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Strategies & Market Trends : Graham and Doddsville -- Value Investing In The New Era -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bonnie Bear who wrote (1209)	2/9/1999 12:06:00 AM
From: porcupine --''''>	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1722

Microsoft Is Starting Web Site Aimed at Women By LAURIE J. FLYNN -- February 8, 1999 The Microsoft Corp. is set to introduce a new Web site for women on Monday, hoping to capture what many feel is the largest and fastest-growing market on the Internet. Called Women Central, the site will feature content from Women.com, the largest online publisher of women's material, as well as original material, including Microsoft's own Underwire online magazine. The company has signed the Unilever Corp. as the site's primary sponsor. The new site will be a channel on Microsoft's revamped MSN network, the fledgling Web site that started out as its own online service three years ago and has since undergone several transformations. Microsoft would not disclose how much it was spending on the new site. With Women Central, Microsoft is hoping to tap into what Jupiter Communications, a new-media research company, calls the fastest-growing audience on the Web, a market expected to grow to 65 million in 2002 from 45 million today. Last year, according to Jupiter, 55 percent of newcomers to the Internet were women, up from 50 percent the year before. In designing the new site, Microsoft hopes to help women do what they do best on line: stay put, said Michael Goff, MSN's director of programming. Men tend to surf the Web and jump from site to site, Goff said, but women are more likely to visit fewer sites to complete specific tasks, such as join online discussion groups, find specific information or buy something. Like most content sites these days, Microsoft is hoping Women Central will become a so-called portal site for women, where they can find most of what they want on the Web, including shopping and online discussions. But while women may represent the fastest-growing segment on the Web, the market already is crowded, and whether the company will find the right formula is anybody's guess. In November, NBC bought a stake in iVillage, another site aimed at women. Two weeks ago, the Hearst Corp. announced a joint venture with Women.com to create a mega-site for women. Through the deal, Women.com gained distribution rights for Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Hearst's other women's magazines. Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company