Gigaom announces outage, will change the watershed of technology media

When I write an article for this website, I try my best to keep an objective accent and not to add personal feelings to news reports and columns. But sometimes a piece of news makes it impossible for me to remain objective.

This happens in the Gigaom event. In the Tuesday, pioneer in the field of science and technology announced the suspension of business after nearly 10 years of operation. On the company's web site, it says: "Recently, Gigaom has not been able to repay debt to creditors." As a result, the company decided to take all assets as collateral. All operations have been terminated. At present, it is not clear how creditors dispose of assets and whether they will use these assets to support future operations. The company is not yet ready to file for bankruptcy. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the readers and groups that have been supporting us. ”

Gigaom is the most powerful name in the business world and remains in the top ten position in the Techmeme rankings. The company just won 8 million dollars in venture capital last year, with a monthly page view of 6.4 million. So what's going on? So far, the website's founder, former Forbes columnist Om Malik, has made little mention of the real cause, but has issued a statement to stop the update on the site.

Om Malik,gigaom Founder

I'm a big fan of Gigaom, I said, patting my chest. In fact, if it weren't for Gigaom, I wouldn't have written this column.

A behind-the-scenes story: In 2008, a friend of mine showed me an article published by Gigaom, and from then on, I began to read Gigaom's article. I found their subject matter very interesting, the report style is quite professional, the style change the annoying blog form, but a refreshing style. Reading Gigaom is what I have to do every day, and then I have a smartphone, every day on the way home from school will pay attention to the forefront of world science and technology, through Om Malik and Gigaom Editor's eyes to understand the technology world.

By reading Gigaom, I am from an amateur electronic fan and want to become a professional industry analyst.

Finally, at some point in my college days, I decided what I wanted to do. I want to be a science writer, my dream is to write articles for Gigaom. In order to achieve this goal, I started freelancing, in order to achieve the level of work on a website like Gigaom, I used every opportunity to accumulate knowledge and skills.

When I work in this field, my dream is the same, I want to write science and technology articles in Gigaom way. But, logically speaking, for a Singaporean child like me, moving to the United States is an unrealistic thing, so my local family is the one that reminds me of Gigaom's work.

So I came to E27 and nothing could stop me from becoming a fan of Gigaom. That's why I see the News of Gigaom closing.

What does this mean for the industry?

In my opinion, many years later, people will see the Gigaom business as a watershed in journalism and career revolutions. The technological progress of speeding in the Times has made irreversible changes in news, which will become a footnote in history.

Now, news is no longer a single source, and people can quickly upload photos on Instagram, tweet at a certain time, or upload YouTube videos, which are the source of people's access to information. The time when journalists are the only gatekeepers to the news is gone, the quicker we realize this, the more we can figure out where we are in this era, and the more we learn from the demise of Gigaom.

So what is extinction? Without any warning, Om Malik and his employees never mentioned the relevant news. In fact, the site is still on the last day of the operation to publish articles. Gigaom neither exploded, nor wept to leave, it simply ceased to operate.

However, in order to understand the demise of Gigaom, we need to know about money. Journalism, after all, is also business, above trade and money, and while our authors constantly tell us that we love this sacred profession, journalism and other professions need to generate profits as well.

Gigaom's business model provides companies with three ways to make money: Web ads, events, and research data. This is the model adopted by many different technology media companies. This model treats events and research data as a major source of revenue. In short, this is a very beautiful model, such as TechCruch site is used, but also make it the industry leader.

Gigaom also participated in various financing activities, the last round of financing enterprises to obtain 8 million U.S. dollars, Om Malik also left Gigaom to become a partner in investment companies. In short, the site looks very healthy, but the problem is here. The company began to expand rapidly, and whenever it needed money, it was able to get a new round of funding through its reputation and industry credibility.

However, in this changing era, social media and Web sites such as BuzzFeed, the news portal in the field of events and research has increased competition, news practices began to erode, so that Gigaom company ultimately unsustainable, unable to repay the debt.

Accepting too much venture capital is bound to bring risks, and news games will face the gigaom of death.

You might ask, what does this mean for the industry as a whole? In my opinion, this is a lesson for media companies. We don't produce actual physical products, we don't make mobile phones, cars or houses. We sell information services. We sell information to the public in the most appropriate way through language and voice. However, we must also realize that we do not have information monopolies, news and stories exist in society, and there is a simple fact that humans are fickle creatures. Our tendencies and moods are constantly changing and impulsive.

Journalism cannot be laurels than any other industry. Perhaps no other industry has fully embodied the concept of "evolution or death". Gigaom does not like local advertising, soft text or any other editorial-style ads packaged into stories. Now, local advertising has become an industry norm, and even old publications such as The New York Times have begun to advertise locally. It has become a necessary means of survival.

Giagom in front of the invincible enemy to uphold their position, refused to change, and finally paid a heavy price.

So what about the other news people?

No one can foresee the changes in the industry, and journalists are more than just news and story writers, he needs to be a salesman, marketer, industry expert, intermediary or even a temporary writer. On my idealistic side, I still want to believe that we are the fourth industry, an independent news media and a mirror of society, but is it really?

Quote from Shakespeare's "Tempest": "Ah, beautiful New world, there are such people in it!"