INSTANT WINNERS.THE LIST OF BRICKS-AND-MORTAR GIANTS BUYING INTO the Web is full of big names: Santander and Patagon, Cisneros and El Sitio Latin internet portal founded in 1997, by Roberto Vivo-Chaneton and Roberto Cibrian-Campoy. Founded in Argentina, El Sitio was considered one of the principal Spanish language internet companies of the late 1990s dot-com boom. . One big check and--blammo! Instant e-power! * The game works the other way, too. Since the pure dot-conomy went sour, Latin America's Internet dreamers have caught the real-world investing bug. Fact is, buying a solid, moneymaking venture provides revenues, customer relationships and brand strength. Travel site Volando.com, for instance, recently bought travel agency Stella Barros in Brazil and will use the brand name of the 45-year-old company in that country. * Brazil was a tough nut to crack, says Volando CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Esteban Torbar. Without a respected brand in Brazil, "there's no business," says Torbar, explaining that people are very skeptical because a lot of travel agencies have gone broke and left people stranded strand 1 n. The land bordering a body of water; a beach. v. strand·ed, strand·ing, strands v.tr. 1. To drive or run ashore or aground. 2. . Now, Torbar expects his new and improved Brazilian operations to help Volando break even in 12 to 24 months. Of course, Stella Barros' US$40 million in annual sales won't hurt. * eHealth Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. CEO Jay Dunn says his health care B2B (Business to Business) Refers to one business communicating with or selling to another. See B2B e-commerce, B2C and B2G. B2B - business to business bought Polimed--a $10 million revenues firm that connects Brazilian HMOs, doctors and patients--because it fit his firm's vision of Internet efficiency in the medical world. "We bought them partly out of a defensive strategy, partly for the revenue in this market, but also to leverage their existing customers," says Dunn. "For us, bricks and mortar A store (shop, supermarket, department store, etc.) in the real world. Contrast with clicks and mortar. means somebody who already has client relationships and something to build on." * In short--blammo!--customers. Something no dot-com can live without. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion