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>Subject: The Disability Portal Wars
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>>From: "Lisa LaNell Mauldin" <[log in to unmask]>
>>Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 12:33:21 -0500
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>>Subject: The Disability Portal Wars
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>>From: http://www.disabilitytimes.com/2000/04/18/editorial
>>
>>The Disability Portal Wars
>>
>>Competing to define and conquer the disability community
>>Editorial by Sean Lindsay (1500 words)
>>
>>While the Internet economy shows signs of crashing, several major new
>>disability websites are competing for the attention of the online disability
>>community.
>>Can the community support so many competitors? Can it afford not to?
>>
>>Over the last few days a financial earthquake has rocked the stock markets
>>of the world, as the paper value of thousands of technology and internet
>>companies
>>was slashed (at least temporarily). Was this the fabled "correction" that
>>industry pundits have been predicting for several years now, which was
>>supposed
>>to bring the sky-high valuations of internet companies down to realistic
>>levels? Well, the early signs are no. But the internet industry is beginning
>>to
>>show signs of shaking out some of the overvalued and underperforming players
>>in key markets.
>>
>>Why is this important to us? A year ago it wouldn't have been - almost all
>>the companies in the disability market were relatively small, privately held
>>firms who would never have dreamt of trading on Wall Street.
>>
>>But the last few months at least have seen an interesting new trend in the
>>disability market, and it's all to do with the Internet.
>>
>>The Information Age
>>
>>Until recently, the disability community online was primarily served by
>>dozens of small, noble but hopelessly underfunded services, most of which
>>spun out
>>of existing service providers or the efforts of passionate individuals (like
>>my two favourite Daves, Dave Reynolds of
>>[Link] Inclusion Daily Express
>>and Dave Davis of
>>[Link] Resources to Go).
>>Some of these services were moderately successful in their areas of
>>expertise, but they lacked the cash necessary to explore some of the greater
>>possibilities
>>of the Internet.
>>
>>Then in December last year, the first mega-website (or "portal") for the
>>disability community was launched by
>>[Link] WeMedia.
>>It's since been followed by the launch of
>>[Link] HalfThePlanet,
>>and soon they will be joined by
>>[Link] CanDo
>>and
>>[Link] ICanOnline.
>>There are also two new websites providing products, with a mix of
>>information and community:
>>[Link] SpinLife
>>and
>>[Link] OurTools.
>>
>>It's too early to compare these sites directly, but taken as a whole, they
>>form a remarkable trend - towards the commercial legitimization of the
>>disability
>>community.
>>
>>Commercial Realities
>>
>>Between them, these sites have more than US$35 million in venture capital
>>funding (not all of them have announced their funding). They have some of
>>the
>>disability community's best, brightest and most famous on their advisory
>>boards. They have large, strong editorial teams, and they're beginning to
>>pump
>>out reams of content.
>>
>>Why are these services suddenly appearing? Bluntly, it's because investors
>>smell money.
>>
>>All of these sites are (or will be) competing in virtually the same space,
>>providing information, products, services and community facilities for the
>>disability
>>community. And interestingly, they all define the community along similar
>>lines: they use the US government estimate that roughly 14% of the
>>population
>>is disabled (54 million), and assume that each of those people has two or
>>three people close to them, who consider that person's interests when making
>>their own decisions. This adds up to 150 million people in the US alone, or
>>(to follow one company's logic) half the planet. That's a lot of purchasing
>>power - one trillion dollars a year in the US alone, according to WeMedia
>>CEO Cary Fields.
>>
>>We've been hearing for years about the consumer base the disability
>>community represents, and it seems that finally, commercial interests are
>>beginning
>>to take note, and through the Internet, take action.
>>
>>Will it work? Well, that remains to be seen. But let's look at the lessons
>>of industries that have already jumped on the Internet bandwagon.
>>
>>The Portal Wars
>>
>>Two years ago, online journalism was abuzz with talk of the "portal wars",
>>pitting the big Internet properties
>>[Link] Yahoo!,
>>[Link] Excite,
>>et al., in a supposedly life-or-death battle to dominate the start pages of
>>Internet users.
>>
>>Last year, some of the buzz focused on the emerging field of health portals,
>>where a similar battle for the hearts and minds of Internet users was being
>>fought. New companies with enormous piles of money like
>>[Link] OnHealth
>>and
>>[Link] WebMD
>>battled with the new online properties of estabished names like
>>Mayo Clinic Health Oasis,
>>and former US Surgeon General
>>drkoop.com.
>>While these sites targeted people's health interests, other more pragmatic
>>businesses such as
>>[Link] PlanetRx
>>and
>>[Link] Drugstore.com
>>aimed at filling prescriptions and making money from shampoo and vitamins.
>>
>>These sites and half a dozen others were competing for a slice of the online
>>consumer health care pie, estimated by researchers to be worth US$11 Billion
>>per year by 2004 (
>>[Link] Jupiter Communications).
>>
>>On both battlefields, the only obvious characteristic of the various
>>competitors was how similar they all were. Aimed at the broadest possible
>>market, they
>>became clones of each other, racing to copy any new feature introduced by
>>another. And in all cases, they struggled to "monetize" their audience,
>>against
>>prevailing logic that believed people looking for information rarely bought
>>anything at the same time.
>>
>>Fast-forward to 2000.
>>
>>The big portal sites are all still here, joined by nearly a dozen
>>competitors in the search engine/portal market. A few of them have redefined
>>their focus,
>>but most are essentially the same. And all of them are still in the top 15
>>most visited websites (according to
>>PC Data Online: Top Monthly Web Sites).
>>Most are still growing (thanks to an Internet audience that is still growing
>>exponentially), and some are even turning a profit (a shocking result for an
>>Internet business).
>>
>>The health sites, though, haven't all been so lucky. Indeed the money is
>>beginning to run out for some of them, according to recent news reports (
>>CNET.com: Shakeout looming for many Net firms).
>>[Link] DrKoop.com
>>is in financial trouble, and online stores
>>[Link] HealthShop
>>and
>>http://www.mothernature.com
>>are rumoured to be headed that way.
>>
>>It's All About the Users
>>
>>It's impossible to draw conclusions about how the struggle between the
>>health sites may develop, and why they haven't been as successful as the
>>search portals.
>>But some patterns are beginning to emerge that bear relevance here, in our
>>discussion of disability portals:
>>Once people invest time in learning to use one website, they are less likely
>>to try another
>>People only access health information when they need it
>>People still aren't confident about divulging medical information or paying
>>for health and medical services online
>>The more important the purchase, the less likely it will be made over the
>>Internet
>>It isn't easy to "monetize" an audience that is drawn by free information
>>
>>How can a website ensure its users actually make the purchase through their
>>site? By keeping the users there as long as possible, and getting them to
>>return
>>as often as possible. How? The current belief is content and community: keep
>>people coming back for news, articles and community discussions, and
>>eventually
>>when they need to buy something they will use the site they trust.
>>
>>And that's exactly what all the new disability portals are trying to
>>provide.
>>
>>Will it work? Possibly, for the websites that figure out how to connect
>>people to distributors at the right time. The big portal sites like
>>[Link] Yahoo!
>>can survive on sheer volume of audience. Disability portals will have to be
>>more precise.
>>
>>They will also need to serve the disparate interests of the community
>>without dividing it. If they separate their audience into component parts,
>>the very
>>idea of community is lost. It means finding a balance not only between
>>general and condition-specific resources, but also between different
>>ideologies
>>of what it means to have a disabling condition.
>>
>>They have the immense task of not only defining and catering to the
>>disability community, but also making it a community that everyone with a
>>disability
>>will want to be part of.
>>
>>The "Inevitable" Shakeout
>>
>>It's possible that the disability portals may settle into uneasy
>>co-existence, as the big search engines have done, dividing the market on
>>little more than
>>personal preference. They are all going in somewhat different directions at
>>the moment but we can be sure that they will watch each others' progress and
>>any successful elements on one site will be quickly duplicated. It's also
>>very probable that we'll see some mergers in the next couple of years (my
>>money
>>would be on one of the content portals buying one of the product providers,
>>though it could easily be the other way around).
>>
>>But it would be bad news if one or more of these sites folded. Free market
>>attrition is fine in the heavily competitive general health market, but a
>>new
>>market that can't support more than a few competitors is not an attractive
>>investment.
>>
>>The Internet economy has somehow survived this far on little more than hype,
>>and the passionate belief that in some form, the Internet is The Future. The
>>problem is that no one knows what that form will be, and millions of dollars
>>are being lost finding out what it won't be.
>>
>>How these portals fare will in some way define how the business world sees
>>the disability community. While it may seem like a gargantuan sum to us, $35
>>million in venture capital is a toe-dip for an industry where millions are
>>spent on ad campaigns for free products.
>>
>>These new disability portals are experiments in defining the disability
>>community in commercial terms, terms that marketers can understand. They
>>want to
>>know if the disability market exists.
>>
>>It will be wonderful to have companies competing for the attention of the
>>disability community, for a change, instead of pandering to or ignoring us.
>>Let's
>>welcome the competition.
>>
>>Sean Lindsay is the Editor of DisabilityTimes.com. He writes a weekly
>>Editorial
>>column and contributes to the
>>Web Access
>>column. Write to him at
>>[Email] [log in to unmask] © DisabilityTimes.com 1999-2000
>>unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>This mailing list is sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind, NFB.
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>>
>>
>
>
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        Justin
                        	
	


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