Verticalnet provides vertical portals for a series of industrial specific communities, earning most of its revenues from selling banner ads and company storefronts, charging a relatively low cost of $6000 per year to host a storefront. This allows companies to reach buyers in geographic areas or industries where they normally have no sales force. VerticalNet is the first new media company to focus exclusively on the needs of industrial audiences. Reaching engineers, scientists and manufactures around the world, VerticalNet sites are among the leading online destinations for professionals from many industries. Their industry criteria for a portal is at least 3000 companies, $10 billion in domestic sales, 10 million in trade publication ad budget, and 40,000 buyers - in order to ensure fragmented markets where both buyers and sellers need to find each other. Customers can read pithy news stories, product reviews and recommendations, and visit storefronts from hundreds of vendors.
Segments identified by VerticalNet
This report was completed in October 1999 for the class
International
Electronic Commerce taught in
the program of Management
Of Global Information Technology at the Kogod
School of Business
at American University
in Washington D.C.
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