StarMedia says still strong despite big players
Reuters Company News - July 25, 2000 19:53
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By Carlos A. DeJuana
BUENOS AIRES, July 25 (Reuters) - The head of online media company
StarMedia Network Inc. rejected Tuesday speculation that the arrival of big
name players into Latin America's Internet market may push the company
aside.
Although StarMedia was one of the first firms to aggressively launch a Web
portal aimed at the fast-growing Spanish- and Portuguese-language markets,
the arrival of heavyweight players like America Online Inc. , Yahoo! Inc. and
Terra Networks SA has raised questions of whether a start-up like StarMedia
can duke it out.
But StarMedia Chief Executive Fernando Espuelas reiterated that the company
is well positioned as a market leader defined by audience and revenues.
Espuelas told reporters he was confident of the company's financial situation
and said there was more to winning in a market than deep pockets.
"Yahoo! did not win the U.S. market because it had more money than Time
Warner or Disney, or anyone else. It won because it got there first, it created
the biggest audience and was able to execute its strategy well," he said at a
luncheon.
Espuelas said a lack of uniformity in measuring Internet traffic has helped skew
the market's perception.
StarMedia's page views soared 1,500 percent to 2.1 billion in the first quarter
of the year and Espuelas said those figures were audited by ABC Interactive,
which also audits figures for companies like AOL and Yahoo!.
Rival online media companies Terra Networks, of Spain, and Brazil's Universo
Online (UOL) have both claimed to be the leading Internet player in Latin
America.
"If there were clarity, then it would be obvious that we are the giant," he said.
StarMedia is expected to report its second-quarter earnings Aug. 7. Espuelas
told Reuters in Sao Paulo Monday that the company would report its best
quarter ever on the back of healthy subscriber and revenue growth.
The company posted a first-quarter net loss of $35.1 million and revenues
jumped more than five-fold to $10.1 million over the same three months a year
ago.
StarMedia expects to break even in the fourth quarter of 2002. |
