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Technology Stocks : NetZero Inc-(NZRO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Glenn Petersen who wrote (323)	11/23/1999 1:31:00 PM
From: PartyTime	Respond to of 513

Realistically, anyone who today is commenting--positive or negative--on the prospects of free ISP is doing so prematurely, and guessing at best. The first publicly traded free ISP, NetZero, has only traded two months now, hardly long enough for a true market grasp. More significantly, NetZero's first national ad campaign is only now taking root. I think it's only fair to wait and see how NetZero's new subscriber numbers come in. Additionally, NetZero just acquired Aim-TV and will be offering television-quality advertisements over the Net. This is a first. Two things will happen once GroundZero, as it is called, gets off the ground: a) These commercials will generate a lot of media coverage, thus bringing more attention to NetZero; b) Whether folks like television commercials or not, they'll be a strong sense of curiosity. Folks will wanna see what they look like. They'll wanna see Budweiser's frogs and lizards on the Net. This will translate into additional sign-up accounts for NetZero. And who knows, once someone has the experience of using a free ISP this experience could well become an incentive to drop a user's paid ISP service. Although the jury is still out, it remains my contention that several free ISPs is preferrable to holding even a single paid ISP account. Paid ISPs, in my view, will ultimately go the way of the dinosaurs, as greater familiarity with free ISP sets in. NetZero has already challenged AOL for American subscribers and, as of the last quarter, lands more of them than does AOL. This is significant, again, because NZRO's ad campaign has yet to take root. I agree with Harmon that etailers will use free ISP options and this will only but enhance the free ISP movement. Whose to say NetZero won't beef up an etailers free ISP by offering its subscriber base to such entities? Another noteworthy consideration is that NetZero's acquisition of Aim-TV provides an additional revenue source. Once GroundZero is up and running and NetZero has attained its goals via this new ad delivery model, it can license out the technology for other ISPs to use. This could be produce a tidy sum of revenue for NetZero. Added up? 1) Revenue from several methadologies of income derived from NZRO's banner advertising (general banner ads, offensive and defensive missle ads, email bulk mailings, etc.) 2) Revenues from ecommerce referrals. As ecommerce widens so will the revenue opportunities for NetZero, expressly due to the targeting nature of its advertising. Although banner ads seem to be getting some downplay of late, this is not true with targeted banner advertising. Big difference! 3) Revenues from licensing the proprietary Aim-TV technology to other ISPs, both paid and free. 4) Revenues from various sweepstakes, lotteries, interactive promotions, etc. Overall, there's a lot going on and a lot of stuff is changing very rapidly. If NetZero both leads the way and keeps pace with these changes, it should do well into the future on its own. Alternatively, it could become an extremely attractive buyout candidate for a bigger fish wanting to expand a base of services as we continue to embark into Phase II of The Information Age.