Very interesting newspaper article this morning in the Money Section of the (Portland) Oregonian. Written by Michele Chandler, Knight Ridder News Service. Entitled "Finding a Financial Cure Online", the article discusses the race for credibility in the on-line health field.
A few excerpts:
"Advertisers are following the trail. Online health and medical advertising in the United States is expected to grow from $12.3 million last year to $265.1 million in 2002 . . ."
"The race is on," said a report by analysts Stephen Fitzbiggons and Richard Lee of Hambrecht & Quist LLC. "We believe that clear winners will emerge over the next 12 to 24 months."
"The e-health sites will derive revenues primarily from providing services to health plans, doctors, pharmacies and others, taking online advertising, signing sponsorship deals with related firms and selling medicines or other items online."
"From the market's perspective, you've got a lot of guys getting big valuations and not having to promise much," said Harold Blue, president of Proxymed,a Fort Lauderdale e-health company. That will change, he said, as the industry matures."
After reading the article, I am even more comfortable that the real winners in the e-health field will be the ones who come up with unique revenue streams. The types of revenue streams that aren't even thought about by the author of this article. <g>
Regretfully, I don't have a scanner (okay, I'm living in the dark-ages, I know!) If you would like a copy, just PM or email me your fax number and I'll be happy to fax it to you.
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