Netscape on Monday unveiled a refurbished Netcenter Web site that emphasizes news and information in an effort to draw more home users and consumers.
The new site features 16 consumer-friendly categories -- including Autos, Lifestyles, and Travel -- and features prominent links to news, weather, and chat services.
Netscape Communications (NSCP), the leading Internet software company, unveiled Netcenter in September 1997 as a way to capitalize on the popularity of its homepage, the first screen Netscape users see when they connect to the Internet. At the time of the launch, Netcenter was geared toward business and professional users.
The revamped site broadens its reach to include a far wider audience: home users, travelers, sports fans, and online chatters. Netcenter should be more competitive with other so-called portal sites, like Yahoo (YHOO) and Excite (XCIT).
"What we found was that even though our peak usage was during the day, a lot of it was coming from home users," said Jennifer Bailey, Netscape�s senior vice president of marketing and strategic development for Netcenter. "We had to broaden our target audience to keep up with the expanding Internet audience."
In keeping with its portal competitors, Netscape has also added free email and the ability to create a customized version of Netcenter with personalized news.
Netcenter has a built-in advantage: The flood of daily traffic from users of Netscape�s Navigator browser. The browser's default setting automatically steers a user to Netcenter. Netscape currently gets about 8.5 million visitors each day, ranking it third in daily traffic behind America Online (AOL) and Yahoo.
So far, Netcenter has paid off for Netscape. Revenue from the page totaled US$108 million, or about 20 percent of the $533.9 million from all operations, in 1997. And Netcenter is getting bigger, pulling in $31.1 million, 25 percent of the total revenue, last quarter alone.
In May, Netscape began a two-month blitz to line up news, consumer services, and merchandising partnerships with other companies. Dubbed "Project 60," the plan called for Netcenter to be transformed into a broader portal competitor within 60 days.
The new Netcenter will attempt to increase revenue by selling ads on pages of consumer content. Analysts said the move to beef up Netcenter is a smart one -- and overdue.
"They�ve been historically slow to capitalize on their [high traffic] asset," said Marc Usem, analyst at Salomon Smith Barney. "But they�re certainly at the party now."
Still, Netscape might have a hard time keeping pace with other portal players who have established partnerships with major media companies. In the past month, portal sites Infoseek (SEEK) and Snap have inked deals with Disney (DIS) and General Electric's NBC, respectively.
"It doesn�t seem to me there�s enough compelling content on Netcenter to maintain loyal consumers over time," said International Data Corp. research analyst Paul Johnson. "They�ve tried to focus on both the business user and the consumer, and I think they�ve fallen short on the consumer side."
Netscape also faces a bigger threat to its portal business. Last week, IDC said Netscape had just over 50 percent of the browser market share, down from about 70 percent a year earlier. Microsoft's (MSFT) competing Internet Explorer accounted for much of the share loss.
The biggest draw to Netcenter has been the default setting on Netscape's browsers.
"As Internet Explorer gains share in the browser market, I would guess that Netscape�s market share as a key portal site will continue to dissipate," Johnson said.
