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From...
Net firms hope to cash in on college market
September 4, 1998
Web posted at: 3:40 PM EDT
by Dianne See
(IDG) -- Making the most of the back-to-school season, two Net firms this week announced the launch of student-related services. BigWords, a Santa Monica-based company, launched an Internet college bookstore, and College Club, a community site, announced a marketing partnership with MCI's CampusMCI group to provide students with toll-free telephone access to College Club's free voice mail and e-mail.
Through proprietary software created by College Club, users can dial a toll-free number and, in addition to receiving voice mail, have their e-mail digitally read to them over the phone. College Club plans to make money through partnerships and advertising. According to Megan Humpal, College Club's director of marketing, the company expects to make at least 40 percent of its revenue from 5-second ads inserted at the beginning of a user's messages.
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For example, before hearing messages, the user might hear an ad that says, "Two days left to Mother's Day. Did you remember to buy your mother flowers? For a 20 percent discount with 1-800-FLOWERS, press one." With a Touch-Tone phone, a busy student can press a button and be transferred directly to the advertiser's call center.
But long before Mother's Day rolls around, students need to buy their textbooks. BigWords.com, an Internet college bookstore, hopes to combine the popularity of a service like Amazon.com's with a targeted niche business that has been traditionally dominated by on-campus stores with little, if any, competition. The market is a lucrative one: The National Association of College Stores estimates the total annual sale of textbooks at around $5 billion.
BigWords, which also gives students the option to rent textbooks, joins VarsityBooks.com, another college bookstore on the Web that launched in mid-August. Both hope to gain popularity among students by offering discounts of up to 40 percent. As BigWords' site notes, "We know you need [textbooks]. But we promise not to rip you off as much."
Jupiter Communications estimates that 8.9 percent of the total U.S. online population Ð or 5.6 million users Ð are college students, with online purchasing power totaling more than $875 million.