesting example of a business model often found in this corner of the Far East.
Boasting the latest runway photos from all international editions of most well-known fashion magazines, the site is a convenient one stop shop for all your young ladies fashion needs.This seems quite a feat for a Shanghai based net venture.
Users can see all runway shows photos as they are published online, if they join up. After seeing a free 1000 photos users are charged on a per photo click basis. Now, logically this can’t be kosher, this company offers a service you wouldn’t find anywhere else in the world. Surely they aren’t paying royalties to every fashion magazine in existance, that would be a rather expensive enterprise.
Further browsing of the site reveals that users can also subscribe to international editions of all these various fashion magazines-
again- surely only the state registered foreign language import company is allowed to offer this service.
Hmm. So, lets speculate how this business model works-
Subscribe to any fashion magazine you can find, most magazines offer online subs if you have a US $ credit card.
They arrive every month in the mail. Scan all the photos. Charge people to view them.
At the same time have a brainwave- hell, it was easy to subscribe- lets offer to help other people subscribe too, with some mark-up! Great, costs are low, and we have a lot of content, aimed at a high end consumer.
And its not porn so we won’t go to jail. Brilliant. Wang where is my credit card?
This business model could be applied to many other content segments! It is not ironic that the site says it is ‘beyond your imagination,’ it is a statement of fact.