I have seen a flurry of recent announcements from MIVA that lead me to believe that they are planning to bypass their resellers and get into the hosting business directly.

I have also heard a rumour that they already own a hosting company and that they funnel the majority of their leads generated to this company.

Can anybody verify this?

If true this is very disturbing as it would follow the precedent set by Network Solutions and others who exploit the efforts of their resellers.


Franc

Franc,

The Miva Now program to me is the stepping stone for more BS to come. I contacted our rep and told them about our dislike of this. Even Kevin Kane VP of Sales tried to call us to tell us what a benifit Miva Now will be.

I do not think they will fully bypass their Premier Partners. I do think they want to eventually weed out the Standard guys. What real benifit do standard guys have for Miva right now?

I think Miva Now is a wolf in sheeps clothing.

This is exactly the train of thought I have had around this issue.

Microsoft used to call it disintermediation: partner with someone who has a solution that you need to complete your product and then behind the scenes develop the solution based upon what your partner has already done and when complete, end-run your partner and capture the customer.

The need for end-users to constantly be in contact with the Miva servers through their reseller's network is the thin edge of the wedge that has always existed. Now they are breaking it open.

They have also without any permission spammed our end-users directly. This is unacceptable.

Have you had any similar experiences?

Franc

They have also without any permission spammed our end-users directly. This is unacceptable. Have you had any similar experiences?

No (that we are aware of). But we prepared for this. We are very strict about who has access to our customer e-mail addresses. This is why we use OpenSRS for one example. When it came to setting up the Miva licenses, we used all our company info, never the customers. After all, we paid for the license.

I just think they have VC to please. They flooded the market with a low cost solution, buried many competitors (remember a few years ago when Mercantec and others were big with host?), and now have too much out there. In my opinion they won the shopping cart war. But now what?? They lay off a big chunk of the staff, launch Miva Now, and raise license prices. Is that really going to please VC? I see the next step as being "Miva Cafe" (a la Image Cafe).

Who knows? Maybe since they won, the founders want nothing more to do then play golf all week. Maybe they lost the drive. :D