So, if the card readers are standard, we should see some competition that will stimulate broad usage. Clearly, banks will want their customers to use the service as they will also enable their secure online banking. Best of all, a customer who can uuse the service will be a vary valuable client.
Here's another subject that interests me. Maps. I find the idea of blending buying with finding is very useful. Mapquest seems to be pretty reasonable compared to other companies. They seem to have a very good franchise. Here's some info sent to me via e-mail.
MAPQUEST BUSINESS TRACKING ABOVE EXPECTATIONS - We believe the
company has quickly established itself as the standard for
outsourced maps. We believe that page views for both its consumer
and business segments are tracking ahead of schedule and there is
potential upside to revenue in both segments. We expect the
company to relaunch its consumer Web site, mapquest.com, within the
next six weeks and believe several new features could lead to
increased revenue and traffic. Included is a mapping feature that
allows users to track vehicular traffic on major routes and
actually view roadways live online. MapQuest also plans to
implement a way for local businesses to purchase advertising on
mapquest.com by simply visiting the site, formulating an
advertising campaign, and paying with a credit card. We believe
this direct sales local advertising initiative has the potential to
drive upside to revenue by increasing sell-through, that is
currently 30%. On the business-to-business front, we believe the
company has already added 100 business customers this quarter with
a month to go; our model calls for 120 total additions in the
quarter.
On the heels of the significant Federal Express win, this week
MapQuest announced a deal with Sprint PCS to send maps and driving
directions to PCS users. We believe contracts with sites such as
Yahoo! are tracking well and believe the performance based
structure of these deals could also provide upside to our revenue
estimates for the second half of the year, which we have
conservatively modeled as almost flat. Finally, we are for the
first time seeing visibility into potential opportunities beyond
mapping that can leverage MapQuest's proprietary databases. We can
envision MapQuest becoming an "Internet Concierge," doing
everything from providing maps and directions to selling travel
related items and informing users which store locations have
desired purchases in stock. We believe investors will begin to
focus on the very large market MapQuest is pursuing from a
leadership position, and we expect the stock to work much higher as
the scope of opportunities becomes apparent.
Eric, what do you think of Mapquest's potential in Europe? Will they be ahead or behind the us in adopting these types of mapping needs?
Regards,
Mark |
