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Technology Stocks : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steven R. Michaud who wrote (11615)	8/27/1999 9:43:00 PM
From: RTev	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 28311

As far as new technology...requiring experience...well...like GNET has done with all the companies it has bought many of the individuals that built and maintained those companies have joined the team Yes. But all the companies brought together so far have been in a very similar business. They are either web media or closely related e-commerce businesses. Levy's suggestions argues that they should branch out into a significantly different business. For AltaVista, the ISP business seems to be a desperation move to buy back some of the time they lost by failing to keep up with the changes that were happening in the web media market. I don't GNET is in such desperate straits.

To: Steven R. Michaud who wrote (11615)	8/27/1999 11:29:00 PM
From: yzfool	Respond to of 28311

I'd have to agree with Patrick Mark and Rtev. GNET's goal is to increase revenues through, among other things, broadband content development and ebusiness strategies as indicated by recent hirings. "Revenues are us" is the mantra I envision management chanting at lunchtime. However, revenues alone are not enough; so at board meetings they sing "we want our profit, so keep those margins up." Seriously, doing the ISP thing might increase revenues a little, but at substantial cost. Doing the content thing which is independent of the "last mile", positions GNET to be recognized globally; content is a much bigger bang for their investment buck.

To: Steven R. Michaud who wrote (11615)	8/28/1999 12:20:00 AM
From: PatrickMark	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 28311

Steven, Let me preface by saying that this ongoing discussion has been extremely valuable, IMO, and I'm very appreciative of those viewpoints contrary to my own. With that said, I have to side wholeheartedly with RTev on this one. I don't think GNET has any business going after a dial-up ISP alliance. I'd like to add some of my own arguments . . . The reason I think this line of discussion has been so valuable is that I think we're all confused about where GNET is headed and what it is, at this point. Two months ago, all anyone could talk about was "portals". Investors had a very clear picture of what that meant: an internet website through which users (eyeballs) would pass in order to get to their desired destination. But then doubt about this rock-solid (and over-simplified) model crept into investors' minds as questions started to be asked about how AOL (the standard by which portals are judged) would sustain customer base and revenues without a broadband conduit. Things got worse when free internet was announced in the UK. Despite the fact that the revenue structure for ISP's is much different there, this free internet concept seemed to catch on like wildfire here - everyone was suddenly figuring out a way it could be done. Now add the question of how AOL will sustain revenues when they rely so heavily on subscription rev's. All of a sudden, no one's talking about "portals" anymore (of which GNET is still broadly categorized in the minds of the general investment community), because no one knows what they are. (Carolyn, in response to your #11615, I think that in the past, we were used to outperforming on days when the sector is down; the sector is down today (in general), and I'm guessing that this doubt has a lot to do with it GNET's conformance to the sector - one thing investors definitely do not like is lack of a clear picture.) Dial-up access is fast on it's way to becoming a commoditized product, subsidized by ad revenues spread increasingly thinner among competitors. (And it's important to note that these are low-quality "general" ad dollars, not the high-quality interest-specific ad dollars that GNET attracts.) Maybe the next thing we'll see is free dial up access and a free computer - a low cost machine designed specifically for dial-up internet use, non-ethernet-upgradable for use on a cable system. This may sound a little far-fetched, but don't laugh too loud, just substitute your own vision of what wild schemes the dial-up ISP's will come up with next to retain customers. MEANWHILE, broadband content providers (like GNET) will continue to develop their access products and strategies and broadband internet will continue to distinguish itself from dial-up internet. Currently, we all think of one internet, with users accessing at different speeds. But in the very-near future, these two will become separate entities, separate products. I am personally convinced of this because I have a DSL at work and a dial-up at home and use both heavily. I am very aware that I use the internet in distinctly different ways, depending on which connection I am employing. And broadband is in it's infancy, both in terms of speed and content. For those that think a mass migration to broadband will take 10 years, I disagree. I think it will happen much faster. At some point, dial-up growth will flatten and then start to decline and ISP's (that have never made money) that invested heavily based on future revenue projections will be left holding the bag. I just don't think GNET belongs in the trenches engaged in hand-to-hand combat with these players. This is getting too long, but one last thing . . . (GNET is going to be the start page for all of PA's cable customers--eyeballs) I'm not so sure about this. What I question is whether Go2Net, in it current incarnation, would be suitable as a start page for the broad market. We've all made this assumption (or at least hoped) for a long time, but the rules have changes somewhat, and I would think it more likely that GNET would develop a separate product for this purpose, OR that GNET would be used in another way within the strategy (gasp!). I don't know what this would be (maybe a high-quality exclusive "channel"), but I think we should keep our minds open to the possibility. PM