RE: [BusinessTeam] About.com Will Take on B-to-B
Nancy Olds
nolds at nano.com
Tue Oct 03 18:48:35 2000 UTC
Hey, my friend Michelle sold advertising for Wiseads.com, the company
About.com bought to form this B2B network... Also, came across an
interesting article you may have already seen:
http://www.redherring.com/insider/2000/1003/tech-sunday100300.html
-----Original Message-----
From: businessteam-admin@mail.nano.com
[mailto:businessteam-admin@mail.nano.com]On Behalf Of Luke Flemmer
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 12:45 PM
To: businessteam@nano.com
Subject: [BusinessTeam] About.com Will Take on B-to-B
About.com Will Take on B-to-B
The content site will unveil ABZ, a new division aimed at creating
editorial products for exchanges and vendors.
<mailto:jgreenstein@thestandard.com> By Jennifer Greenstein
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Scott <http://www.thestandard.com/people/display/0,1157,1157,00.html>
Kurnit
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About.com,
<http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,53065,00.html> Inc.
(BOUT <http://www.thestandard.com/article/stock/1,2107,,FF.html?sym1=BOUT>
)
AltaVista
<http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,52226,00.html>
Company
Media <http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,56431,00.html>
Metrix, Inc. (MMXI
<http://www.thestandard.com/article/stock/1,2107,,FF.html?sym1=MMXI> )
NewsEdge
<http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,56320,00.html>
Corporation (NEWZ
<http://www.thestandard.com/article/stock/1,2107,,FF.html?sym1=NEWZ> )
VerticalNet,
<http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,55422,00.html> Inc.
(VERT <http://www.thestandard.com/article/stock/1,2107,,FF.html?sym1=VERT>
)
<http://a1048.g.akamai.net/f/1048/1249/20001002-064226/www.thestandard.com
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B-to-B <http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,18399,00.html>
Gets a Second Chance
Going <http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,17571,00.html>
Vertical
Microsoft
<http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,9076,00.html> Makes a
VerticalNet Leap
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About.com
<http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,19033,00.html> Will
Take on B-to-B
(October 2, 2000)
When <http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,18937,00.html>
Good Sites Go Bad
(October 2, 2000)
That's <http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,18936,00.html>
Entertainment
(October 2, 2000)
Microsoft
<http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,19008,00.html> s TV
Partners Deny Relationships
(September 29, 2000)
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Smarter
<http://www.thestandard.com/research/store/report_display/0,1202,1011,00.h
tml> Television
Content
<http://www.thestandard.com/research/store/report_display/0,1202,1189,00.h
tml> And Media Transformed
Don't
<http://www.thestandard.com/research/store/report_display/0,1202,1301,00.h
tml> Avoid XML--It's Essential to E-Business
Content
<http://www.thestandard.com/research/store/report_display/0,1202,810,00.ht
ml> Management Strategies
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Email to a Friend
<http://www.thestandard.com/article/article_print/0,1153,19033,00.html>
Print Article
<mailto:letters@thestandard.com> Write the Editor
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<mailto:tips@thestandard.com> Got a Scoop? Tip us off
In the battle-weary world of online content, producing a site for a
mainstream audience is out of favor, and even business-to-business isn't
looking that tantalizing. But About.com
<http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,53065,00.html> (BOUT
<http://www.thestandard.com/article/stock/1,2107,,FF.html?sym1=BOUT> )
doesn't seem worried about conventional wisdom.
The company, which has quietly become the seventh-most popular destination
on the Web by creating more than 700 vertical sites for consumers, is
taking on b-to-b. About.com will announce a new business unit Monday that
will provide customized content to exchanges, vendor sites, industry
consortia and intranets using About.com's unique model: highly targeted
topic sites steered by guides who are experts in the subject. The company
has such high hopes, it hired a former MarchFirst managing partner as CEO
and is already talking about seeking private financing and spinning off
the new division.
About.com is embracing b-to-b, but it's not giving in to the temptation to
jump directly into the exchange business, as other content companies have
done. Instead, the new b-to-b division, called ABZ (as in "business from A
to Z"), will be a service company that provides the editorial product that
sites believe they need to lure buyers.
"There's a debate going on in where the value is in b-to-b," says Scott
<http://www.thestandard.com/people/display/0,1157,1157,00.html> Kurnit,
About.com's founder and CEO. "Our view is you're in a much safer place to
differentiate yourself in editorial." And exchanges want someone else to
shoulder the task of creating content for their sites, he says.
But some exchanges, such as e-Steel, are planning to produce their own
content. And GE Global Exchange Services is planning to provide experts to
answer questions on their marketplaces. Companies such as YellowBrix and
NewsEdge
<http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,56320,00.html> (NEWZ
<http://www.thestandard.com/article/stock/1,2107,,FF.html?sym1=NEWZ> )
already provide customized content feeds, though neither offers an expert
to reply to questions.
ABZ will be going up against VerticalNet
<http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,55422,00.html> (VERT
<http://www.thestandard.com/article/stock/1,2107,,FF.html?sym1=VERT> ) , a
major b-to-b player that also provides customized content, chats and
discussion boards to its customers. About.com executives say coming to the
market after VerticalNet might actually prove to be an advantage.
Moving into that cluttered b-to-b arena won't be easy. Providing
insightful information about telecommunications, for example, demands much
more specific expertise than giving advice about Southern food or
quilting, two of About.com's most popular sites.
But ABZ CEO Arvind Gupta says the company will provide a service that
exchanges can't pull off themselves. "People say this intelligence can be
supplied by exchanges, but they have to be neutral. A company like ours
can provide the intelligence to distinguish between seller A and seller
B."
ABZ will share advertising revenues with the exchanges and consortia, or
charge a licensing fee. Thirty ABZ sites will go live Oct. 2 on About.com
to showcase the service, on topics such as oil and gas, hospital
administration and fiber optics.
Those verticals will benefit from About.com's impressive traffic numbers;
its sites had 19.7 million unique visitors in August, according to Media
<http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,56431,00.html> Metrix
(MMXI <http://www.thestandard.com/article/stock/1,2107,,FF.html?sym1=MMXI>
) , surpassing AltaVista
<http://www.thestandard.com/companies/display/0,2063,52226,00.html> . Half
of those visits occurred during the workday. About.com's executives say
people who visit About.com for the dish on their favorite soap opera, for
example, eventually will explore the site on the industry they work in.
About.com's track record gives it the wherewithal to push into new
territory. Revenues for the second quarter of this year were $20.1
million, up 27 percent from the previous quarter. The company says it
expects to turn a profit in the first quarter of 2001.
Kurnit has big plans for ABZ, which is now a wholly owned subsidiary but
might be spun off as an independent company with outside investors. Kurnit
is even talking about taking ABZ public. "ABZ has the potential to be
significantly bigger than About," Kurnit predicts, eyeing the b-to-b
market with a hint of glee. "There's $5 billion of market cap sitting
right there."
Luke Flemmer
VP Strategic Ventures
nano
phone: (212) 402-7870
fax: (212) 430-6374
www.nano.com <http://www.nano.com/>
Message-ID: <6B75EF096AE0BE428B8CEDEA89C5F632782296@exchange01.lab49.com>
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