Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : iVillage (IVIL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (509)	1/21/2000 1:19:00 PM
From: Bald Man from Mars	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 598

this babe is killing me ...

To: John Carragher who wrote (509)	1/21/2000 1:25:00 PM
From: Bald Man from Mars	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 598

a couple of days ago, there is an interview from Market Watch with Rashtchy ... Women-targeted Web stocks CBS.MW: What's going on with smaller cap content companies like Salon.com and IVillage? How are those content companies holding up? Rashtchy: IVillage (IVIL: news, msgs) is a case of an undervalued company that hasn't gotten enough attention because initially it shot up too high and then it was kind of forgotten. I think IVillage has tremendous potential and with this quarter's results, you will see a movement in the stock because it is a very solid company.... If you have a model of just pure content with mostly advertising base, it is not going to be well received anymore by investors. What I like about IVillage and the reason it has a good future is because it is not content. It's really solutions. It's not just for advertising, but has a clear commerce notion. Any content-based media company has to have a clear path to commerce and really has to offer a solution to the customer and address specific day-to-day needs of the customer. CBS.MW: What's the solution that IVillage is offering? Rashtchy: The solution varies based on women's needs. They have a very good pregnancy section. If a professional woman finds out she's pregnant, there's a host of issues she needs to deal with. You can set up a calendar, you can talk with other women about how the first trimester is, you can look into things you need to buy. The good thing is that most of the solutions are heavily commerce-focused. You need to have that commerce connection in there. You can get expert advice, you can look at some calculators, you can find your baby's names. All of this is very difficult to concentrate in one single magazine. But on the Internet you can do it very well because you can tie in different parts of the Web site, you can tie in different partners to provide the solution. If it was simply just to read about pregnancy, it would not be very different from picking up a traditional magazine. That's been the whole thesis of my universe, that Internet media is not about taking content from traditional media and putting it on the Web and making it look easier to navigate. It really has to go a lot beyond that by providing this complete solution package: tools, calculators, what have you, and commerce-enabling it. CBS.MW: How are other women-targeted sites like Oxygen Media faring? Who are IVillage's biggest competitors? Rashtchy: Probably Women.com (WOMN: news, msgs) is the biggest competitor and then Oxygen Media. Oxygen Media has been getting a lot of buzz, but there's not a whole lot to judge the company on. It is still a work-in-progress. Once they launch their cross-media platform -- which I think is a great idea-- then we'll be able to see how that works. I view Oxygen Media as targeted more toward the entertainment parts of a woman's interests whereas IVillage is more solution-based. (With) Women.com, their audience has been growing. The stocks really haven't been doing that well. I don't think investors haven't paid too much attention to this sector, but the fact is this is a very lucrative market. They're trying to attract women's attention since they influence about 80 percent of the purchases. CBS.MW: This is something television has known for a long time. Rashtchy: Yeah, exactly. To be honest with you, I think it is partly because this is still a male-dominated industry, both the Internet and Wall Street. It takes a while to catch on that you have to put your feelings aside and really look at an investment based on its potential.