Report

December 1999

The Parting Of The Portal Seas

Charlene Li 		Traffic on the Net is fracturing into two camps: a few broad-based portals and thousands of vertical sites. In the future, marketing dollars will flow to verticals as retailers diversify their spending away from portal deals.
by Charlene Li with Chris Charron, Susan Shindler, Amy Dash, Tim Grimsditch

INTERVIEWS
  • Large portals drive traffic but not necessarily customers.
  • Only 57% of retailers say portal deals are worth the price.
ANALYSIS
  • The portal race is over. Yahoo! and AOL win.
  • Vertical and niche sites will win 57% of ad dollars by 2004.
ACTION
  • Lycos, Excite, and AltaVista must get vertical.
  • Vertical sites have to make ad buying easy and fast.
WHAT IT MEANS
  • Ad networks rise above portals with ad services.
  • AOL and Yahoo! compete with Amazon for portal deals.
 
Figures & Data
  • Figure 1.  Only 57% Of Retailers Say Portal Deals Are Worth It
  • Figure 2.  Portals Drive Traffic, But Fewer Sales
  • Figure 3.  Portal Deals Are More Expensive Than Most Online Advertising
  • Figure 4.  Portal Deals Shift Toward Performance
  • Figure 5.  Traffic Consolidates At Top Sites
  • Figure 6.  Revenues Shift To Top Portals And Niche Sites
  • Figure 7.  The Parting Of The Portal Seas
  • Figure 8.  The Art And Science Of Distribution Deals
   
RELATED MATERIAL 
  • Companies Interviewed For This Report
  • Related Research
 
GRAPEVINE
  • PR 1, Portals 0.
  • A keg party crashes the portal wars.
  • Results trump impressions.
  • Privacy calls fall on deaf ears.
Archived Teleconference:
Supporting And Embracing Customers With Social Technologies
Original air date: Thursday, June 05, 2008
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Ratings and Comments
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