To: Big Dog who wrote (465 ) 7/25/1999 4:28:00 PM From: Big Dog Respond to
ITurf Aims to Be Internet Hub for Generation Y
New York, July 6 (Bloomberg) -- ITurf Inc. aims to be the dominant
online attraction for so-called Generation Y, an age group that's
growing twice as fast as the overall population, its chief executive
said.
ITurf, which is 75 percent owned by teen-clothing catalog retailer
Delia's Inc., has a network of World Wide Web sites targeting 10- to
24-year-olds with editorial content, chat rooms, personal home pages,
e-mail and shopping. Its gurl.com site is already the largest online
community focused on girls, Chief Executive Stephen Kahn said.
ITurf targets an age group that's more technologically savvy than most
people, he said. About 85 percent of Generation Y is expected to be
online by 2002, compared with about 45 percent of U.S. households. More
advertisers may look to iTurf as a way to reach these consumers, who are
watching less television and are in the early stages of creating
allegiances to brands, Kahn said. ''This is the most important
demographic for the future of the medium,'' Kahn told the Bloomberg
Forum. ''The issue for us is to aggregate those page views, those
eyeballs, as quickly as possible''
ITurf's network registered 50 million page views in April, up from 29
million in January. Page views, considered a key measure of an Internet
site's success, refer to the number of pages viewed by visitors to the
site.
An important competitive advantage for iTurf is its access to Delia's
direct-marketing assets, he said. They include a database containing
millions of e-mail addresses iTurf can use to send product offerings,
and a warehouse in Pennsylvania for shipping.
ITurf plans to build its network of sites and services both on its own
and by acquiring companies that specialize in areas such as music,
gaming and college, Kahn said.
Share Price
The shares of New York-based iTurf were first sold to the public in
April at $22 apiece. They peaked later that month at 62 5/8. Since then,
they've declined about 69 percent.
Kahn attributed the decline to a general sell-off of Internet stocks, as
well as to a plethora of Internet company public offerings. ''There are
so many different offerings coming out that it's difficult to hold the
investors' focus on big stories, and we have a big story,'' he said.
ITurf has at least as much opportunity for growth as other
''demographically focused'' online networks such as those run by
iVillage Inc., Women.com Networks Inc. and Oxygen Media Inc., Kahn said.
Those sites all target women. ''We have a wide open market right now and
a significant first-mover advantage over anyone else trying to do the
same thing,'' he said.
ITurf's Internet sites include gurl.com, tsisoccer.com, dotdotdash.com
and delias.com.
