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Originally published on 07/15/2002
New summer schedule: Catch of the Day will be published just once a week from this point until late in August, when I will be announcing some great news about the future of the column. Stay tuned for the news, and have a great summer! -Rafe
Fast Facts:
DCS
www.dcs.com |
| CEO |
Carl Ashkin. Carl has been at parent company Darby Group for 18 years.
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| HQ |
Westbury, NY
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| Founded |
1996
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| Employees |
46
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| Market |
Vehicle location services
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| Funding |
Funded by parent company; not looking for funding
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| Profitable? |
Projected by end of 2002
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As I was preparing to moderate a panel about location-based wireless services (see note at end of column), it occurred to me that I was spending too much time searching for the mythical coupon-to-cell-phone-while-walking-past-a-Starbucks business and not nearly enough time focusing on automobiles, the most likely platforms to spawn real location-based businesses.
Despite the failure of Wingcast, the Ford/Qualcomm joint venture that was meant to compete with OnStar, there are really nice little businesses based on location-based services for vehicles.
Take LoJack. Its technology is archaic: unlike GPS systems that report their location, LoJack-equipped stolen vehicles send out beacon signals that police cars can triangulate on. But it's a good and clever business that borrows police frequencies for the beacons and uses auto dealers -- the world's best salespeople -- to move the product. LoJack illustrates that there are location-based business opportunities that don't require the build-out of the E911 system.
But I don't think there's much more low-hanging fruit in location-based services for U.S. consumers, at least not yet. At the moment, technologically up-to-date companies like Darby Corporate Services (a subsidiary of the family-owned Darby Group) focus on location services for businesses. CEO Carl Ashkin says his company provides "more than a dot on a map" for a company's vehicles. His service tracks mobile assets' location, as well as data like engine on/off events, door openings, and seat belt usage. This is data businesses will pay for.
Carl has no intention of pursuing the consumer market. He bristles when his technology is called "telematics," a term he thinks associates DCS with consumer services. Businesses, he knows, need to keep track of their assets; but he and I are still waiting for good models that extract revenue from telling consumers where they are.
- Rafe Needleman
email: rafe-needleman@catchoday.com
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