Walla!, Tapuz, Nana, Achla,
Internet Gold, IOL and NetKing are the seven portals now leading Israel's latest craze. Walla issued two days ago at a company value of $35 million. IOL is negotiating to raise money in exchange for 10% of its shares at a company value of $20 million. Sunny Communications acquired control in Achla, NetKing is currently raising money from Discount Investments at a value of $9 million. Internet Gold is in the process of issuing in the US. NetVision (Nana) is being fought over by Aurec, Fishman, Tevel and Elron, and here too, an IPO is on its way. There have been no investments, to date, in Tapuz, but the company is negotiating.
The portals market is in a spin, in a free-for-all, where everyone fights over where to invest and with whom to team up. Casting a giant shadow over them all this week is the first portal, Walla, the NIS 70 billion demand for whose shares on flotation, 2,900 times oversubscribed, stunned the capital market’s old-timers. That volume of demand, with all comers getting mere crumbs, attests to the ravenous hunger of institutional investors and the general public for Internet investments. So far, private placements were all the rage, and now its the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Walla’s stunning success will lead to a whole slew of Internet IPOs.
Let us make no mistake, all the portals are losing, yet all look to a rosy future. Why? The more hits there are on your site, the more successful you are. At present, you may still be just figuring out what to do with your visitors, but in future, if you can keep them loyal, the sky’s the limit.
What makes your site a successful portal? As in any business, the bottom line is determined by supply and demand. If lots of surfers make some portal their home page, the company’s value in this or that financial transaction will reflect the fact. What makes Walla today’s leading portal in the Israeli Internet market, with its IPO market value, is its large number of hits and the use made of the various applications reported by the company.
Each week, portal owners come up with new ideas. Internet Gold has a portal it refers to as the ‘personal channel’, even though that name appears nowhere on the display, and this channel encourages creative writing. Shortly, it will launch a green area, in collaboration with the SPNI (Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel), with a cluster of ecology and life-quality links. Nana, on the other hand, goes in for virtual communities. The Eaters community, for example (restaurants, recipes), also caters to those who would rather eat less - the Dieters’ community.
IOL of the Ha’aretz group has appointed Avi Tenenbaum as its new general manager. Tenenbaum’s first move was to make IOL a genuine portal, by eliminating subscription fees. NetKing, together with the Tamir-Cohen advertising agency, created an original site, which personalises preferred sites by means of banners, a first on the network, also providing a search engine for selected sites. This portal is different from the others, but it has already given proof of its independent raison d’être, as the investments made by the network and Discount Investments will attest.
One of today’s most sought-after portals is Tapuz. Although it has a strong brand-name, it is still up for sale after being acquired a few months ago by Zen Media, owned by Nir Lotan and other partners.
One company that made an interesting entry to the portals world was Sunny Electronics, which imports Samsung cellular telephones for Pele-Phone’s CDMA network. Sunny acquired control in Achla. Its purpose in so doing, according to Sunny Electronics chair Ilan Ben-Dov, was to achieve a synergy between the Internet world and the cellular. Sunny plans to use Achla to provide information tailored to the needs of the stationary and mobile client, on the office or the home computer, and on the cellphone display. "Within six months", Ben-Dov promises, "we shall be able to utilise Achla’s full potential with the aid of Samsung’s cellular telephones, which will provide full Internet access and direct connection to the site". Isn’t science wonderful?
The duo behind Achla are Avi and Hagit Maor, who set up a "clean" portal. This, in other words, is a "green" site, eschewing violence, racism and sex. Ben-Dov: "I chose Achla because I wanted a site that my little girl could go into without my being afraid that she would get to undesirable places".
The newest portal, hitherto conspicuous by its absence, is NetVision’s Nana. One of the unique services it offers is a site search using the dual searching method, a search engine that scans all Israeli sites (the co.il. sector), in conjunction with a comprehensive index composed by surveyors and editors: indices with English, Russian and Arabic language translations; the Tucows sites in a Hebrew-language version; a personal time-planning diary that interfaces with cellular systems and so on.
One of Nana’s most outstanding attractions is its Internet-based free introductions service. Surfers can have the benefit of the "Click", a computerised matchmaking service, with a registration mechanism, a partner search and a safe, anonymous correspondence, including guessing games and questionnaires on courtship and singles activities. Most Internet introduction sites charge a fee for their services.
"NetVision", says general manager Ruth Alon, "has set itself the goal of creating, for the first time, a complete Internet experience environment, offering all the latest services and contents and an optimal environment for the e-commerce era. An environment that will be safe and adapted to customers’ needs. A great deal of both human and economic effort was invested in the development of the Nana portal".
With all due respect to the Internet experience, what is certain is that NetVision’s object is not to leave the portals arena to be controlled by Walla and Bezeq, which is about to acquire 50% of it.
Futuristic surfing
This week, Israel went all out to woo Walla Communications general manager Gadi Hadar, following the huge demand precipitated by the company’s issue. "Things that exist today will no longer be around a year from now", says Hadar, gazing on the horizon. "We will be seeing a sort of specialist portal network. Information on offer will be the result of very deep delving, in contrast to the superficial information we are seeing today. That will call for tremendous investments in content and we are deploying with this in mind".
"Globes": What will services look like?
Gadi Hadar: "Services, too, will look different. We will have services related to broadband technologies. Video and audio systems will provide the surfer with a completely different experience. And information reaching cellphones will come from the portal’s platform".
Published by Israel's Business Arena July 29, 1999