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Shop Talk: Disney is content with content
By Ken Yamada
What a difference a year makes at Walt Disney Internet Group (NYSE: DIG). The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) offshoot has a new name, a focused strategy, and a meaty Web presence.
Now that the giant media and entertainment company finally has put its Internet plans on track, a big question remains: is it headed in the right direction?
Boasting an enviable stable of Internet holdings — including ABC.com, ABCNews.com, Disney.com, ESPN.com, Go.com, Mr. Showbiz, NBA.com, and NFL.com — the Disney Internet Group (DIG) racks up about 90 million page views a day and 22 million visitors a month.
DIG president Steve Wadsworth tells me his group is on its way to turning the Web into a Disney marketing machine. “We’re marketers; we get it,” he says. “We can leverage the medium to be all it can be.”
This month, DIG unveiled a newly transformed Go.com, now touted as a Web guide and portal for leisure and “free time” activities. Go.com (which previously had been the name of the Disney Internet unit) was formerly pitched as a general portal that competed against the likes of Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM), and Altavista.
The new Go.com offers a more focused way to find information on entertainment, travel, sports, and recreation, dishing up relevant Web sites, articles, resources, and products on a single page that creates, in effect, a virtual hobbyist magazine. Disney poured an enormous investment into the venture, creating a Web site that’s powered by an Infoseek search engine, prioritized by a system of user ratings, and draws content from various Disney sites, as well as partners such as Travelocity.com (Nasdaq: TVLY), Homestore.com (Nasdaq: HOMS), Carsmart.com, and Nestle (OTC: NSRGY).
Mr. Wadsworth and Go.com general manager Rajiv Samant explained to me how the site also will appeal to advertisers, with larger than normal ad placement space, as well as an ability to integrate other ads throughout the site’s content.
FINAL ANSWER FOR THE WEB?
Elsewhere within the Disney empire, new ideas are being implemented, many of which are trying to ride on the success of the company’s established franchises, such as its TV news programs and game shows. For example, ESPN.com next month plans to launch a “Page 2” addition of its Web site, meant to be an edgy look at sports stories featuring a new cadre of writers. ABC.com is playing up an online game that’s based on its wildly popular Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? TV show. And ABCNews.com is adding customized features, including expanded financial information, which will be unveiled next month.
Now that Disney has committed itself to the Internet, it is making a huge bet. Analysts expect the Internet group to post a $400 million loss on $400 million in revenue for its fiscal year ended September 30. “Fiscal 2001 should show a dramatic move toward profitability,” Mr. Wadsworth says, although he quickly adds that his group still expects to post a loss next year.
Despite the huge expenditures, Mr. Wadsworth believes that between the funds raised through the sale of DIG’s Ultraseek software unit for $300 million and a $250 million line of credit from its corporate parent, the group’s financial needs will be met at least through fiscal 2001.
You can’t accuse Disney of being a shrinking violet on the Web. With its magic touch — as the thinking goes — if you keep audiences happy with quality content, advertisers will surely follow.
That thought was nice a year ago and certainly works for television, but over the course of a few short months, we see many Web content companies singing a different tune. As the thinking now goes, content doesn’t sell on the Internet. “A lot of people thought this was the way the Internet was going to evolve,” says Rob Enderle, an analyst at Giga Information Group. “But that’s not the way it’s evolving.”
Producing content is expensive, and as many Web companies have already discovered, advertising doesn’t cover costs. Mr. Enderle sees Disney’s plans as a “high-cost gamble based on a set of assumptions, largely rooted in the way things have been, not necessarily the way things are.”
Mr. Wadsworth acknowledges the challenge. “Content is expensive to produce,” he says, “but that’s why people get on the Internet.”
Whether or not Disney can be successful on the Web is the $400 million question. With its stellar track record, deep pockets, and golden name, if anybody can do it, Disney can. If it can’t, expect to see the Web as we know it crumble.
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