XOOM INC., San Francisco (www.xoom.com), runs a Web community with a difference: Unlike most such communities, like GeoCities and Tripod, a large part of its revenue (65%) comes not from advertising but direct marketing. Interestingly, Xoom believes that advertising is not the way to go in the community world because the site owner can’t control the content.
Xoom targets e-mail product pitches by dividing its members into 250 groups according to the free Xoom offers they go for: e-mail, message boards, Web site space, product downloads, chat, clip art, electronic greeting cards. Products sold so far include modems, Swiss Army knives, CDs and video cameras.
Xoom has 1.6 million members (half in the United States, half outside), is adding 20,000 a day and should have 7 million by December, according to CEO Laurent Massa, who adds that the company will do $8 million in sales this year.
The audience is 80% male, but Massa is hoping that the new emphasis on greeting cards will attract female visitors.
Xoom contacts members no more than four times a month with a hard offer or an informational newsletter. It adds up. In June Xoom sent out 4 million e-mails.
Says Massa: “I think we have the potential to have the same reach and stickiness as the search engines with a completely different model.”
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