Letters 2.0
May 25, 2007 by Mark Evans
Filed under Business
The art of writing a letter is dead, right? I mean, who sends letters these deals when you can whip off an e-mail and have it delivered in seconds to someone half-way across the world? Well, Easypost.ca wants to turn the tide with a useful, if not perplexing, service that lets you send letters to people. Here’s how it works: you head on over to Easypost.ca and fill out two boxes: one with the address of the person getting the letter, and the other for whatever you want to write. You then hit submit, and the letter is delivered. It’s free, easy, there’s no registration required, and absolutely no sign of a business plan. So, it really is a bonafide Web 2.0 service. If you check out the FAQ, it suggests the free letter-writing service is free while it beta (typical Web 2.0) but that down the road a small fee will be charged for some services. In terms of who operates Easypost.ca, the FAQ says: “Some cool people from Canada and a small team of hamsters.” (Hat tip to StartUpNorth.ca for discovering Easypost.)
This service might be useful ifor consumers f it can be accessed from overseas for delivery in Canada.
I know that air mail from New Zealand to Canada typically takes 10 days, which is way too long if you’ve just remembered someone’s birthday and they don’t have email!
But as you say, Mark, where’s the business model? Especially since there are significant costs in getting each message printed, into an envelope and sent via mail. Maybe the plan is to build a commercial bulk-mail system?
Mark, your remarks inferred that Easypost is a “web 2.0″ company. I believe you are being rather loose in your interpretation of the term web 2.0.
Companies that are branded as “Web 2.0″ are NOT simply firms that have a service on the internet! Rather they are companies who provide a service on the internet that indulges in user generated content, social networking and/or uses web based technologies such as Ajax and the like. Typing in a few words in a text field and pressing send does not make Easypost a web 2.0 company. It is simply an internet service.