Classifieds:   |   |   | 
SUBSCRIBE EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS SAVE THIS MOST POPULAR
Posted 9/26/2004 10:11 PM     Updated 9/27/2004 3:05 AM
Today's Top Tech Stories
E-Mail Newsletters
E-mail:   

CNet gets makeover to broaden its appeal
CNet.com — a go-to Web site for tech product reviews — is expanding from geekville to soccer moms and dads. The shift is aimed at showing tired, wired consumers how to make high-tech gadgets work together.

"It's no longer, 'Which camera should I buy?' but, 'How can I get the most out of it?' " says Shelby Bonnie, CEO of San Francisco-based CNet Networks.

CNet, which unveiled the new look over the weekend, hopes to reach a wider advertising audience, increase usership and profit from the explosion of hot tech toys such as MP3 players, digital cameras, smart phones and plasma and LCD TVs.

Candy Meyers, a CNet senior vice president, says the mission is to help people "discover how the new generation of personal technology products can enhance their lifestyles, especially when properly interconnected with the technologies they already own, like PCs, TVs and stereos."

Consistently one of the most-visited Internet sites, CNet is ranked No. 14 overall by measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings. It had 24.4 million visitors in August.

Besides an extensive product-review section, CNet is home to a widely read technology news section, the GameSpot enthusiasts area and Download.com, a directory of free and paid software that includes anti-spyware tools.

It recently added two areas through acquisitions: Webshots, a photo-sharing site; and MP3.com for music listening.

CNet competes with gearhead-oriented sites such as ExtremeTech.com, Macworld.com and PC Magazine's pcmag.com. In trying to expand its audience, CNet is using video reports as a differentiator. CNet editors explain everything from how a product works and fits in your hands to where the plugs go in a hands-on visual format.

"It's hard in text to really communicate the wow factor of a product and how it works," Bonnie says. "Video presents a much richer picture."

Before the redesign, CNet offered video segments on 200 pages of content. By the end of October, the number will grow to 1,000 pages.

The video push gives Bonnie a "sense of déjà vu," he says.

CNet began 10 years ago as a cable TV channel that also had a thriving Web site. The TV offering flopped, but CNet.com thrived after rough times during the dot-com crash.

In 2001, the company posted a $1.9 billion loss after a spending spree that included $1.6 billion on rival ZDNet and $700 million for comparison shopping site MySimon.

Internet analyst Mark Mahaney of American Technology Research calls CNet "a turnaround story."

The company's stock trades at about $9, from a low of 61 cents in 2002. In the second quarter, net losses narrowed to $1.5 million from $11.6 million in 2003's second quarter. The company expects to end the year with revenue of $275 million to $285 million, up from $246 million in 2003.

Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy expects CNet to turn profitable in the fourth quarter and stay there in 2005.

"It's been a long process, but they're finally coming out of it," he says. "They've got their costs under control now and have become a more efficient operation."

Growth in online advertising is also giving CNet a boost, Rashtchy says.

Search-ad marketing — little text ads that pop up next to search results — is behind most of the boom in Internet advertising. But Bonnie says that now that 85% of CNet's users have high-speed Internet connections, customers are becoming more interested in traditional banners and rich media ads, which feature video.

With more in-house video production now at CNet than even during the cable era, "The dream we had back then, in some ways, we'll be able to deliver in a much more meaningful way on the Web," Bonnie says.

"You watch what you want when you want it," he says. "In many ways, the Internet is like a new form of cable TV."

Untitled Document