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Technology Stocks : TERRA NETWORKS (TELEFONICA INTERACTIVA) TRRA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wl9839 who wrote (44)	12/1/1999 10:33:00 AM
From: wl9839	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97

INTERVIEW-Terra's Brazil unit ready to compete Reuters Story - December 01, 1999 10:19 By Shasta Darlington SAO PAULO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Flush with cash after a spectacular debut in international stock markets by Terra Networks , Terra's Brazilian unit Zaz said it is ready to compete against a stampede onto its turf by some of the world's biggest online companies. Spain's Terra Networks bought Zaz, Brazil's second-largest Internet provider, in June and has seen heavyweights like Yahoo and StarMedia follow it into Brazil. But competition really heated up last month when the world champion America Online inaugurated operations in Latin America's biggest Internet market. "Every six months somebody comes in and says 'The professionals are coming - now you're finished,'" Zaz director Marcelo Lacerda told Reuters this week. "But we're still here and getting stronger." According to analysts, AOL expects to replace Zaz within a year of its launch and then take on Brazil's homegrown leader, Universo Online (UOL). "We firmly believe that Zaz and UOL will maintain the leadership," Lacerda said. "Especially since capital is not a differential anymore. We all have access to it." Terra, owned by Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica , has snapped up online companies across Latin America, making it the biggest umbrella of Internet companies in the region. Last month, Terra's stock price has surged more than 160 percent to about $34 since it launched shares in Spain and New York in mid-November, which should furnish deep pockets for its Latin American subsidiaries. For Zaz, that means the company plans to maintain more than 100 percent growth despite the entry of AOL. Zaz expects to more than double its subscriber base in 1999 to 400,000 and to reach nearly 1 million paying clients in 2000, Lacerda said. Zaz is betting strong local content developed over the last four years with an emphasis on regional news and input, along with a jump-start in the high-speed Internet business, will help give it an edge. "You have to be in a country and have Brazilian affiliates to know how to show your muscles in a Brazilian way," Lacerda said. "AOL won't just be able to walk in and make it." Still, with 19 million clients in 15 countries, AOL has shown itself a formidable foe. AOL's total number of foreign subscribers already tops its total number of U.S. clients. And Brazil, with Internet use growing at almost 70 percent a year and about half of all of Latin America's cybersurfers, is sure to be hotly contested. In a bid to anticipate what many view as the future of the Web, Zaz signed a deal with Spain's Telefonica earlier this month to provide high-speed Internet access over the company's broadband telephone network in Sao Paulo. Zaz said it also plans to close deals with cable TV companies to offer high-speed service over their networks. "We want to provide our Internet service and we are going to use all media possible depending on what the subscribers demand," Lacerda said. "We're not just competing, we're going for the big prize," Lacerda said. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.