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Digitcom Finds Loyal Fans On Internet Message Boards >DGIV
By Carrie Lee
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06/09/98
Dow Jones News Service
(Copyright (c) 1998, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
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The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Lots of companies attract a fanatic following on on-line message boards. Digitcom Corp. (DGIV) is taking that a step further: It has created something akin to a fan club, and its stock is responding to the fervor.
The tiny company, which is developing an Internet telephony business, is making unusual efforts to reach out to on-line investors. A Digitcom executive recently fielded questions in an Internet "chat" session suggested and arranged by an on-line fan. Executives regularly keep track of the chatter on on-line message boards, and the company has launched an e-mail newsletter.
Digitcom has good reason to cater to on-line investors. The Santa Monica, Calif., company's stock jumped as high as 8 last month from just 30 cents in February, when the stock first showed up on Internet message boards. Digitcom has slipped from its high, but the stock was still quoted at 6 5/32 Monday on the OTC Bulletin Board service.
Nearly 20,000 postings have been made since February to four message boards that are dedicated to the stock on the Silicon Investor Web site (www.techstocks.com). Postings have proliferated on the Yahoo! Web site (quote.yahoo.com) as well, where Digitcom discussions have appeared on about two dozen message boards that are dedicated to other companies.
Some on-line fans of Digitcom on the Silicon Investor site have taken to calling themselves "Rocketeers," a reference to the heights they expect the stock to reach.
"Some people would think that we are behind this hype, but we have not initiated contact with any of these people," says Jimmy Chin, chief executive of Digitcom . "They have called us and we have answered them."
Digitcom has used some nontraditional methods to reply. Roger Templeton, vice president of communications, last month fielded questions from investors in an Internet chat that was put together by one of the most active participants in the Digitcom message boards. The on-line investor had planned to informally moderate the event, but things became too chaotic for that when about 130 people crowded into the session.
In an on-line chat, a group of users communicate via computer in real-time. Users type a message or question on their computer keyboard and it is displayed almost instantly on the computer screens of everyone in the group. If not moderated, a chat session among a large number of people can quickly deteriorate into confusion as scores of participants post messages simultaneously.
The Digitcom chat session was hosted by Delphi Internet Services (www.delphi.com), a Web-based service featuring everything from serious business discussions to teen and sex chat.
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Copyright c 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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