In an attempt to one-up its competition, Net directory
InfoSpace today announced that it will
start offering real-time stock quotes for free.
Although many services, such as Yahoo and Excite, offer free stock quotes, they are
mostly delayed. Netizens who want up-to-the-second
stock information generally have to pay a subscription fee.
In the fight to be the home page for as many Netizens as possible, companies have been playing a
high-stakes poker game, continually upping the ante with features such as free email,
personalization, and community.
Naveen Jain, president and chief executive of InfoSpace, calls these extras "sticky
features," meaning they are offered to get users to visit often and stay as long as possible.
The companies that win the battle for the home page--and most analysts suggest
that there will be only a handful of leaders--will be able to use their market share to charge advertisers big
bucks.
But the stakes just keep getting higher. Sites must continually offer
more freebies--such as free email, which was once considered a value-add--just to stay
in the game.
InfoSpace throwing free real-time stock quotes on the table raises the bar yet again.
Next week, InfoSpace will add free email and free space for personal Web pages--features that
many other sites already offer.
Jain said that even if other sites match InfoSpace's free-quotes offer,
InfoSpace will be in a leadership position because it was the first in its market to do so.
"The people who launched first, like [free email provider] Hotmail, they have 12 million members,"
he said. "Just the fact that you're first in the market, you build a
tremendous lead. Being first is important. Being always on your toes is
important."
Jain is hoping people will come to InfoSpace for the quotes and be
drawn in by its other financial offerings.
Netizens are increasingly turning to the Internet for their personal
finance fixes and companies are falling all over themselves trying to
develop the best and, ultimately, the most lucrative
sites.
For instance, today Bloomberg
and Women.com struck a deal to launch
the Money Channel on Women's Wire, the most established site for women on the Net.
The deal is aimed at tapping into the female market interested in finance.
Also today, America Online announced a deal
to have Intuit provide
finance content to the Personal Finance Web Channel on AOL.com. The company also will contribute to AOL's proprietary service, especially in the tax, mortgage, and insurance categories.