Long Live the New Internet!!

Long Live the New Internet!!

What Brought Google’s Founders Out of Retirement and Why Some Brands Are Losing 50-70% of Their Audience Overnight

For years, the game was familiar.

Fans discovered your content, visited your channels, bought tickets, wore the merchandise, engaged with sponsors. You owned the journey. You owned the story.

That’s changing fast.

In the past 12 months, some of the world’s most established news and media brands have reported traffic declines of 55–70%. Why? Because audiences now get their answers, recommendations, and even purchase options before they ever reach a website.

The shift is so significant that Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have returned from retirement to help steer the company’s next chapter.

This isn’t about chasing shiny new tech.

It’s about control of the fan journey, the transaction, and the data. And while AI-powered discovery is a major catalyst, the deeper issue is structural: the gateways to your audience are moving, and they’re moving fast.

Why the Next 120 Days Will Decide the Future of Your Fans, Revenue, and Relevance

A Quick Lesson from Leicester City FC.

When Leicester City stunned the football world by winning the 2015/16 Premier League defying odds of 5000-to-1 demand for club merchandise exploded. Yet a significant share of sales happened through unofficial channels: counterfeit kits, unlicensed online stores, and marketplaces with no direct link to the club. Revenue was lost, valuable customer data disappeared, and the chance to build lasting connections with new fans slipped away.

The lesson is simple: when you don’t control the channels where demand converts, much of the value disappears no matter how strong the moment.

From Print to Mobile and Now Faster

In 2013, print media still commanded nearly 50% of ad budgets in many markets. Newspapers were the dominant gatekeepers. Just over a decade later, print’s share has collapsed to roughly 14%, with the vast majority now flowing into online and mobile.

That transformation took years. The one happening now will move much faster. Already, more fans are finding what they want through conversational interfaces and when someone searches through chat once, they rarely return to “old search.” The answers are clearer, faster, and more direct.

For sports brands, this isn’t just a shift in behavior, it’s a permanent redrawing of the map.

The Business Risks for Sports Executives

1. Loss of Direct-to-Fan Sale:  More transactions completed off-platform means less control over margins, upselling, and customer experience.
2. Erosion of Fan Data Ownership: Without first-party data, personalization, retention, and long-term value creation all become harder and more expensive.
3. Sponsor ROI Under Pressure: If your sponsors aren’t visible at the key moments when fans are making decisions, their perceived value drops.
4. Weakened Brand Narrative: When others control your story in discovery channels, your voice and values risk dilution.
5. Channel Displacement: Over time, ticketing, memberships, and merchandise sales could migrate to ecosystems where you hold minimal influence.

A 120-Day Readiness Plan: Phase 1 Audit & Assess (Weeks 1–4)

• Map every critical digital asset and fan touchpoint that must remain visible and accessible.
• Review how your brand currently appears in discovery and transaction flows identify gaps early.

Phase 2: Secure Your Channel Presence (Weeks 5–8)

• Ensure tickets, memberships, and merchandise are present and purchasable in the environments your fans already use.
• Structure your content and data for accuracy, clarity, and consistent representation.

Phase 3:Strengthen Direct Relationships (Weeks 9–12)

• Enhance owned channels apps, digital fan clubs, exclusive benefits to maintain a direct connection.
• Offer clear value for fans to share their data with you directly.

Phase 4 : Redesign Sponsorship Value (Weeks 13–16)

• Build the “new discovery layer” into sponsorship packages so partners remain visible where decisions happen.
• Develop metrics that prove impact across both owned and third-party touchpoints.

Signals from the Market

• Media brands are shifting to subscriptions after sharp drops in referral traffic.
• Retailers are embedding transactions directly into dominant discovery platforms to maintain share.
• Leading sports clubs are investing in fan ID systems to safeguard direct engagement and monetization.

My Five Cent

the purpose here is not to create panic.

I’m sharing this because I’ve seen how fast industries can lose their footing when the market’s foundations shift. In sports, the stakes are higher than in almost any other sector because your audience isn’t just a customer base, it’s a community.

The next 120 days are your chance to:

• Protect your revenue streams
• Deepen your fan relationships
• Strengthen your position in a changing market

And it’s not just about defending what you have.

For many clubs especially those without a massive global following this is a rare chance to break through. The same shifts that threaten established channels are also lowering the barriers to global reach. With the right preparation, you can stand alongside the biggest names at the exact moments fans are deciding who to follow, what to buy, and where to spend their attention. That means:

• New revenue from markets you’ve never touched
• Stronger global fan loyalty without massive marketing spend
• Greater cultural and commercial impact than ever before

The playing field is being redrawn.

And I believe it’s always better to lead that change and seize its opportunities than to scramble after it once the rules have already been rewritten.

With love for sports and innovation

Amir