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Strategies & Market Trends : Telebras (TBH) & Brazil -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob Howarth who wrote (21277)	8/8/2000 2:51:55 PM
From: Art Baeckel	Respond to of 22640

I don't have any feeling Bob. I've been watching this and the AOL in Latin America. So far I don't own either. ART

To: Bob Howarth who wrote (21277)	8/8/2000 3:05:16 PM
From: Art Baeckel	Respond to of 22640

AOL-LatAm launches in Argentina, vows to be No.1 Reuters Company News - August 08, 2000 14:43 Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Jump to first matched term By Carlos A. DeJuana BUENOS AIRES, Aug 8 (Reuters) - America Online Latin America Inc. launched its Argentine service Tuesday, promising investment of up to $100 million to become the nation's top Internet service, even as doubts about its future clouded a stockmarket debut. AOL Latin America, a joint venture between the world's top Internet Service Provider (ISP) America Online Inc. and Venezuelan media company Grupo Cisneros, said it would roll out services in Buenos Aires and move into secondary markets within the next two to three weeks. "With this investment our goal is to be No. 1 in Argentina," Luis Alvarez Poli, business development director for AOL Latin America Argentina, told reporters after petite movie star Salma Hayek launched the service by clicking a giant mouse that was bigger than she. Beyond the glitzy launch, AOL LatAm entered a nation with an established fee-paying ISP pecking order, numerous free ISPs and no clear market leader. Fears AOL is arriving too late to fiercely-competitive LatAm markets hurt its initial public offering of stock, which also launched Tuesday. The IPO priced 25 million shares at $8 each -- the bottom of an estimated $8-$10 range that was lowered from $15-$17. Charles Herington, president of AOL LatAm, told reporters at the service launch that he could not comment on the IPO. Shares of AOL LatAm were up 10 percent or 13/16 to 8-13/16 in early afternoon trade. Some analysts argue while AOL may be late, the game is just beginning in Latin America. "As the U.S. example has shown, there's room for two to three big players," said Garly Arlen, president of Arlen Communicationsm a Washington-based media research firm. The Argentine service is AOL LatAm's third in Latin America, after the November launch of a Portuguese service in Brazil and the July rollout of a Spanish service in Mexico. Brazil represents half the Latin American Internet market but AOL got there months after arch rival Terra Networks of Spain and local hero Universo Online, Brazil's No.1 ISP. Argentina is Latin America's No.3 Internet market after Brazil and Mexico and home to the continent's richest consumers. There, as in the United States, AOL hopes to corner the consumer ISP market via free-CD carpet-bombing and no-brainer operating ease. In Argentina, as elsewhere on the continent, longterm expectations rest on its ability to use technology and alliances to reach Latin Americans who have cellphones or cable televisions but no PCs or fixed-line phones. In tandem with the PC launch, America Online Argentina will establish a site accesible to palm-top computer users. It said it was studying offering its services on the wireless market. "We are in touch with all wireless phone and cable modem providers and we are pretty confident of a future in which we'll offer AOL services in all areas," said Herington. AOL LatAm Argentina will offer three months' free service on its CDs -- so plentiful in U.S. homes that they are sometimes used as coffee coasters. After that the service will cost $24.90 plus tax per month. Alvarez said AOL LatAm was in talks with four banks in Argentina to set up alternative forms of payment and was talking to at least two banks in Mexico. AOL LatAm had a poor start in Brazil, where it accidentally distributed some CDs containing rap music instead of software and other CDs that rearranged the configuration of people's computers. It also faced competition from wildly-popular free ISPs that have not caught on in Argentina. Many analysts agree with AOL that free ISPs are not profitable ventures but note their very presence drags down prices. AOL has so far said it has no intention of abandoning its fee-based model in Latin America. In Argentina, AOL LatAm will be fighting Ciudad Internet, a unit of Argentine multimedia group Clarin, which leads the ISP market with 20 percent of clients. Telecom Argentina follows with 17.1 percent and Telefonica Argentina with 15.7 percent, according to technology research firm Prince & Cooke.