Our customers are the perverts, not us
30 Oct 2006
In the newspaper De Morgen this weekend, there was a full page article about a successful Belgian internet entrepreneur: Cain Ransbottyn.
Cain is the founder and CEO of Realroot, hoster of a large collection of high-bandwidth, and often NSFW, websites – including Zattevrienden, Zattemadammen, Wijfzonderlijf, Gallerygalore and Thisislife. He is known for being a shrewd business man and not the most subtle of conversationalists. But the way he speaks about his pr0n-consuming users in this article sets a new high for self-confessed customer contempt.
Some (translated) quotes:
- (about his early days as a self-taught consultant) I could bluff my way into any company as a consultant. I would throw some complicated terms at the IT-manager I was negotiating with. Generally he was not that clever and was easily intimidated.
- (about access logs) I can see it right away when a top minister is j*rking off on one of our chicks.
- A belgian webcam visitor stays logged in for 7 minutes on average, and a Dutch one for 15 minutes. “A Dutchman w*nks at half the speed of a Belgian” concludes CR.
- I am very happy with the sex addicts, they make me a lot of money. We help them get off. Our customers are perverts, not us. (not sure how to translate “vetzak” in English)
- The eyeballs are the watchers, the wnkers: our customers. In the posh cities _(Amsterdam, London, Paris)_ are the watchers with money, the rich wnkers.
- (“Aren’t the customers pathetic?”) Maybe they are. Amongst them are a lot of frustrated and sorry bastards. They have a right to our help.
- Actually, the guy just wants to talk. He’s safe at home, with his pants down, in his own house. He doesn’t want to go into therapy. Hij prefers doing his thing anonymously, with a naked virtual girl from Rumania.
It’s funny that in these days when Kathy, Seth and Tara are trying to define how you should try to treat your customer with respect and start a dialogue, there is such a blatant example of how the exact opposite can also be succesful.
Isn’t Cain afraid his customers might read the newspaper and feel offended? Frankly, I don’t think he gives a damn.
