Weatherbug May Rain On Weather.com's Parade

Surprises

from the not-over-yet dept

The common wisdom about internet properties is that it’s tough these days for a “new” player to come in and take away market from the established dot coms that dominate. However, that might not be true. The SF Chronicle has the story of Weatherbug, who appears to be rapidly taking away users from Weather.com (owned by the Weather Channel). Weatherbug’s business started out in selling weather stations to schools, and then selling the data they collected to local news stations. However, they’re now offering an online version that is finding many fans. By one measure, more people now use Weatherbug than Weather.com (though, the folks at the Weather Channel don’t believe this). The online version also has the odd “feature” of allowing users to view the weather information for free if they “pick their own advertiser”. I think it’s a good reminder that it’s difficult to stay at the top of your market, no matter how dominant it appears you are.