Investor Sites CBS.Marketwatch and TheStreet.com Talk Dollars and Sense
"...Executives of two of the Internet's most prominent Web sites for individual investors revealed behind-the-scenes details at a New York Internet conference. Both CBS MarketWatch Chief Executive Larry Kramer and TheStreet.com's co-chair, Jim Cramer, suggested they know they are in the right Web content niche. They spoke at an online consumer conference produced by Jupiter Communications.
CBS's Kramer pointed out the growth in the online market in the past year. A year ago, Fidelity Investments reported it had 30,000 online retail customers. A year later that number has exploded to 800,000. Kramer cited additional research saying 94 percent of online stock traders make their buying and selling decisions independently and 75 percent of them use online media as a resource for their decisions.
TheStreet.com's Cramer said his subscription service signed up its 10,000th customer last week. He said 1000 people a day are taking trial subscriptions to the online investment journal, and 15 percent of them are expected to convert to paid readership. Both men emphasized the value of partnering to build traffic to their sites. Cramer said 10 percent of his visitors come through ABC.com, where some of TheStreet.com's editorial output is available. Another 20 percent come through a similar arrangement with Yahoo. "You gotta be with these [types of companies] or you're dead," he stated.
Kramer said 25 percent of sibling Web site CBS Sportsline's traffic comes from its relationship with America Online. And that the CBS name and promotion has brought MarketWatch significantly increased traffic. "TV advertising will also bring people in," he said, adding such promotion is part of his company's plan..."
© 1998 Internet Daily Thursday, March 5, 1998 by Frank Barnako, CBS MarketWatch |
