1. BabyCenter Service Industry Craig Lizotte

2. Mission Statement To build the most complete resource on the internet for new and expectant parents-a resource that would improve parents’ confidence and make their lives easier.

3. History October 1996 Matt Glickman and Mark Selcow, who went to Stanford Graduate School of Business together left their corporate jobs to raise money. Established headquarters November 1997 in San Francisco with 25 employees. Online store was launched in October 1998 and had 55 employees. April 1999 eToys made an offer to join with BabyCenter. 2007 Web Marketing Association awarded BabyCenter with the Webby Award for outstanding achievement in website development.

4. Management team Matt Glickman – CEO and co-founder Mark Selcow – President and co-founder

5. Primary Stakeholders Affiliates Community members Competing companies

6. Goal and Strategy To provide guidance to new and expectant parents. Focus was on preconception to 2 years, which allowed the company to address topics such as: Fertility Labor Childcare Financial planning for education

7. Goal and Strategy To create a strong brand name. To gain credibility, they hired a staff of medical experts, obstetricians and pediatricians to advise, contribute and verify content. They hired staff from respected magazines such as Parenting, Parents and Health. Personalization was BabyCenter’s main strategy because, parents had different concerns at different stages of pregnancy and development. Kids are the most important thing in a parents life so they will spend money to ensure proper development.

8. Industry & Market Discussion Significant market opportunity. 4 millions babies born in the U.S. every year. An average of $7,100 is spent the babies 1 st year.

9. Market and Industry 1998 U.S. baby product market for newborns to age 2 was $18 billion. $5.6 for apparel $5.5 for baby care $3.5 for nursery and furniture $1.0 for toys $2.3 for food

10. Market and Industry April 1999 BabyCenter was the largest information source for expectant parents. 10 million pages views monthly 400,000 monthly newsletters sent 560,000 users 180,000 registered users 1 million e-mails a month

11. International Market New markets were available for penetration. BabyCenter wanted to create a powerful global brand to make it the leading brand of choice for parents around the world, but it involved major risks. Speed was also a major factor in capturing the market. This could move all their focus on the expansion and ignore their customers to dilute their brand name.

12. E-zones There were three geographic regions called E- zones. Germany E-zone U.K E-zone Asia E-zone Governmental agencies could shut them down if it threatened a segment in their national economy.

13. German E-zone Germany Austria Switzerland Benelux

14. U.K E-zone U.K. Ireland Scandinavia

15. Asia E-zone Japan Japan China China Taiwan Taiwan Australia Australia

16. Demographics In 1998, 83% of internet users used the internet to gather information and 43% of users gathered health information. 46% of internet users were women and was the fastest growing group of internet users. Women account for 70% of retail sales. 35% of new parents were connected to the internet vs. 25% of the general population.

17. Creating Value New parents were busy. Online stores made it convenient for them and saved time. Discreet information during early pregnancy.

18. Online Community Blogs Bulletin board Chat Targeted Newsletters of what to expect during certain stages of pregnancy. Not only could parents talk to experts, they could talk to other people who are going through similar experiences.

19. Previously Identified eCommerce Opportunities Service company that offered online content. Target by stages of pregnancy. Preconception Pregnancy Baby Toddler

20. DSIR Online content attracts users and engages them. The larger the community the more information available. The bigger the chat rooms and forums.

21. Competitive Risks Brick and Motar stores. Babies“R”Us which had 118 stores. $4.8 billion market capitalization on April 15, 1999. 100 competitors in the online market. Most of these were home based business and had a weak infrastructure. Glickman was concerned with iVillage and Babies“R”Us.

22. iVillage April 1999 was the most visited women portal. Targeted women from the 25-54. Consisted of 14 channels including: family, health, work, money, food, relationships, shopping, travel, pets, and astrology. 2 million users and 102 million pages views a month at the end of second quarter of June 1999. Market capitalization of $2.5 billion by April 15, 1999. ParentSoup ParentsPlace Ibaby/iMaterinity

23. Online Baby Content According to iVillage, ParentSoup is a branded online community similar to BabyCenter. Family.com Yahoo.com

24. Commerce vs. Content

25. Online Baby Retail iBaby.com BabyBag.com Wal-Mart

26. Offline Baby Content Parenting magazine

27. Offline Baby Retail Babies“R”Us Wal-mart Target BabyGap

29. Missed Opportunities Brick and motor store Merging with eToys Affiliated with eToys

30. Dilemma Should BabyCenter merge with eToys. Would it destroy the brand name by commercialization. Both companies were different. BabyCenter was content and eToys was commerce. BabyCenter wanted to go IPO which they talk about with Yahoo, Amazon, NBC, CBS and Disney. eToys was scheduled to go IPO within weeks.

31. Dilemma Some online content sites were forming alliances with commerce sites. e-Toys could have been affiliated for baby center which, they could have focused on their services and develop a strong brand. They decided not to merge since Glickman believed BabyCenter could survive on its own.