InformationWeek

July 24, 2000

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Wireless Web Sites Seek High-Profile Partnerships

Content providers team with service providers to gain visibility and offer ease of use

By Bob Wallace

Related links:

Wireless Everything (6/26/00)

Wireless Toolbox

And from our sister publications:

VARBusiness The Wireless Future (5/29/00)

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hen it comes to promoting their wireless-enabled Web sites, content providers are fast finding that it's a matter of location. They need to get links to their sites on as many wireless devices as possible.

Service providers are answering the call. Verizon Wireless last week launched Mobile Web, a data service that gives wireless phone users access to 32 wireless-enabled Web sites and E-mail for about $7 a month. AT&T has launched a similar, but free, option called AT&T Digital PocketNet Service. And Sprint is offering Wireless Web.

Partnerships between wireless service and content providers dramatically raise the profile of member wireless sites and let them reach an increasingly broader customer audience. Pricing varies, but content sites typically pay the service providers more for higher placement on the pull-down menus, plus a percentage of each transaction made over the device.

"We want to partner with the best and the biggest so that we're only a few clicks away from customers, just as a physical retailer wants the best spot for his product in the most popular mall stores," says Robert Albert, director of wireless at Barnes&Noble.com, which has teamed with AT&T and Verizon. Without being listed under the shopping heading on such phones, content providers would be banking on customers knowing their sites exist and then typing in their URLs, he says.

"The wireless carriers are wise in their approach of bundling access to wireless Web sites, E-mail, and faxing capabilities as an add-on to their digital voice calling plans because it makes the devices more appealing and gives customers the ability to conduct wireless commerce if they choose," says Daniel Briere, founder of telecom consulting firm TeleChoice. "I doubt these sales will be appreciable this early, but they may build once subscribers feel comfortable using the phones for more than voice calls."

Other wireless content providers that have teamed with Verizon include Amazon.com, BarPoint.com, DLJ Direct, ESPN, E-Trade, Fidelity Investments, and TicketMaster.

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