Report: By 2000, Portals Will Be Like TV Networks

GartnerGroup Inc. said
its researchers think that by 2000 there will be five top Internet portals
firmly established in consumers’ minds, just as the major
television broadcast networks are today.


These portals will command the lion’s share of Internet users and businesses
that want to reach the broadest audience possible will have to find ways to
align themselves with a portal site to advance their marketing strategies,
said the technology research firm.


The firm made no predictions on exactly which portal sites will come out on
top, however.


“What the Web needs–and what it will have within two years–is a handful
of sites that serve the same purpose as today’s major TV networks,” said
Patrick
Meehan, research director at GartnerGroup. “Users of the Web will migrate
toward these sites, known today as portals. In the same way that television
viewers are attracted to
certain networks for their favorite television programs, Web surfers will head
to portals to browse and link to their favorite information sources, such as
weather forecasts or stock quotes, or to
sample new information sources.”


GartnerGroup said it sees three strategies emerging for most commercial Web
endeavors: Win, place and show.


Win: The enterprise seeks to become a self-sufficient portal on its own. This
means providing content for widely diverse communities of interest; free end-
user services (e.g., e-mail accounts and personalization, including home pages
for individual users); some
localized content; and other services typically provided by Internet service
providers and online services, such as Internet access and online communities.
The expense will be in the tens of millions of dollars.


Place: The enterprise seeks to become a standing element of content on an
established portal by riding the coattails of win-category leaders, much the
way a studio places a promising broadcast series on a leading network.


Show: The enterprise wishes to be readily visible to the portal’s users as a
search output. These will be enterprises that do not aspire to become a
network or a studio because they already have a firmly established Internet
presence and simply seek to leverage that
investment across a broader audience. Companies aiming to show will make sure
their site is retrieved for all relevant searches by the portal site’s
viewers, through ensuring that their site’s titles and relevant keywords are
clear and accurate, and by advertising the
company’s own Web site on the portal site.


“Most enterprises will find themselves following a `show’ strategy. Aggressive
firms, and those that lack a formidable Internet presence, will opt for the
`place’ strategy. Very few companies have the wherewithal or intention of
going for the `win,'” Meehan said,
adding, “Firms that make no portal strategy decisions by mid-1999 risk
missing the opportunity altogether.”


These and other e-commerce issues will be explored at the
upcoming GartnerGroup Symposium/ITxpo 98,
scheduled Oct. 12-16 in Lake Buena Vista, FL; Oct. 21-23 in Tokyo; Oct. 28-30
in Brisbane, Australia; and Nov. 2-5 in Cannes, France.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web