I was thinking "franchise" from the first bullet point. The global reach of the internet is great, but many needs are local (think fast food). One solution to t

I was thinking "franchise" from the first bullet point. The global reach of the internet is great, but many needs are local (think fast food). One solution to this problem is franchising. But, if the capital costs are low, you can do it with a single company and local offices, as they did here. This model could easily be copied in another country (e.g. here in Australia), but it doesn't sound very groundbreaking (or much fun). Half-way through, I felt a strong suspicion that the article would turn out to a device for gathering leads for "geekdating.com"...