Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2018. Although dated 2018, most of the companies and figures come from around 2011–2013. Several of the start-ups have since closed, pivoted or been acquired; Fab.com collapsed in 2015, and Skillshare is now an online-class platform.
Some of the business ideas below are already working in other countries, and they are fairly original. Specifically, they are working in the United States, and perhaps we can find a way to apply the same model in Spain or wherever you are reading from. In other words, there is a chance to import this kind of business, adapt it or improve on it. Other ideas on the list managed to raise significant sums in funding rounds because they were considered quite original.
These are ambitious tech-based projects (internet businesses), so if you are looking for quick ways to make money online, you are better off with a different article. And if what you want is to make extra money in your spare time or full time, take a look at that one.
Read also: 40 innovative businesses from other parts of the world
Some original internet business ideas
1. The eBay of university lecture notes
A student entrepreneur created Moolaguides.com, a website where any university student who missed a class or needs more information can buy the notes online. The person who uploads the notes also gets paid. It has been called the eBay of university notes, and lecturers are divided between criticism and acceptance, while the site has already traded notes worth 374,000 dollars.
2. Selling school and office supplies
A website selling all kinds of school and office supplies online should be nothing new, and you might think the idea faces a lot of competition. But Chalkfly.com has the support of users and the teaching community because it puts part of its profits back into education. It hasn’t taken much effort for the company to reach agreements with parents’ associations and with schools themselves.
3. A jewellery website that turns users into mini-entrepreneurs
Chloeandisabel.com is a website that sells all kinds of jewellery and accessories. On top of that, the site has created a kind of referral programme in which users can earn commissions of up to 30% for selling its products. It is a profitable business: the company raised more than 2 million euros in a first funding round.
4. Interior decoration and much more, ordered entirely online
Fab.com started out offering only interior decoration products and now has all kinds of projects, objects, designs and new ideas that are refreshed daily, with discounts of up to 70% on online purchases. It has raised 40 million in a funding round.
See also: 3 businesses (industries, professions) that could disappear as we know them
5. Event planning for informal party hosts
Plenty of companies organise all kinds of events, but if one day you suddenly feel like celebrating your birthday or anything else on the spur of the moment, Venuebook.com helps you organise it quickly. Users log on and see all the partner venues, prices and so on, and if you are short of time, you just get in touch with them and they will organise everything for you.
6. All kinds of teachers, in person
On Skillshare.com anyone can give private lessons or teach any skill they have. These are not online private lessons (which are also a good business idea): from maths to belly dancing and traditional Japanese cooking, you can learn thanks to the variety of teachers who sign up on the site. Think of it as a social network of teachers and students covering every possible subject but at a local level, since the idea is to take the classes in person.
7. Selling handmade vintage accessories
The entrepreneur who founded Jojoandsofia.com started the business from home, making some handmade clothing accessories himself, and even some garments, which he then uploaded to the internet and sold. Today the shop works with several designers and sells all kinds of handmade accessories (cufflinks, pendants, jewellery) as well as classic-style clothing. The shop’s hallmark is that its products are vintage.
8. A job site specialised in services
When there are real giants in the job-search market, the only way to innovate and win a slice of it is to specialise in a specific sector. Shiftgig.com specialises in the local service industry. In other words, if a restaurant is looking for a cook or a bakery needs a server, all they have to do is go to the website, where they will find a wide range of candidates with their references.
9. The parking problem, solved
We have suggested this business idea on other occasions, and Spothero.com has made it a reality in Chicago with an app that anyone with a free parking space, whether for a few hours a day or for whole days, simply joins. If you travel to Chicago, you just open the app and it shows you the nearest free parking spaces to wherever you are heading.
10. The Groupon of sustainable businesses and consumers
As with earlier ideas, since it would be hard to take on giants the size of Groupon straight away, Blissmo.com is a discount-coupon company that only admits sustainable businesses, so its users can get up to 70% off all kinds of eco-friendly products.
Now let’s look at some other internet projects.
10 original business ideas that have raised large sums of investment
1. Controlling our children’s internet use
Myhipom.com lets parents manage how much time their children spend online. The company gives families a control panel that can switch internet access on and off on every device in the house at any time, and it can also block certain content, besides designing specific programmes so that children use the internet in a controlled way. Think of it as parental control, perfected.
2. Tracking weight loss
Nexercise is an app, currently for iOS and Android, that helps you track weight loss and get in shape. The app encourages you to work out through contests, alerts and real rewards. It has already logged more than 3 million workouts and a total of 100 million minutes of physical activity among its users.
3. How users interact with your website’s content
Pathful is designed specifically to help companies understand how people engage with web content. The tool captures every visitor’s interactions with each element across the site and sends all kinds of customised reports.
4. Managing files in the cloud
Peoplematics is a platform that organises all the data we upload to the cloud, since more and more we keep files in different storage services such as Dropbox or Google Drive. The platform tries to make all of this simpler. At the same time, it organises and manages our files and reports on who has interacted with them and how.
5. Being single takes a lot of work
Project Fixup launched as a more innovative dating platform, trying to match people based on their work schedules, interests or very specific topics, such as vegetarian food, political leanings, favourite wines or preferred sport. It describes its offer as a combination of “your best friend and your personal assistant”.
6. Help with email marketing
Simple Relevance says it can help increase your revenue by between 30% and 300%. Its approach is based on analysing email marketing, fixing what doesn’t work properly and boosting what does work for this type of selling.
7. Gathering information for advertisers
SocialCrunch collects information about people from across the internet, especially about their sex lives, spending habits, work ethic and anything else imaginable. This company’s business idea is the favourite to win this year, since it can obtain user information that brands could never access. That way the customer is better understood, and sales strategies and products can be better adapted.
8. Helping and encouraging children to exercise
Sqord aims to get children exercising through different games, such as friendly competition or gamification. It keeps close track of children’s activities and rewards those who do best.
9. The YouTube of financial charts
TradingView aims to be a new experience for the investor community, getting investors to interact and share their ideas. It doesn’t set out to be a social network for investors, since that idea is very worn out, but its creators say they want to become the YouTube of financial charts worldwide, where anyone can access analyses of currencies, stocks, commodities and so on.
10. Improving the patient–doctor relationship
CaptureProof lets patients securely share photos, videos and X-rays with their doctors, so that doctors can track how their patients are progressing or what they are doing. Doctors can also consult their patients’ records from anywhere. This business idea may be especially useful in countries where healthcare is 100% private. The founder comes from pharmaceutical sales, so she has a portfolio of potential clients within the sector.
Looking for more ideas outside the internet? This article has 41 business ideas that can be very profitable.
As we can see, there is still room to innovate on the internet.
Further reading
- 6 business ideas for young entrepreneurs
- 9 home-based business ideas with no need for commercial premises
Featured image: Marek Slusarczyk, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
