nowEurope

I recently had a drink with two Hungarian entrepreneurs who are working on an interesting mashup. They’ve created a front end for Google that closely resembles the functionality of Startlap.hu (for my Hungarian-impaired readers, this translates as “start page”.)

Their creation, Godzi.hu (no idea what that means) is now in public beta. The functionality is, indeed, impressive. But how do the founders take this great idea and make it into a business?

Let’s start by talking about what Godzi does.

According to webaudit.hu, Startlap is now the third-most popular site in Hungary. The site is a collection of links somewhat reminiscent of the early Yahoo. By today’s standards the site is, well, primitive. So why is it so popular? The simple answer is momentum. Startlap has been around so long that for many Hungarians it has become a default place to look.

The creators of Godzi set out with the goal of building a better Startlap. Rather than having to click around the site to find the right link(s), they thought, wouldn’t it be neat if the Google search interface offered suggestions as you type?

Even if you don’t speak Hungarian, you can still see how this idea works by typing a few letters into Godzi. With each successive letter, the links it suggests become more refined.

The business model is fairly simple. As traffic builds, the founders will be able to make money by serving text advertisements and selling affiliate products. The key to the business model is traffic and therein lies the rub. The single biggest cost will be the marketing budget required to popularize this site.

Or maybe not. It may also be possible to partner with an existing site or media company who feels that Godzi could somehow fit into their portfolio. Perhaps one of Startlap’s many competitors?

One downside of this model is that Godzi seems far too dependent on Google. What if the search giant decides it doesn’t need an intermediary? It also seems pointless to work exclusively in the Hungarian language because that limits you to an audience of just a few million. However, if the founders can prove their concept here they might find the backing to take it even further.

It’s unlikely they will find that money in Hungary. Few local investors work in early stage, and this particularly project is about as early as it gets. It’s good to see local innovation. It’s hard to say where this will go as long this project remains focused on Hungary and in the Hungarian language.

Another unknown is whether people actually want to search this way. However, in order to determine that the creators of Godzi have to get the word out, test it and see. That will be interesting to watch.