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Subject:	Re: UKNM: Freeserve: "a colossal gamble" (FT/Lex)
From:	Marcus Austin
Date:	Wed, 30 Jun 1999 21:34:28 +0100

Basically FreeServe are being sold as a portal with revenues in the short
term from telephone charges but in the long term it will be revenue purely
from portal charges.

The one thing they have to carry on with is keeping their overheads low ie
no support staff, and no racks of modems. The outgoings for Freeserve apart
from advertising are practically zero. They have offices and precious few
staff, it's the third party people like the call centre and bandwidth
providers that should be immediately worried by any burst bubbles, content
providers etc should still be happy as long as they look for other places
to place their content.

Cablemodems and other non-BT methods of getting permanently on-line will
take off, but it will be at least a few years before they hit Freeserves
revenues. Not everyone is cabled, not all utility providers will offer the
Norweb solution, not everyone wants to ditch the �99 modem they just bought
and not everyone will use the net enough to warrant the much guessed at �30
a month permanent connections.

marcus

At 12:19 29/06/99 , you wrote:
>Anyone going to admit to setting aside some funds for a flutter?
>
>Will the flotation be followed by a UK version of the US Internet South
>Sea bubble?
>
>And how long does anyone give it before it bursts?
>
>Dixons will no doubt make a killing regardless, but is the City doing us
>any favours by its wild guessing of Freeserve's market value. One
>wonders whether the gents in stripy trousers have got a clue what it all
>means anyway.
>
>Loyal customers of a "portal" may well be worth �1500 a head (purse)
>but can Freeserve subscribers be regarded as loyal customers?
>
>If anyone cares to stump up a mere 1% of Freeserve plc's projected value
>(for the first few weeks of its existence) I would be delighted to be
>able to help them launch a UK portal that will piss all over Freeserve
>by Christmas.
>
>Ray Taylor
>NMC/Adplan

Marcus Austin - Editor
Internet Works
Future Network PLC,
30 Monmouth St,
Bath,
BA1 2BW
www.iwks.com
tel +44 (0)1225-442244
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