What were the most ridiculous startups ideas that became successful at the end?

i think the "Cars" Automobils were a very redicilous Idea (from the peoble prespective) when first introduced back in19th century by Carl Benz, regardles of its a briliant idea in its truth but it faced by people as of its a very redicilous idea, and they treated Carl Benz him self as a crazy person or something.

You could say facebook, twitter, paypal and there are lots who launched funny to be successful in the end. But personally I think that the best should go to video game consoles and gamewares. Playstations, Nintendos etc, there was a time when the whole world thought that it was a crazy idea to let their kids play such mind numbening games such a Mario, but look around you now and you'll see that the gaming industry is bigger than Hollywood, yes, that's were it stands now and it is still growing. So, now it's not just about kids playing mere Mario Bros or sorts, it's the adults who find themselves engaged in it. Then i'd say Artificial Intelligence, it'd be a life threatening terminator in the end, but yes, it's still a ridiculous idea which will be successful in the end as well.

Thank you,

Astalavista

Dear Fida,

Bayt.com, I didn't personally think this was so ridiculous when I first heard of it, somewhere around2004, but I recall a lot of colleagues thinking it was completely silly.  And I never thought it would become arguably the biggest and the most visited employment website in the Middle East region.

It was very hard to accept the idea of getting a job online, when we used to hand our CV's to HR in companies or even send the resumes by fax.

The traditional methods of recruitment was the most widely accepted, I was one of the followers of Bayt.com Bayt Works for ME! Contest, and I remember how it was great idea.

If we talking about global idea, so I think Google was the most ridiculous idea that become successful..

Google, for example, makes no sense prospectively, as another competitor in a crowded field of commoditizing search engines.  Retrospectively, you can see that it offered what people wanted - a way to search that crowd-sourced the intelligence about what's worth finding, and a way to make money without creating an obstacle to users.

Finally; What's ridiculous is the idea of startups that aren't ridiculous - the idea that you can launch a company and get it to thrive based on a conventional idea, an idea that lots of others, people with money, experience, brand, resources, channels, etc. have already had.  Jumping on a not-crazy idea so you can fight toe-to-toe with a bunch of established companies is really crazy.

Regards,

Hany Sewilam AbdelHamid

Business Development Manager

http://www.sewilam.com/

- facebook.com/Orkanza

- twitter.com/HanySewilam

once upon a time , hearing human voices from a box  was a ridicules idea ( the radio) , stepping on the moon was one of the most ridicules ideas ever, the point here is ideas are not ridicules , simplicity of an idea doesn’t mean ridiculousness 

The APPLE. It created an impact on mankind (ADAM) and is now a powerful tool in all industries (APPLE - MACINTOSH), including medicine.ð

for every statups we must do sales and after sales service activitiy.  Since in this competitive world we cannot sit on selling box.  Every person who is starting a business means he is waiting very long for getting fruits from that business for box movers but for after sales service people getting there survival and stability very sooner. 

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This is a challenging question indeed.I believe that "Cancer Cure" is between the hands of hackers not scientists alone! Is it a ridicules idea! Continue reading…There aren't ridicules (nor impossible) ideas at all (at least for me). I define it as (flavors of ideas).Some flavors are not accepted by someone but it is accepted by others.Some flavors are not accepted by you at sometime but it (might be) accepted later.Look at the "Harlem Shake" song for example. It is not acceptable (at all) for me; but it had made a big success world wide. To answer the question from my point of view; the idea that was not an accepted flavor for me was Pinterest. After only3 years; Pinterest proved itself to be one of the successful social tools worldwide.