Last Portal Standing

With PinoyCentral's seeming demise, that leaves only one portal of consequence.
Has Yehey won the Iilipino portal wars?
By Heinz Bulos
May 2002

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So went the news stories and press
releases. 1hat was two years ago. 1oday,
people hae stopped talking about
portals in breathless excitement. In act,
people hardly mention portals at all.
\hen they do, it`s usually about
something unortunate.

In the past couple o years, the portal
space has changed dramatically. \hat
once were high-lying dot-coms hae
become dot-bombs, leaing only a ew
inancially iable suriors. Lycos
Philippines is now just a ootnote in our
Internet history. Go Pinoy is gone.
LDSA, once a promising search engine,
is nearly orgotten. Adobo`s momentum
is stalled. MyPhilippines.com`s co-
ounder Rita Barreiro let or greener
pastures. All the original ounders o
\ehey hae long resigned. And now,
PinoyCentral appears to hae
abandoned the portal business
altogether.

I this sounds like an Internet ersion o
1he \eakest Link`, it`s because the
game is similarly all about getting the
questions right and on time. 1hose we
get it wrong or moe too late get booted
out.

A tale of two portals

o understand the portal business,
one has to look towards the U.S.,
which we tend to imitate. In the
global portal wars, it boils down to three
- \ahoo, AOL, and MSN ,see 1op
Sites`,. As or the \ahoo clones, such as
Lxcite, Lycos, Altaista, and their ilk,
they hae long lost their lustre.

\ehey ,ull disclosure: \S Computer
Publishing Corporation, publisher o
1he \eb magazine, has a minority stake
in \ehey, is ollowing the path o
\ahoo. Len its origins are oddly
similar. Started by resh uniersity
graduates as a mere hobby, it quickly
grew in popularity as a way or Net
surers to ind \eb sites. Riding on the
Internet wae, it became a media darling
and a poster child o the New Lconomy.
Soon, it attracted inestors and was
transormed into a serious business,
eentually becoming the most popular
portal. Sounds amiliar Len the two
most prominent ounders come straight
rom the \ahoo legend - the more high-
proile Alistair Israel is the Jerry \ang to
the stay-in-the-background Dae
Quitoriano`s Daid lilo. 1he entire
story was a great pitch.

And the magic has worked so ar. Ater
publishing irm \S Computer
P
1
Publishing Corporation bought into
\ehey in early 1998 came the dot-com
boom o 1999. At the end o that year,
Singapore-based Catcha.com came in,
inusing >1 million, giing the start-up
resh capital or its expansion plans.
Later in mid-2000, publicly-listed
holding company Vantage Lquities,
renamed iVantage to relect its New
Lconomy makeoer, bought into \ehey
in a share-swap deal, urther adding to
its clout and credibility.

All the while, it continued to add to the
number o entries in its directory,
numbering around 25,000 \eb sites
today. Its members grew tremendously,
rom 10 thousand back in 1996 to oer
85,000 now. Site traic also spiked to
around 12.5 million page iews a month
in the irst quarter o this year. In the
meantime, it is still spending more than
it earns.

In airness, although it quickly went on a
hiring binge ater the Catcha.com buy-in
and moed into a swanky oice in
Ortigas with its new iVantage parent,
\ehey is not exactly known to be a
proligate spender o dot-com
proportions. It has cut back on sta to
about 25 today and has dropped its web
hosting and deelopment business. Still,
except or 2000, it continues to be in the
red, but Chie Operating Oicer Kein
Khoe expects that to change by year-
end.

Khoe represents the new breed o
proessional managers in \ehey. Ater
working as a stockbroker or Sapphire
Securities Inc. and then Vantage
Securities Corp., Khoe moed into
Vantage`s Philequity Management Inc.
ater the stock market debacle ollowing
the 199 Asian crisis and was later hired
to manage \ehey`s operations.

iVantage appointed ormer Microsot
Philippines country manager Dae de
Leon as \ehey`s Chie Lxecutie
Oicer. Bronx lebrona ,who has now
let the company,, ormer
Businessworld senior reporter, took
oer sales and marketing, ater long-time
marketing manager Dennis Jaier let
or GetAsia.com. One o LDSA`s key
people, Jason Banico, transerred to
\ehey as its Chie 1echnology Oicer
oer a disagreement on the direction o
the struggling search engine. 1he
progression rom an entrepreneurial
start-up to proessional management
was complete.

lor a while, howeer, it was under
serious threat rom PinoyCentral, an
ambitious project o media giant ABS-
CBN launched in mid-2000. Armed with
a P350 million war chest, it was
perceied to be a \ehey-killer. Its slogan
was Lerything or the lilipino`. It
was to be tbe portal and destination o
lilipinos all oer the world on just about
eerything under the sun. It was going
to dominate the Internet just as ABS-
CBN has dominated teleision.

ABS-CBN Interactie Inc., the
network`s new media arm, hired more
than a hundred people - account
executies, content writers, web
designers, programmers - and launched
one o the biggest and heaily-hyped
sites in the short history o the \eb in
the country. 1V spots, radio
commercials, and print ads announced
the power portal. \ehey`s roing bus ad
and trade publication print ads paled in
comparison.

\ith properties in broadcast and cable
teleision, radio, and print, it was easy to
cite the aourite buzzword on the late
twentieth century: conergence. 1he
Lopez group belatedly ormed eLopez
in mid-2001 to manage all its I1
entures, including C
3
, BayanMAP, and
CIS. It earlier bundled its Sky Internet
ISP, broadband Internet ZPDee, Sky
Cable teleision, and Bayantel landline
serices under a single marketing and
billing brand called lusion. ABS-CBN
Interactie was a much earlier enture,
set up to put an online ace to the media
behemoth.

ABS-CBN apparently is not an Internet
newbie, it launched ABS-CBN.com in
1996 and was quickly ollowed by ABS-
CBNNews.com, a joint enture with
1oday. Rial GMA Network also had its
GMANetwork.com and
GMAQuest.com, then likewise
partnered with the Philippine Daily
Inquirer to launch Inq.net. 1he sites
sered to support their 1V and radio
programs, displaying schedules and
proiles o its talent bench. More
importantly, they sered to connect with
their iewers who were encouraged to e-
mail their eedback, chat online, and
post messages on their discussion
boards.

But as broadcast media sites in the U.S.
like ABC, NBC, and CBS were bungling
their Internet strategies - Go.com and
NBCi later turned out to be ailures and
slowpoke CBS neer managed to launch
its own portal - and with new media
sites such as \ahoo and AOL leaing
them eating their dust, it became more
ashionable to be in the portal business
than just be a news and entertainment
site.

ABS-CBN.com already had a lot o
content, some o which would later be
migrated to PinoyCentral. It did later on
partner with e-commerce sites such as
lorexworld, MyAyala.com, and
Diisoria.com - and also bought
PinoyAuctions.com - but it created its
own content as much as it can. It
deeloped its own music channel, wrote
its own moie reiews, and had its own
news stories, instead o syndicating
content. Very unportal-like. 1here are
adantages o course rom owning
content, but it`s ery costly i it has to be
created rom scratch rather than simply
being repurposed rom print.

\ehey and other other local portals in
contrast did what portals do best -
aggregate content rom a plethora o
proiders. 1hey got news rom news
publishers, liestyle eents rom city
guides, eature articles rom magazines,
etc. 1hey worked like cable operators,
producing a little o their own content
but primarily proiding channels rom
other content producers, giing their
audience a much wider choice.

1he battle was set. It was a battle on
which had the more compelling content
and wider range o serices. lor a time,
it was also a contest on which was
worse. Both sites, or instance, were
marred by hacking attempts, requent
serer downtimes, slow-loading pages,
cluttered home pages, and riolous
oline marketing gimmicks. \ehey got
into the Binibining Pilipinas beauty
pageant gig while PinoyCentral
sponsored Adenture Sports, an urban
jungle adenture racing competition.

But it was ultimately a battle or eyeballs
and site traic. \hoeer had more page
iews and unique isitors was the big
kahuna. PinoyCentral quickly became a
big player. By the end o 2000, it had
5,000 registered members and the
combined sites o PinoyCentral, ABS-
CBN.com, and ABS-CBNNews.com
garnered a total o 8 million page iews
or the year.

1hen came the crash.

Show me the money!

he bubble burst o 2000 spurred
the demand or dot-coms,
including portals, to become
proitable, or at least proe a iable
business. \ahoo and AOL showed it
could be done.

Portals made money largely through
adertising, ia banner ads and text
1
links. 1here`s really little o online
adertising pesos to go around, but
whateer is aailable usually goes to the
high-traic sites, and that means the
portals.

Khoe is optimistic there`s still business
to be made rom online adertising, It
is just a matter o going out and chasing
the market. I guess there are a lot
campaigns that can be done more cost-
eectiely online rather than oline.`

Despite the general pessimistic business
mood ater the dot-com crash,
exacerbated by September 11 and the
Abu Sayya problem, \ehey managed to
thrie. Says Khoe, \e did well during
the slump. Our ad reenues grew by
44 while total bookings surged by
100.`

2000 igures were more impressie. Net
sales grew more than 1,500 oer
1999`s P1.9 million, according to I1
Resource, a sourcebook or the I1
industry. \ehey also posted a small
proit, compared to the preious year`s
net loss o P4 million.

\e did not get oicial igures or
PinoyCentral, but most likely, mother
company ABS-CBN subsidized its
operations up until recently. It has
always been a puzzle how it can support
its own costly operations with a ew
banner ads and sponsorships. 1hat`s not
counting the expensie 1V, radio, and
print spots it must hae booked as
expenses, i.e. i it dealt with sister
companies at arms-length. Katigbak,
howeer, says PinoyCentral spent only
less than hal o that was appropriated
or capital spending. Since January
,2002,, we hae been expanding using
internal cash lows only.`

le howeer admits there was
oerspending, In hindsight, we would
hae matched the timing o inestments
with the growth o the business. lad we
managed our capital spending more
judiciously early on, we would hae been
in the black much sooner. 1his lesson
has sered us well as we expand our
operations into the wireless side.`

\ehey itsel spent a lot on adertising,
especially during the hey-days o the
dot-com boom. I1 Resource reports a
P4.5 million net income rom P30.5
million net sales or \ehey, meaning P26
million in expenses, with presumably a
huge portion o that in aggressie
adertising and promotions to counter
the PinoyCentral threat. Recently, it has
cut down on its own adertising
spending, including barter deals that it
neertheless books.

Although Khoe maintains adertising
reenues are able to sustain its business,
its recent moes to diersiy its reenue
sources only highlights its delicate
dependence on an increasingly less
dependable business model. In 2001,
60 o its reenues came rom
adertising. In an interiew with
Businessworld early this year, CLO
Dae de Leon mentioned they expected
a 30 drop in adertising reenues or
2002.

1he next step or \ehey is e-commerce,
mainly by getting a commission on
reerred sales to partner sites. \ehey has
launched its online shops, getting the
likes o lilgits, Diisoria, and e-
2door.com to rent space in their online
mall, and earning a cut or eery sale.

\ehey also sought to sole one aspect o
the problem o why e-commerce has not
taken o in the country, which is the
low credit card usage. 1hey launched a
payment gateway called PayPlus-,
which allows users to pay online,
debiting their A1M account balance.
\ith 1 out o 5 lilipinos owning an
A1M card, the system has better
chances or mass adoption.

Khoe explains, Our irst step was to
launch a iable payment system.
\ithout a working payment system
there is no way we can monetize these
eyeballs. Second is to build alue. People
should be willing to pay or your
serice.`

But this is only one obstacle that`s been
hurled. lilipinos remain wary o security
issues. And malling` is still a national
pastime. It would take the depth and
breadth o Amazon.com`s product
oerings, its user-riendliness and
personalization, and deep discounts to
make it compelling or lilipino Internet
users to shop online in droes.
Neertheless, \ehey is counting on its
oer 85,000 members, many o them
oerseas, dollar-earning, and dollar-
remitting lilipinos to spur its e-
commerce entures. \ehey is also
targeting the lilipino diaspora with its e-
check serice, letting anyone rom the
U.S. send dollar-denominated git
checks to anyone in the country.

PayPlus- also can be licensed to e-
commerce sites as a payment gateway,
giing the company another reenue
source. Its alliance with Bancnet makes
it the only non-bank member o the
consortium. It`s a bold moe actually,
considering that it`s going head-to-head
with inancial institutions such as BPI,
UnionBank, and UCPB, which are
peddling their own payment gateways.

\ehey has gone into direct retail itsel,
acting as a reseller or Macromedia
products. It`s still a question whether all
these e-commerce moes will proe to
be successul. \e started our e-
commerce initiaties late last year. So
ar, reenue contribution is still
negligible. loweer, by end 2002, we
expect reenue contribution rom e-
commerce group to reach 30 ,o the
total reenue mix,,` says Khoe.

Another diicult hurdle to online
adertising and commerce is the low
Internet penetration rate. Compared to
the 10 to 12 million mobile phone
market, estimates on the number o
Internet users in the Philippines range
between 1 to 2 million. Katigbak
explains the diiculties o the online
adertising model, It`s the size o the
online market relatie to 1V,
broadsheets and radio. It is also the
diiculty o not haing an adertiser-
accepted metric system like the ratings
or audited circulation numbers.`

1here are other possible ways or a
portal like \ehey to make money.
Sponsorships, ailiate marketing, and
mailing list rentals are some. 1here`s
also ee-based premium content and
serices. 1here`s charging o search
results ranking, which Oerture
,ormerly Go1o.com, successully
pioneered. \ehey still has plenty o areas
it can explore, rom job listings,
auctions, and een bills payment.
iVantage een has toyed with the idea o
entering the call center business that can
be olded into \ehey.

1he wireless path

n the other hand, PinoyCentral
appears to hae practically
abandoned its portal business.
PinoyCentral is in a transition stage
actually. Katigbak explains, \e haen't
abandoned` our portal but hae re-
ocused most o our resources to
wireless. Our \eb properties will still
play a role in our business.` A wise
moe, i that is the case.

Ater the across-the-board downsizing
o all ABS-CBN units late last year, on
aerage twenty rom each unit ,twenty
ie or Interactie,, ABS-CBN
Interactie was let to end or itsel. A
reliable source said there was also a
wae o resignations in lebruary,
including two directors.
O

Diicult times called or innoatie
measures. PinoyCentral just isn`t making
enough money and it seems the only
interactie medium that`s raking in big
bucks is wireless, through the
increasingly ubiquitous mobile phones.
1he CM1S operators, particularly Globe
1elecom and Smart
1elecommunications, are making
millions rom SMS or text messaging.

It appears ABS-CBN Interactie has
ound text religion. It has always smartly
tied up its 1V shows with the Internet
long beore the dot-com eer, letting
iewers send questions by e-mail and
letting them chat online ,and giing
them the silly pleasure o seeing their
conersation low in a small box on the
boob tube,. But e-mail and chat are ree.

SMS was a godsend. Instead o e-
mailing or phoning in questions, iewers
are encouraged to text their eedback,
and o course, they pay a nominal
charge per message. It does seem a more
conenient way o telling 1ina Palma
your opinion on her show, 1alk Back,
instead o booting up your PC, dialling
up your modem, and sending an e-mail.
And you don`t hae to suer through
call waiting to get through.

ABS-CBN Interactie inested in
redesigning their network to handle the
sudden increase in wireless traic,
including inestments in hardware and
bandwidth. 1he workorce that was
retained also shit ocus towards wireless
applications.

Katigbak agrees there's no question
that teleision has been the biggest
actor in driing our wireless
traic. Because the nature o cellular is
such that the users are charged on a per
hit basis, we hae seen a ery quick
impact o this traic growth on our
reenues.`

ABS-CBN Interactie detly launched
SMS tie-ups with a host o ABS-CBN
media properties. Its main project is
PinoyCentral 1X1 2366 aired on
SkyCable and lome Cable, launched in
Noember 2001. It basically puts a
isual component on texting - iewers
can chat and send their requests and
greetings ia SMS and their messages
will be lashed on 1V. 1he channel also
oers text games, auctions, triia and
other un stu. It sounds a ridiculous
way o paying P2.50 per message to get
a kick out o seeing your message on a
cable channel nobody watches except
you and your riends. But neer
underestimate the shallowness o
teenagers. Actie users cite the new
riends they meet through the channel,
een orming groups called clans.
1xtjocks or 1Js, ala M1V eejays, add to
the serice`s appeal.

Other wireless projects relate to shows
on ABS-CBN`s broadcast network,
wherein iewers text a keyword to join a
contest or send an SMS message to send
instant eedback. It`s a win-win
situation, with the iewers eeling they
are part o the program, and the
producers getting increased participation
and immediate iewer eedback, except
that ABS-CBN ,and its partner telcos,
win more than the iewers. A text addict
and his money are soon parted, with
eery indignant text reaction against 1V
talk show guest Crispin Remulla`s inane
opinions or erent hope to win thirty
thousand pesos as a text partner on
Game Ka Na Ba`

Katigbak says, 1he most successul
types o wireless serices are those that
allow 1V audiences to participate in the
programs that they watch. lor this year,
we are looking at arious applications
that will allow greater interaction
between iewers and the shows - such
as using SMS poll results to determine
show outcomes.`

And then luck struck twice. 1he game
show phenomenon o 2001 started by
\ho \ants to be a Millionaire` was a
perect ehicle or wireless applications.
1exters can join as home partners or
they can directly participate in SMS-
based triia contests.

Despite Kris Aquino`s annoying oice,
the triia Game Ka Na Ba` or Game
KNB`, launched in October 2001, has
proen to be the death-knell or \ho
\ants to be a Millionaire`, an IBC 13
game show licensed rom the
international producers o the
phenomenal hit ,see Game Oer`,.
Game shows hae become the biggest
thing since Mexican tetevoreta.. Seeing its
ratings drop when the Christopher de
Leon-hosted game show topped the
charts ,and took adertising money and
a cut rom the millions made by PLD1
on paid calls by millionaire-wannabe
callers,, ABS-CBN, eer the imitator
and occasionally the innoator, launched
its own game show, with matching light
and sound eects and copycat ormat.
But with easier means to win and bigger
cash prizes to be had, it soon became
the number one game show in the
country.

It was then a stroke o genius to
simultaneously introduce the concept o
a text-partner, wherein any adult Globe
landyphone subscriber ,now PLD1
1X1135 subscribers can participate as
well, can join by purchasing an ABS-
CBN program icon at the same time
sending a six-letter combination.
Matching the correct sequence can win
you up to a million pesos that can be
won by the studio contestant. 1he more
you participate, the more chances o
winning. 1here are also similar wireless
projects or Studio 23, VidOK, ANC,
Cinema One, Liestyle Channel, ABS-
CBN Publishing, Star Cinema, and the
other Lopez properties.

According to our source, Game
KNB` receies the most number o
text messages, aeraging 2 to 3 million
messages a month. 1here are already 9
million Globe subscribers that hae
joined. Katigbak acknowledges that the
game is their biggest reenue
contributor to date.

1he 1eleserye 1extmate ,the soap opera
contest, is a close second. "Pangako Sa
'\o" receies more than a million text
messages a month, while "Sa Dulo ng
\alang langgan" and "Sa Puso Ko
Iingatan Ka" are pushing towards a
million messages eery month. 1he
1X1 1V project aerages 1,000 to 3,000
messages an hour.

Obiously, ABS-CBN is raking in
serious money. Len i Interactie has
to share its reenues with the channel or
publication as well as with the telcos, the
olume is just oerwhelming. Game
KNB` text partners pay P10 per entry.
1hat means 20 to 30 million pesos a
month. Len i Interactie`s cut is, say 2
pesos, it`s still making 4 to 6 million
pesos. Let`s say the other wireless
projects get 10 million messages a
month, a conseratie estimate, at just
P1 per text message, that`s 10 million
pesos a month.

lor the irst time since its launch, ABS-
CBN Interactie appears to be earning
more than it`s spending, enough to be
sel-sustaining and - i the trend
continues - signiicantly proitable.

Khoe downplays the text phenomenon,
pointing out that SMS will soon be
replaced by new technologies like
GPRS, going back ull cycle when
Internet suring and messaging are
largely ree. And like any ad, game
shows will reach a saturation point and
die a natural death, perhaps being
resurrected in another season.

Neertheless, 3G is a long way o and
there`s no denying game shows still rule
the roost. And the SMS olume all the
ABS-CBN properties can generate is
simply too labbergasting to ignore. \ou
just can`t argue with tens o millions.

Besides, ABS-CBN Interactie,
according to Katigbak, is already
deeloping applications to delier short
ideos oer the newer GPRS,MMS
platorms, positioning itsel to a aster,
richer wireless Internet. \ehey likewise
is preparing or the eentual upgrade. It
is currently conerting its content on
Microsot`s .Net platorm, which will
allow content to be distributed to
wireless deices. Khoe, howeer, is
betting on PDAs, speciically Pocket PC
deices, as the perasie mobile
platorm o the uture.

But as an Internet portal, PinoyCentral
may be good as gone. 1he redesigned
site will sere as a support site rather
than a stand-alone reenue generator.
Katigbak clariies, \e will continue to
operate and maintain our two \eb sites
although PinoyCentral will be slightly
modiied so that there will be a greater
integration o the site, the text channel
,1X1 2366,, and our wireless
content. 1he results o this change will
be seen towards the latter part o May.`

PinoyCentral the gateway and
destination portal may be, howeer way
you look at it, dead, but Katigbak isn`t
conducting its last rites yet. It is going
to be ery diicult to become
commercially iable by proiding ree
online content because the Internet
market is still small relatie to other
media. loweer, portals or \eb sites
that are a support to a thriing content
business ,wireless, 1V, print, etc., are
still going to be important components
o the total consumer oering. 1his is
largely because online content has its
own unique capabilities ,on-demand,
interactie, accessible anywhere,. \hat
we are trying to do is to scale down the
cost o publishing the site, subsidize its
operations by integrating it into
proitable content platorms, i.e.
wireless, and i and when the online
market does grow, then we will decide
how much more resources we can
deote to expanding again.`

Now that PinoyCentral the portal at the
ery least is in hibernation, who else is
let No one else comes close to \ehey
among the portals ,see low they
ranked`,, except BahayKO. But this site,
along with other lilipino portals, are
based abroad, catering mainly to
oerseas lilipinos, and thereore not
direct competitors o the locally-based
portals. Len more high-proile local
portals such as Adobo.com and
MyPhilippines.com seem to be in the
doldrums.

Does that mean then that \ehey has
won the portal wars Khoe replies, No.
\e are only` the number one search
engine and the site with the highest
traic. Search is one o the many
oerings within the portal. \e aim to be
number one or number two in each o
the product that we oer rom content
,news, liestyle, entertainment,, serices
,chat, orums, email, club, and e-
commerce.`

1he new portals

he problems o running a portal
hae not discouraged others to
ollow. Major ISPs like Moscom,
Paciic Internet, and Inocom hae
launched their respectie portals.

Moscom in particular is repositioning
itsel in AOL`s mold - as an online
serice proider. 1his seems like a
throwback to the mid-nineties when we
still hae proprietary commercial online
serices like LMC, Virtual Asia, and
Portal Inc. But it`s worth a try. I it
brought AOL to a leel that it can buy
1
an old media giant like 1ime \arner,
there must be some thing in there. 1he
dierence o course is that AOL has
always charged or its serice rom the
ery start while Moscom is attempting
to do it ar long ater Internet users hae
been accustomed to ree content online.
Neertheless, it`s an interesting
experiment.

1he bigger threat to \ehey is actually
the news sites turned portals, namely
Inq.net and Philstar.com. Starting out
as static news sites, they hae jumped
into the portal bandwagon.

Both hae expanded their content
oering, combining original content
with syndicated content and serices.
But their strategy leans towards ertical
content, instead o oering eerything
under the sun. Obiously, news is the
big traic drier, attracting oerseas
lilipinos, which account or about 90
o their traic.

Both are in a strong position to wrest
the crown rom \ehey. Currently, their
site traic exceeds practically eeryone
else locally.

It remains to be seen whether they can
leerage their popularity and rich
content. \ehey has been in the game ar
longer and has already moed two steps
orward with community and e-
commerce eatures.

Khoe is unazed, So ar, we hae seen
our traic grow to current leels despite
the entry o seeral players in the ield. I
beliee that among the players, \ehey
boasts o being the only pure dot-com.
\e were born, reared and nurtured in
the dot-com space, so we know this ball
game pretty well ,and better, than the
rest. loweer, I can`t say i being a pure
dot-com is the way to go. But rom what
we saw in the U.S., conergence did not
really take o because companies
became distracted on what they really
are. \e hae seen companies like
Lxcitelome and Go.com, a Disney
subsidiary, old up because conergence
did not really work.`

Is Yehey! the last hurrah?

espite the changing ortunes o
portals, they remain an integral
part o the Internet. It`s
unlikely that \ehey and its kind will lose
their releance, at least in the immediate
term. \ehey`s channel strategy seems to
be working well. Its inance channel or
instance is outstanding, and its linder
tools are ery useul. Its most popular
content, 1abloids, in partnership with
the Journal Group, is obiously a male
crowd drawer. 1he \ehey brand, which
in essence is Internet liestyle, is
particularly strong, and it`s possible to
leerage that brand power into other
entures.

And portals, the way \ehey does it, are
still a conenient starting page to utilize
other useul serices such as traic
inormation, weather reports, and
directories. It`s better than going to a
dozen other sites. Perhaps in the uture,
the Internet will become more like
cable, with a ew access proiders
aggregating dozens o content proiders,
paying each a cut on eery subscriber
ee. On the other hand, the Internet
might remain what it is - a ree-
wheeling, all-the-ree-stu-you-can-
digest buet. Or perhaps a mix o ree
and ee.

In any case, it`s oolish to count out
portals as a useul serice on the
Internet. But are portals as a business
model on the way out In the end, does
it matter who wins the portal wars

Khoe remains optimistic, It`s too bad
that a lot has been said about the dot-
com crash. Unortunately, people ail to
realize that Philippine Internet users
hae been doubling since 2000. Ad
D
reenues and online transactions -
howeer small - hae gone up by an
aerage o 100 in the last 2 years.`

So, when the local Internet population
inally reaches 10 to 12 million, will
\ehey hae the last hurrah


Sidebar: 1op Sites

1op J0 Web Properties: March 2002, US
Unique Audience
1. AOL 1ime \arner 6,451,929
2. \ahoo! 61,052,3
3. MSN 56,651,99
4. Microsot 36,683,14
5. Lycos Network 22,81,839
6. About-Primedia 21,985,049
. Amazon 21,658,320
8. Google 21,469,416
9. eBay 19,659,089
10. \alt Disney Internet Group 14,554,12
Source: Nielsen Netratings

Sidebar: Game Over

Game show rankings on local 1V: January J, 200J to December
Game Show Channel AMR AMR
1 Game KNB ABS-CBN 2,236,040 15.0
2 Korek na Korek Ka Dyan! GMA 1,0,360 12.00
3 \ho wants to be a
Millionaire ,Phil. ersion,
IBC 1,119,69 .90
4 \eakest Link IBC 988,201 6.90
5 1he Price Is Right ABC 319,350 2.20
6 lamily leud ABC 185,539 1.30
\heel o lortune ABC 129,886 0.90
8 Dagdag Bawas NBN 9,213 0.10
Source: AGB Philippines


Sidebar: How they ranked

Site Rank 1raffic
Philstar.com 1 10,588
Inq.net 2 10,600
\ehey 3 22,25
BahayKO 4 3,391
PinoyCentral 5 69,698
Philippines.com 6 84,525
Globalpinoy 124,423
1anikalang Ginto 8 134,56
Duyan 9 183,803
Paciic Internet 10 190,89
Lycos Philippines 11 260,15
Adobo 12 253,920
Pinoynet 13 32,311
luturePinoy 14 335,458
lilonline 15 345,560
Alleba 16 369,46
Inocom e-Lie 1 38,410
\ebsayt 18 392,221
iColony 19 394,254
Ldsaworld 20 425,024
1he Pinoy 21 426,904
lilipino.com 22 485,092
Pinoyware 23 523,151
LmailPinoy 24 565,116
Moscom.net 25 895,910
Myphilippines.com 26 895,95

Locally-based irst-tiered portal
Locally-based second-tiered portal
lilipino portal based abroad
ISP-initiated portal

Source: Alexa. 1raic data is based on "isits" oer the last 6 months, which is a count
o the total number o page isits by Alexa Users to this site. Alexa measures the largest,
most geographically and demographically dierse sample o oerall web usage currently
aailable.