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Inside this Issue:
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Internet
Information Provider Services Industry Analyzed via the Value Framework™
by Mitchell Levy, Author, E-Volve-or-Die.com,
Author, the Value Framework™
and Yukako Saito, Researcher of Recruit Co. in Japan
The IIPS industry is now an integral part of our everyday
lives, whether at home, at work, or both.
SUMMARY The
Internet, which spread quickly in the second half of the 1990s, has become an
essential tool for a large percentage of the population to efficiently gain information.
The Internet has world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information
dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals
and their computers regardless of their geographic location. As such, the Internet
Information Provider Service (IISP) industry has become an indispensable entity
in our daily lives-as a door opening up a world of information, and as a gateway
to other Internet activities. The IIPS industry is now an integral
part of our everyday lives, whether at home, at work, or both. In less than a
decade, it has been transformed from a technological curiosity to a resource where
hundreds of millions of consumers shop, look for news, information, or communicate
with one another, and a platform for both entertainment as well as serious business.
The IIPS industry provides not only information but also interactive services,
allowing people to purchase goods, make reservations, and apply to offers on good
or services directly online. As users information requests change, the role of
the IIPS has changed accordingly. With the Internet's transformation
from marvel to mainstream, expectations from Internet users have increased as
they increasingly go online. Users now demand Web sites that not only offer credible
information but are also updated frequently and are easy to navigate. The most
successful IIPS companies understand the power these users have, and they take
advantage of this to attract and motivate them by offering reliable and convenient
products and services. PRODUCT OFFERINGS
DEFINED
IIPS consist of following key content segments:
-
Databases of research, projects, and conferences
-
Government profiles, legislation, national laws of different
countries from all over the world
-
Profiles
of private companies, presentation of products, promotions and selling schemes
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Career opportunities such as job vacancy listings,
job agencies, and online ads
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Educational
resources such as lecture notes, interactive tutorials, curriculum outlines
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Computer manuals, archives, IT discussions,
freeware, and shareware
-
Tourist accommodation,
reservations, tourist guides and weather conditions
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Culture, art and religion of different nations
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Entertainment in the form of sports updates, online magazines, games, TV listings,
galleries, music, cinema, soap opera
-
Various
other interactive resources The IIPS industry
was originally born in the United States, and spread all over the world, inspiring
innovative IIPS companies rooted in the culture of each country. This
analysis uses the Value Framework™ to look at the entire industry with emphasis
on comparing the US and Japanese models. We observe the strategy deployed, strategy
managed, and strategy evolved by this industry to identify the keys to success
today and tomorrow. KEY EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS,
1989 TO PRESENT
One of the most important developments in the evolution
of the Internet and IIPS was the World Wide Web (Web), an easy-to-use interface
that appeared in 1989. Before the Web, Gopher, a menu-based interface, was used.
Gopher was the first simple way of finding information on the Internet by allowing
access to textual information. Navigating the Internet required in-depth knowledge
of computers, the different operating systems, and the use of puzzling commands.
Gopher made it possible to search information on the Internet without the need
to use complicated codes. It was, however, limited to presenting textual files
from a menu of textual items, and does not offer an attractive display of graphics.
Through the Web, the Internet developed the ability to display
information in different multimedia forms (text, images, audio, video) that made
it extremely popular. Following the introduction of the Web, several Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) started to offer dial-up Internet services to their subscribers.
Many companies and businesses also started to offer Internet-related products
and services, such as search engines, browsers, and programming languages for
Web development. Currently, there are hundreds of millions of Web sites on the
Internet providing a wide-range of information (cultural, political, scientific,
industrial, etc.), in addition to e-commerce and online transactions. The following
fundamental external influences have affected this industry in the last dozen
years:
-
Late 1980's: The World
Wide Web was born. British physics researcher and communications specialist, Tim
Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web for CERN (European Nuclear Research Center)
in Geneva, Switzerland. The concept started from an information system design
proposal entitled "Information Management: A Proposal", that aimed at
providing links to documents over the Internet allowing researchers to swiftly
share results.
-
Early 1990's: A programmer
named Marc Andreessen developed the first mouse-based browser called Mosaic (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/NCSAMosaicHome.html),
at the University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications
(NCSA). But after a year, Andreessen left NCSA to form Netscape with Jim Clark.
Andreessen and Clark then developed a new browser for the Web called Netscape
Navigator. Netscape Navigator was the first commercially available Web browser
and was exclusively distributed by Netscape Communications Corporation.
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1994: Yahoo! was born. Stanford Ph.D. students, David
Filo and Jerry Yang started it as a hobby. However, it achieved more than 100,000
accesses within 10 days.
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Late 1990's:
Over 40,000,000 hosts connected to the Internet. The Internet gradually immersed
into consumer's daily life. People started to use the Internet not only for searching
information, but also for shopping, learning, and trading. E-Commerce sites such
as Amazon and eBay gained popularity.
-
Early 2000's: DSL and cable modems enable exchange of large amounts of
data through the Internet. The content has gradually increased in size to include
high-resolution images and motion pictures. Personalized content and services
based on user's implicit and explicit characteristics increased utilization (e.g.
Amazon's recommendations based on purchase history of peer consumers). STRATEGY
DEPLOYED
Despite the complexities that emerge from the product/service
offerings and influences already described, to a large extent, strategic options
for participants within each segment remain the same! They must choose from and
strategize the types of market reach and range of product offerings that their
companies will pursue. The following matrix illustrates the options, along with
example players as of late-2002:
PRODUCT/ SERVICE
OFFERINGS | MARKET
REACH | | | Broad |
Focused | | Broad |
1) Yahoo!
AOL
@nifty | |
| Focused |
|
| This
leads to the question of which companies have deployed a strategy, managed it,
and then evolved it successfully in light of the dynamics of this business sector
since 1994. The balance of this article will apply the Value Framework™ to
sample companies that deployed strategies in one or more of the four strategy
segments, and examine/analyze what contributed to their success or failure. 1.
BROAD MARKET REACH - BROAD PRODUCT/SERVICE OFFERINGS Yahoo!
| 30-Second Pitch | | The first online navigational
guide to the Web, founded in 1994. Yahoo! is the leader in traffic, advertising,
household and business user reach and has evolved into a global brand that has
changed the way people communicate with each other, find and access information,
and make purchases. This horizontal portal inspired others such as Excite, AltaVista,
and AOL. Yahoo! contains a wide variety of subjects and topics, that are usually
of general interest. | | Strategies Deployed in the Late
90's Environment | | Focused on becoming increasingly essential
to the lives of consumers and aimed at being the most familiar information template
of the Internet allowing ease and convenience of use by the consumer. |
| Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 | | Started
with its comprehensive, hand-built directory arranged according to subject. This
made is easy for Yahoo! to track their personal interests and add new services
tailored to their needs. Yahoo! offers consumers a broad and deep array of communications,
commerce and content services in over 100 distinct properties that lead consumers
to make Yahoo! their home on the Internet and wireless devices. |
| Strategies Evolved Today and Tomorrow | | With
the current business slump, Yahoo! realized the need to have non-advertising based
revenue models and have started to charge fees for some of its services, such
as auction services. As a result of these fees, the number of listed items had
fallen to nearly half, however the rate of successful bids has almost doubled.
More services are being switched to a fee basis. Yahoo! has started to expand
their services for the broad band era. Yahoo! BB is an integrated broadband service
provided jointly with BB Technologies Corporation (BBT). The service includes
ADSL services, Internet connection (ISP) services, a broadband portal site and
content-provision services, and other services. | AOL
| 30-Second Pitch | | AOL, the world's leading
interactive service, is revolutionizing the lives of more than 35 million members
around the globe. | | Strategies Deployed in the Late 90's
Environment | | AOL aimed to become a pioneer of 'on-line
communication'. AOL made it easy for its customers to seamlessly use technology
services such as e-mail, chat, and instant messaging. ICQ is a well-known on-line
communication service that has keywords for simple navigation and a Buddy List
feature to enable instant messaging by displaying other members who are online.
| | Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 |
| The AOL mantra during this period was to provide interaction, communication,
and community. At the height of the Internet boom, AOL acquired Time Warner while
simultaneously expanding its user base. AOL offers useful and easy services, and
combined with Time Warner's entertainment it aims to be the 'primary' entertainment
vehicle for consumers. | | Strategies Evolved Today and
Tomorrow | | Today, AOL offers an easy perspective in online
communication, largely enhancing the features and functions members use and care
about -- more convenient e-mail, instant messaging, more relevant content that's
easily personalized for members' interests, easier and more powerful Parental
Controls to keep children safe online, new tools to build online communities,
and an automatic reconnect feature to give the customer the appearance of a seamless
connection. AOL is now a conglomerate company moving toward the ISP offering comprehensive
access from telephone, cable, and satellite and providing entertaining interactive
media for the broadband age. | @nifty
(Japan) | 30-Second
Pitch | | NIFTY Corporation, originally the Internet business
sector of FUJITSU, provides Internet access, content, community and e-commerce
services to Japanese consumers and business customers. @nifty, NIFTY's Internet
service brand, has 3.86 million subscribers (No. 1 in Japan). NIFTY also offers
a successful business platform for online businesses. | | Strategies
Deployed in the Late 90's Environment | | Fujitsu announced
its strategy of 'Everything on Internet' in 1999. For this implementation, Nifty
merged their ISP 'Info Web' and 'Nifty Serve' into a single mega ISP called '@nifty'.
Fujitsu intended to make @nifty a well appointed, well founded, and well ordered
Internet metropolis that can support any lifestyle. | | Strategies
Managed in 2000-2002 | | @nifty keeps developing new value
for users. Their great innovations, such as credit card accounts, business accounts,
and the copyright system for reviewers help them to lead the Japanese Internet
market by engaging the convenience and trust of @nifty members. The payment system
was carefully designed, because Japanese users are not positively inclined to
use credit cards online. Most of the content is designed for the members who use
the Internet connection service of @nifty. All users are identified and credited
by ID and password. There are small charges for most of the content, which is
automatically added to the monthly membership fee. | | Strategies
Evolved Today and Tomorrow | | Today, @nifty has grown
to be Japan's largest full range online content and services provider. Their attractive
high quality services have been expanded. @nifty initially provided a domestic
and overseas e-mail connection service, Telnet connection service to NIFTY SERVE
and a provision of net-news. The current challenge is to gain new customers by
allowing non-members to see premium content for low monthly fees. Through quality
content, they plan on attracting new members. | Lessons
learned from the Broad Market - Broad Product /Service Strategy:
- The IIPS for the broad market and broad product/service are defined as the
'quintessential portal.' The portal should serve as a starting point through which
a consumer can connect to other Web sites, a door opening to a world of information,
a gateway to other Internet activities.
- A portal is like an entire
Internet community that provides access to services the consumer is interested
in, such as e-mail, chat forums, online shopping, research, etc., in addition
to a search engine or directory. Originality and uniqueness is key.
-
The portals can strengthen the relationship with its consumers by combining the
content with infrastructure services such as Internet connection and ADSL.
- In order to reinforce trust, it is necessary to charge for content and
guarantee quality. The payment system has to be carefully designed to let the
user pay without any stress, especially for Japanese users, who are notably uncomfortable
paying online with credit cards.
High lights of BROAD MARKET REACH
- BROAD PRODUCT/SERVICE OFFERINGS - SERVICES: Portal to all
facilities. The portal creates a 'singular' Internet community
- CONTENT:
Chat, search, e-mail, e-commerce, instant messenger with holistic topics
- INTERFACE:
Horizontal search system allows large scale searching but can also be cumbersome
- REVENUE: Charge for usage of content and service
2.
FOCUSED MARKET REACH - BROAD PRODUCT/SERVICE OFFERINGS BizRate.com
| 30-Second Pitch |
| Founded in 1996, BizRate.com is the Web's most trafficked comparison-shopping
portal. As a trusted source, millions of online shoppers count on BizRate.com
to improve their online shopping experience by organizing product and vendor choices
in one marketplace. Shoppers can compare products, prices and stores, as rated
by real customers. | | Strategies Deployed in the Late 90's
Environment | | BizRate.com aimed to be a powerful product
search engine, single-click shopping, offering exclusive shopping deals, and price
and delivery comparison shopping - all in one convenient marketplace - that enable
consumers to "shop smartly" across 19 popular store categories and more
than 2,000 merchants. Through BizRate.com's customer-powered Store Ratings, shoppers
can compare sellers across 10 service dimensions including price, on-time delivery,
customer support, shipping and handling, privacy policies, product representation,
product selection, product information, Website and ease of ordering. |
| Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 | | BizRate.com
does not charge merchants up-front slotting or advertising fees to be featured
in its marketplace. Sellers are charged only on a pay-for-performance basis according
to sales leads generated through BizRate.com. And because all BizRate.com sellers
have been rated for quality by online shoppers, merchants can control their spending
by targeting shoppers who make purchasing decisions based on quality as well as
price. | | Strategies Evolved Today and Tomorrow |
| BizRate.com strives to gain the appreciation from its users by making
it convenient to do business and save time. Shoppers choose BizRate.com for its
unrestricted choice of sellers and products, convenient shopping tools and informative
merchant ratings - all organized in a single, open and competitive marketplace.
Sellers choose BizRate.com because its dynamically priced Seller's Auction puts
the seller in control. Sellers can target relevant buyers at their price threshold
and within their specific product categories and only pay for performance. BizRate.com
will continue to be the tool for the enhancement of consumers and businesses shopping
needs. | priceline.com
| 30-Second Pitch | | Founded in April 1998,
priceline.com is an information service specifically created to leverage the unique
attributes of the Internet for the benefit of consumers and businesses. Through
its Name Your Own Price services, priceline.com enables consumers to make purchase
offers for goods and services at the prices they want to pay. In return, consumers
agree to varying degrees of flexibility in the brand and product features they
receive for their price. | | Strategies Deployed in the
Late 90's Environment | | They invented the new system
for on-line shopping. Once priceline.com receives a consumer's purchase offer,
the system automatically tries to locate a participating business willing to sell
its product at the consumer's desired price. | | Strategies
Managed in 2000-2002 | | priceline.com does not publish
accepted prices, and does not identify a seller until after the sale is completed,
it is an effective and efficient outlet for businesses to move excess or perishable
inventory without affecting their retail pricing structure. priceline.com is a
unique form of commerce. It is not an auction or a reverse auction, since there
is no competition among buyers or sellers to set the price. priceline.com is not
an aggregator. Each buyer's offer is handled as it is received, and individuals
have just as much (if not more) buying power than if they were in a group. |
| Strategies Evolved Today and Tomorrow | | priceline.com
does not publish accepted prices, and does not identify a seller until after the
sale is completed, it is an effective and efficient outlet for businesses to move
excess or perishable inventory without affecting their retail pricing structure.
priceline.com is a unique form of commerce. It is not an auction or a reverse
auction, since there is no competition among buyers or sellers to set the price.
priceline.com is not an aggregator. Each buyer's offer is handled as it is received,
and individuals have just as much (if not more) buying power than if they were
in a group. | eCAMPUS.com
| 30-Second Pitch | | eCAMPUS.com is an educational
resource provider of new and used textbooks, trade books, college emblematic and
Greek apparel for men and women, electronics, computers, gifts, and other services
(assignment BBS, chat) traditionally associated with the college experience. |
| Strategies Deployed in the Late 90's Environment |
| eCAMPUS.com aimed to be the innovative, multi-award-winning site using
technology to market products and services to a variety of educational, corporate,
and online content providers. | | Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 |
| Provide the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way for college and university
students to buy textbooks and other relevant stuff. | | Strategies
Evolved Today and Tomorrow | | Today, eCAMPUS.com is a
fully operational e-commerce business designed to provide the highest-quality
products and services to students and campus communities wherever they happen
to be. The Internet storefront is fully integrated with a state-of-the-art distribution
facility and offers the largest in-stock selections of new and used textbooks
available online. eCAMPUS.com actively collaborates with other Internet services
through an easy to hook up affiliate program. eCAMPUS.com's continued commitment
is to offer great prices, quality products, and superior customer service. |
ISIZE (Japan)
| 30-Second Pitch | | ISIZE is currently the
second largest portal site in Japan, which Recruit Co. started in 1998. It generates
USD $315 million revenue, and more than 1 million page views per day. ISIZE provides
a wide variety of services linked to 15 lifetime events, such as Recruiting, Real
estate, Wedding, Travel, and Education. Most of the content is strongly connected
to the information magazines and individual on-line services of Recruit. ISIZE
is the entrance to the Internet media for all Recruit customers. |
| Strategies Deployed in the Late 90's Environment |
| In 1995, the experimental service portal site called 'Mix Juice' was started.
It had only the function to complement the information magazine issued by Recruit
Co. ISIZE was created based on Mix Juice, but was not only a complement to the
magazines, but also aimed to develop the network business. In addition to the
core 15 information domains, Recruit developed 11 new information domains especially
for ISIZE to increase the traffic and foster earning capacity. ISIZE aimed to
be a media offering wide variety of contents for a wide range of target. |
| Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 | | Earning
(sales profit) is the most important measurement. Page views and unique users
are not a priority. Strategic priorities were concentrated on highly profitable
content. | | Strategies Evolved Today and Tomorrow |
| ISIZE has established 15 life scenarios, and plans to expand the current
functionality to make it possible not only for comparison and study as a portal
site, but also to make requests for materials and estimates and to make reservations
and applications. In 2002, the profitability of each ISIZE domain directly corresponded
to the ongoing information magazine. The next challenge is to unify the multiple
information domains to work dynamically, and offer horizontal services. There
is also a need to create a revenue model on the customer side. | Lessons
learned from the Narrow Market - Broad Product/Service Strategy:
- It is important to offer a quality product/service rather than a quantity
product/ service. Depth of service is required to support and meet the user's
domain needs
- The online communication service should be used to
establish a 'daily use' of the service
- It is key to continually
poll the consumers desire and offer the complex services that satisfy those needs
High light of FOCUSED MARKET REACH - BROAD PRODUCT/SERVICE OFFERINGS
- SERVICES: High quality, depth of information for key domain categories
- CONTENT: E-Commerce, e-mail, several categories in certain service/industry
- INTERFACE: Easy navigation to make comparison of service/product,
detailed search available to promise accurate results
- REVENUE:
Revenue is generated primarily from the clients (business) via affiliate and advertising
models
3. BROAD MARKET REACH - FOCUSED PRODUCT/SERVICE OFFERINGS
Google
| 30-Second Pitch |
| Worlds most popular search engine with a very large number of users,
and a laser-like focus on finding the right answer for each and every one of them
150 million times a day. Google offers the fastest, easiest way to find information
on the Web. By accessing its index of 2 billion Web pages, Google delivers relevant
results to users all over the world, typically in less than half a second. |
| Strategies Deployed in the Late 90's Environment |
| Google deployed the strategy to deliver the best search experience on
the Internet by making the world's information universally accessible and useful.
The Google search engine features an easy-to-use simple interface, advanced search
technology, and a comprehensive array of search tools for accessing online information.
Users are able to search for and find content in many different languages; access
stock quotes, maps, and news headlines; or even get phone book listings for every
city in the United States. | | Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 |
| Google has developed an advanced search technology that involves a series
of simultaneous calculations typically occurring in less than half a second-without
human intervention. This unique technology is licensed to many other search engines. |
| Strategies Evolved Today and Tomorrow | | Today's
major portals and corporate sites from all over the world, spanning all Internet
platforms, have selected Google search services for their search technology requirements.
Google continues to strive to answer questions of customers and moves toward creating
the 'Semantic' Web. | 2ch
(Japan) | 30-Second
Pitch | | 2ch is the largest bulletin board system (BBS)
in Japan. It allows anyone to write any discussion by category, with over 300
BBS and an unbelievable number of threads per category. 2ch is a privately owned
non-profit business that has generated the top 5 page views per day since 1998.
| | Strategies Deployed in the Late 90's Environment |
| The strategy deployed was to set up the BBS as a free on-line community
to let people discuss any topic without restriction. | | Strategies
Managed in 2000-2002 | | There is no management. There
is no organization. It is a totally uncontrolled BBS. No trust, no apparent time
savings for the customer. | | Strategies Evolved Today and
Tomorrow | | Since this 2ch site has appeared, anybody
can write anything anonymously on the Web. 2ch triggered the change in other Japanese
on-line community sites. 2ch offers one single function extremely well and user
satisfaction is very high. 2ch must experiment with revenue models. The 2ch BBS
interface could be available for other Web sites with an affiliate model to generate
revenue. The company seems prone to be acquired by a complementary portal. |
Lessons learned from the Broad Market - Narrow Product/Service
Strategy:
- Concentrate on a single function with simplified
usability for all Internet users
- It is difficult to control the content
because it changes based on the user's request
- The functionally is
so rich and specialized that it is licensed to other IIPS companies as an application
- The revenue model must drive from its functionality (e.g. search engine,
BBS, auction) rather than its content
High light of BROAD MARKET
REACH - FOCUSED PRODUCT/SERVICE OFFERINGS
- SERVICES:
Search engine, BBS, on demand application provider
- CONTENT:
Demand based information
- INTERFACE: Allows user to view only
what is desired without going through extra layer of navigation
- REVENUE:
Is subject to its function, therefore earnings are less (or 0) as it is less associated
with actual 'trade'. Once the user has found the link he wants, it has lost that
customer to another site.
4. FOCUSED MARKET REACH - FOCUSED
PRODUCT/SERVICE OFFERINGS WeddingChannel.com
| 30-Second Pitch |
| On-line support of marriage-bound women and men through the sometimes
challenging but always exciting process of planning a wedding and starting a new
home. The site not only offers professional expertise, but personal experiences
of wedding guests, wedding party members, and as brides and grooms who want the
most comprehensive and customizable wedding planning, gift registry and communication
resource on the Web. | | Strategies Deployed in the Late
90's Environment | | WeddingChannel.com has been offering
a complete menu of wedding-related services since 1997, including personalized
Web pages, planning tools, local business directories and the largest database
of bridal fashions. It focused on providing comprehensive information, products
and services, including, a directory of wedding professionals, interactive planning
tools, and customizable Web pages. From gowns and invitations to travel and finance,
WeddingChannel.com assists the couples through every step from pre-wedding to
post-honeymoon. | | Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 |
| Through exclusive, strategic relationships with bridal registry leaders,
including Federated Department Stores, Inc., Tiffany & Co., Crate and Barrel,
Neiman Marcus, Williams-Sonoma, Restoration Hardware, REI, and Gump's, WeddingChannel.com
offers couples the best selection of gifts to add to their registries and provides
wedding guests a convenient way to purchase gifts online. It becomes a big advantage
of Weddingchannel.com. | | Strategies Evolved Today and Tomorrow |
| The WeddingChannel.com has recently announced the registration of its
one-millionth couple. WeddingChannel.com's rapid membership growth is due primarily
to its unique one-stop registry service. The WeddingChannel.com has a simple-albeit
large-goal, that when a couple thinks about weddings in the future, they should
think about the WeddingChannel.com. | The
Princeton Review
| 30-Second Pitch | | The Princeton Review is an
on-line learning service to help students who want to achieve better scores. The
company was founded in 1981. | | Strategies Deployed in the
Late 90's Environment | | The Princeton Review offered
classroom and online test preparation courses, private tutoring, and operates
educational Websites. Via the company's free Website, it enabled students to research,
select, apply to, prepare for, and learn how to pay for their higher education,
while its Embark management tools streamlined the university admissions and recruiting
processes. | | Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 |
| Two simple criteria are fundamental on Princeton review of its business:
- 'Did we keep our promises?'
- 'Did we do it as efficiently and pleasantly
as possible?'
In order to satisfy student requests, their data formats
are carefully designed to be useful and available. Since one test can't be right
for every college student, Princeton Review offers a customized service with the
need for parents, students, and educators to choose a course of study. |
| Strategies Evolved Today and Tomorrow | | Their
services are spread to offer comprehensive services for the student market such
as: Test Preparation Services, Admissions Services (to help students make the
right educational and career decisions), K-12 Services (to prepares younger students
for state assessment testing with its powerful online service www.homeroom.com
and related print products and professional development seminars.) The Princeton
Review also authors more than 175 print and software titles on test preparation,
college and graduate school selection, and admissions and related topic. All businesses
are expandable for future success. | Monster
| 30-Second Pitch | | The Recruiting information
Web site connects the most progressive companies with the most qualified career-minded
individuals offering innovative technology and superior services that give them
more control over the recruiting process. | | Strategies
Deployed in the Late 90's Environment | | Aimed to be the
lead career focused on-line magazine connecting companies with the most qualified
individuals. | | Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 |
| Manage all hiring processes, from sourcing and screening to trucking,
selection, and reporting. | | Strategies Evolved Today and
Tomorrow | | Today, Monster is aimed to be a lifelong career
network, providing continuous access to the most progressive companies, as well
as interactive, personalized tools to make the process effective and convenient.
Features include: My Monster, customer personal
career management office; resume management, with the ability to store up to five
different resumes; a personal job search agent; a careers
network; chats, and message boards; privacy options; expert advice on job-seeking;
and free career management
newsletters. | Expedia
| 30-Second Pitch | | The largest predominantly
online travel agency in the United States providing travel-planning services on
the Web. | | Strategies Deployed in the Late 90's Environment |
| To build innovative and robust technology to power their travel marketplace.
In particular, Expert Searching and Pricing platform (ESP) is an industry-leading
platform that includes two components: a fare searching engine that enables broad
and deep airline fare and schedule searches and a common database platform that
enables Expedia to bundle all types of travel services together dynamically. This
bundling further enhances Expedia's ability to cross-sell complimentary inventory
types to customers originally considering only one type of travel inventory. |
| Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 | | Expedia
diversified its business model to include both the agency model and the merchant
model. Under the agency model, Expedia acts as an agent in the transaction, passing
a customer's reservation to the travel supplier (airline, hotel, car rental company
or destination service provider), and receives a commission from the travel supplier
for its services as an agent. Under the merchant model, they receive inventory
(hotel rooms, airline seats, car rentals, destination services) from suppliers
and then process the transactions as the merchant of record in the transaction.
Acting as a merchant enables them to achieve a higher level of gross profit per
transaction than in the agency model and provides better prices to customers than
in agency transactions. Integrating merchant inventory with the ESP technology
platform has enabled Expedia to create product offerings that benefit both customers
and suppliers, and to dynamically bundle in real time a variety of travel components
to suit the individual customer's requirements. | | Strategies
Evolved Today and Tomorrow | | Expedia continues to work
on its diversified business models generating positive customer experiences. |
Ikyu (Japan)
| 30-Second Pitch | | A popular Japanese travel
information provider, focused on high-end travel. Ikyu provides on-line search
and reservation for 1st class hotel suite room, and offer auction service for
special stay plan with competitive prices. | | Strategies
Deployed in the Late 90's Environment | | Focused on '1st
class hotel' offering quality-oriented services with competitive prices. |
| Strategies Managed in 2000-2002 | | Ikyu
strategically affiliated itself with the hotel industry and introduced special
offers, usually 60% off. Ikyu accepts reservations till the last minute for customer
convenience. Auction service and newsletters allow them to have personal information
that creates engaging robust relationships. | | Strategies
Evolved Today and Tomorrow | | Ikyu established the presence
in market with unique concept and niche service. Today Ikyu is the second largest
travel information Web site in Japan. The membership increased to 180,000. Ikyu
recently started the same services tailored to the senior market. | Lessons
learned from the Narrow Market - Narrow Product/Service Strategy:
- There is demand for 'specialist info and services' for key niche purposes.
- Collaboration with a big portal is an efficient way to increase the
traffic and enhance the brand. The portal and this niche create a synergistic
relationship.
- The market/industry dominant player will gain the
users.
High light of FOCUSED MARKET REACH - FOCUSED PRODUCT/SERVICE
OFFERINGS - SERVICES: Niche and specialized
- CONTENT:
Customized and personalized issue with specialty
- INTERFACE:
Allows the user to concentrate on one category they are interested in
- REVENUE:
Charges are different based on the industry, however the earning is generated
from either the business or consumer side. Should be more dynamic based on market
conditions.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The Internet
is a widespread information infrastructure. The initial prototype was called the
National (or Global or Galactic) Information Infrastructure. The Internet's influence
reaches throughout society as we move toward increasing the use of online tools
for e-commerce, information acquisition, and community operations. The broad
market IIPS industry will expand both in breath and depth of its services, and
gradually shift its revenue made from advertisement to product/services. The consumer
is starting to perceive the value of a secure Internet environment and valuable
well-designed content. The broad market participants have a role as the gateway
to the Internet. Their services must be reliable and trustworthy enough to encourage
consumers to share their personal information and spend money. The next stage
is to create a platform for fee collection without losing the convenience and
time saving components that users expect. The narrow market IIPS should
determine what the user's purpose is in visiting the site and reflect that in
its structure and content. Personally customized content and one-to-one communication
attracts users, which is difficult from a complex portal site. From the business
end, a robust earning system is required to foster the relationship with industry
as an advantage of service. One of the key factors in the success of both
the broad and narrow markets will be outstanding reliability. There is much mistrust
on the Internet. Users want to know who runs the site, how to reach them, read
the privacy policy, and how the site deals with mistakes, whether informational
or transactional. It is important to navigate easily and to be able to trust the
information on a Web site. User's demands continue to change. However, trust and
navigation remain the key factors of success for an IIPS and all the companies
analyzed are heeding these fundamental issues. About
the Authors: Mitchell
Levy, is President and CEO of ECnow.com (http://ecnow.com),
an e-commerce management consulting company helping individuals and corporations
transition from the industrial age to the Internet age through strategy, marketing,
and off-the-shelf and customized on-line and on-ground training. He is the author
of the book E-Volve-or-Die.com (http://e-volve-or-die.com),
creator of the Value Framework™
and author of the Value Framework Workbook™
(http://ecnow.com/value). Read
more about Mr. Levy: http://ecnow.com/ml_bio.htm
Public speaking appearances I've given: http://ecnow.com/speaking.htm
Read about ECnow.com's media coverage: http://ecnow.com/media
Yukako Saito is researcher of Recruit
Co. in Japan (www.recruit.co.jp) that provides
a strong on-line and off-line matching platform for recruiting, education, real
estate, travel, and weddings. Recruit's focus is around 'Lifetime events, offering
reliable information to the consumer along with a variety of choices.
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