In the world of email, a short list of companies dominate–Google, AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft–but there’s a new player in the game that’s ready to tear down their firewalls: Ronald Reagan. Just as Reagan took on Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter, the conservative icon’s family isn’t about to bow down to any lily-livered liberals, be them presidential candidates or billion-dollar tech giants.
Last year, in his father’s memory, Reagan’s son Michaellaunched an email service结束左翼互联网公司的垄断。他的指控很简单：“每次您使用Google，AOL，Yahoo，Hotmail，Apple等公司的电子邮件时，您都在帮助自由主义者，”里根当时写道。“这些公司将在财务上成为巨大的支持者，并以损害我们国家的人的技术成为巨大的支持者。”仅需39.95美元的年费，全国各地的保守派就可以购买 @Reagan.com的电子邮件地址，并且请放心，因为他们的钱仅用于保守的原因。
Today, on the eve his late father’s 100th birthday, we caught up with Michael Reagan to find out how the hot startup was faring–and how he planned to win this one for the Gipper.
As Reagan tells it, the service is flourishing. With little marketing, Reagan Email is growing, and on the path to becoming a big threat to Google, AOL, and others.
“我对我们开始的事实感到兴奋，什么时候？去年四月？我们没有做太多晋升，我们已经出售了4,000个帐户。”里根说。“当我外出进行面试时，如果我在肖恩·汉尼提（Sean Hannity）上，我说我有 @reagan.com的电子邮件服务，我可以卖出1,000。WHAM！”
Reagan speaks with palpable energy about the service, and believes it has the potential to be a major player in email. When I ask whether it could one day compete with the likes of Hotmail or Gmail, Reagan affirms. “Yes, at some point, it is going to be a competitor,” he says. “I’m actively looking for an investor to really take it to the next level.”
里根有很多东西可以出售潜在的投资者。除了已经出售的大约4,000个帐户（每人40美元）的增长率正在提高，里根拥有。他说：“昨天有5个[卖]。”“这就像每天三，四，五个 - 他们只是继续滴入。”里根还向我描述了Reagan.com的创新功能：“我们得到了日历。我们一切顺利。我们的搜索引擎 - 我认为我们拥有唯一为您提供左右[结果]的搜索引擎。”
Currently, he’s looking for an investment in the range of $500,000 to $1 million. “We could take in a million users–we’re set up,” he says. “With a large investor to put some really big bucks behind it, I think it can be huge–we’d be able to expand and get bigger servers.”
When I asked how a $39.95 service could ever compete with Google or Microsoft’s free email, Reagan explained that once he gets enough users, he too will be able to offer free, ad-supported service. After all, it’s no different than how his competitors began.
“When AOL started, it cost more than that–look at what AOL or MSN was charging on a monthly basis–it was more than $40 a year,” Reagan says. “And look at what you’re getting for the $40.”
Reagan says his team is “always upgrading” the service, and looking for new ways to attract users. (Though, according to Reagan Email policy, upgrading isn’t necessarily included in the service’s price: “You are using the Services AT YOUR OWN RISK and we are under no obligation to provide you with any support, error corrections, updates, upgrades, bug fixes and/or enhancements of the Service.”)
So will Reagan Email soon chomp away at the market share of Gmail and Yahoo and Hotmail? For $39.95, there’s no telling how big this service could become.
“People forget: I was the first one to stream a radio show, and everybody laughed at me,” Reagan says. “I was the first one in radio with a website, and people laughed at me then.”
[拍摄者Pingnews]