January 21, 2000
Shares of Teen Hub iTurf
Surge on Traffic Numbers
By CATE T. CORCORAN
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION
SAN FRANCISCO -- Shares of iTurf gained 14% Friday after the company announced it had the highest traffic numbers among teen-oriented Web publishers during December.
Shares of iTurf rose 2 to 16 3/8 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 45.89 to 4235.40, while Morgan Stanley's high-tech 35 index slipped 9.16 to 1882.37. The Dow Jones Internet Index rose 12.01 to 429.48.
ITurf is a network of Web sites for teenagers that offer community, content, and commerce services such as chat, magazines, home pages, and shopping. Its nine sites include delias.com, an online clothing retailer for girls, and gurl.com, an online community and magazine for girls. The company has said it plans to launch an umbrella or gateway site at its iTurf.com address early this year.
Its nine current sites logged more than 1.5 million unique visitors according to Media Metrix and more than 1.4 unique visitors according to Nielsen Net Ratings, iTurf said. That was more than double the traffic of its closest competitor, according to the company.
ITurf's high traffic numbers show the company is the leader in its category, beating out competitors Bolt.com and Alloy Online said Stephen Lacey, managing editor of the IPO Reporter. "For someone to emerge as a leader is significant," he said. "It certainly bodes well for their ability to attract advertisers."
Last year, many investors lost faith in Internet companies that depend on advertising for profits. That helps explain ITurf's plunge to just under $10 a share in October, after going public in April at $22 a share, Mr. Lacey said.
Since then, the stock climbed back into the 20s before dropping again this month.
Despite being a leading teen site, challenges remain for iTurf: teenagers tend to be a fickle audience and most don't have their own credit cards.
ITurf is "fairly successful now, but the thing is they have to translate that into e-commerce or enough advertising to make the business successful," said Kathleen Heaney of BlueStone Capital Partners. "They probably have a better chance than their competitors because they're already getting higher traffic and they already have an e-commerce business."
ITurf is a subsidiary of Delia's, a New York-based catalog company. ITurf's network of sites can probably attribute part of its success to the brand recognition of Delia's, Ms. Heaney said.
This should help DLIA
Alex |
