Here's a brief description of future business strategies
Inter@ctive WeekMay 4, 1998
Online Brokerages Target Niches
By Kimberly Weisul
...E*Trade is going after Chinese and Chinese-American investors with the help of Sinanet, a Web site written mostly in the Chinese language. Chinese people have higher rates of investment than the general public and are more active traders, says Michael Pohlmann, E*Trade's vice president of strategic business development. Hurst Lin, Pohlmann's counterpart at Sinanet, adds that many Chinese investors prefer to manage their own portfolios. He says that people with Chinese surnames account for 20 percent of E*Trade's customer base, although they make up only 2 percent of the general population.
Sinanet provides pages from E*Trade's site, translated into Chinese, and takes care of E*Trade's advertising to the Chinese community.
"You're going to see an explosion in niche marketing by online brokerages," predicts Michael Gozala, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "But there will be many more sites than you'll see good distinct niches."...
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