Tech Talk — Will Business.com Have Payoff Promised by Price Tag?

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After eCompanies paid a whopping $7.5 million in December for the Business.com domain name, the venture became immediately shrouded in secrecy, causing many observers to wonder just what eCompanies is doing.

The firm is still keeping mum about its already-high-profile hatchling, but word about its business plan is starting to leak out. Insiders say the site will be the businessperson’s Yahoo, only much more far-reaching than any content sites or portals up and running today.

Insiders say the site will offer anything and everything a business professional could possibly want information on specific industries and competitors, news, financial information and statistics. Job seekers will find the site useful, too, as it’s expected to offer information such as average pay in certain industries.

While there will be some links to external sites, a good portion of Business.com will feature original content.

Information on the site will be organized in an efficient way for busy workers. Few details were available, but users can expect information to be broken into categories, and search results to offer relevant information rather than thousands of links to sites that tangentially relate to the topic at hand.

Business.com’s 90 employees, based at eCompanies’ campus in Santa Monica, are bustling to put finishing touches on the site, scheduled to launch by summer.

A recent release says only that Business.com “will be the Internet’s most comprehensive business directory and online resource for the specific news, information and profiles people need to succeed in business.”

DirecTV to the Rescue

ABC might be airing on Time Warner Inc.’s cable system again, but the network plans to continue offering incentives to Time Warner customers to switch to local satellite television provider DirecTV.

And DirecTV couldn’t be happier.

Because of a dispute over pricing that led Time Warner to drop ABC from its cable systems in some cities, ABC has been offering consumers in affected markets a $198 rebate for signing up with DirecTV. Based on most retail pricing, the DirecTV system and installation would essentially be free with the rebate.

“We plan to continue it on an open-ended basis,” ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover said of the rebate.

As for how often the vouchers will be offered, Hoover said, “We handle it on a day-by-day basis.”

It’s the first time L.A. customers have been offered such a deal, but ABC and DirecTV have been through this before, when ABC gave away almost 20,000 rebates in Houston during another dispute. The network did not go dark during those talks.

DirecTV, which distributes virtually every network owned by Walt Disney Co., is thrilled with the overwhelming response to the most recent offers. One-thousand vouchers offered to L.A. consumers were snatched up in 25 minutes on a recent morning.

“This sends a very loud and clear message that consumers are no longer being held captive by cable, and they do have a choice when seeking multi-channel television entertainment,” said Bob Marsocci, spokesman for DirecTV.

Radio Waves

Just because they’re not making a thin dime in profits doesn’t mean Internet companies are pulling back their radio ad spending.

Online businesses for the first time became the No. 1 advertising category in the L.A. radio market in January and February.

“It’s not only the first time they’ve taken the No. 1 spot, it’s the first time automotive hasn’t been in the No. 1 spot,” said Mary Beth Garber, president of the Southern California Broadcasters Association.

The results, released in a local analysis called the L.A. Radio X-Ray Report, surprised radio insiders. “We didn’t think it was going to grow that much to oust automotive, at least not at this point,” Garber said.

Dot-coms dumped nearly $15.7 million into radio ads in the L.A. market in January and February, accounting for 13.3 percent of radio billings in Los Angeles. Car dealers and other automotive-related companies poured more than $13.3 million into the local radio ad market, accounting for 11.3 percent of local billings.

With spending from Internet companies leading the way, the L.A. radio market overall hit a record high of $49 million in ad revenues for January, traditionally the low point in the radio advertising cycle.

Even in the face of market fluctuations, it seems the Internet industry’s spending on radio shows no sign of letting up. A three-month projection for radio ad spending, released in late April, shows that Internet companies overall are continuing to buy up time.

“If anything had happened, it would have shown up on that, because it was long enough after the big (stock market) drop. There was not even a blip,” Garber said. “Whatever went out was replaced immediately. And some (companies) did go out, but other ones did come in.”

Staff reporter Laura Dunphy can be reached at [email protected]

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