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Online retail giant Amazon.com has announced the introduction of its first non-retail business—a movie information service for users that will offer show times, reviews and trailers, alongside paid advertising from the large movie studios. The service is called "In Theaters" and appears starting today as a "tab," like Amazon’s other online stores, on the site’s main page. Amazon believes that its existing store of personal consumer data will help it promote movies in ways not previously possible—such as, for instance, promoting "Pearl Harbor" to people who have bought books about World War II. Amazon also believes its ability to cross-promote theatrical releases, DVDs and soundtracks will be useful both to advertisers and consumers. The first studio on board "In Theaters" is Walt Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures; terms were not disclosed.
Real Networks will stream into Playstation 2
Just days after Sony announced a partnership with AOL Time Warner that will plug AOL internet services into the Sony Playstation 2, it has joined up with another online player, RealNetworks. The deal will add RealNetworks' streaming media software to the Sony Playstation 2 console. Analysts say this convergence of three media players is the next step toward video on demand. RealNetworks is already linked with AOL Time Warner, having secured deals to put its media player in America Online's client software. It has teamed up with AOL Time Warner and three of the five major record labels to create the online subscription site MusicNet. The next step may place AOL Time Warner's library of entertainment into living rooms with the PlayStation 2, using RealNetworks' streaming software. The video game console already offers an audience of 10 million and hopes to add another 10 million by April of next year, easily dwarfing the one million Microsoft WebTV units currently installed.
Earthlink founder probed for Ponzi scheme
Reed Slatkin, the founder of Earthlink, the country’s second-largest ISP, is facing a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit. Slatkin, who is also a Scientologist minister, is accused of running a Ponzi-style investment scam. Slatkin is alleged to have acted as an unregistered investment advisor and bilked $230 million from some 500 clients since 1985. Slatkin allegedly pretended to invest the money his clients were giving him. One of those investors happened to be 27-year-old actor Giovanni Ribisi, a fellow Scientologist who starred in "Boiler Room," a film about a fraudulent investment house. Some of Slatkin’s other investors included law firms and pension firms. All the investors, famous, Scientologist and otherwise, likely placed a great deal of trust in Slatkin’s financial skills, since his stake in Earthlink soared to $122 million two years ago.
Hachette enlists Alloy for new ElleGirl site
Magazine publisher Hachette Filipacchi has retained teen e-commerce and content site Alloy.com to help it launch ElleGirl.com, the companion site to Elle Girl magazine, which debuts this fall. The hope is that Alloy’s cachet among teens will raise ElleGirl’s profile in the crowded teen magazine space, which includes Cosmo Girl, Teen and National Magazine Award-winner Teen People. ElleGirl.com goes live in June, preceding the launch of Elle Girl magazine by three months. Alloy will furnish the technology and marketing for ElleGirl.com. Yet ElleGirl.com will be financially independent of Alloy and will run no Alloy banner ads. Hachette Filipacchi’s new interactive unit, Lagardere Interactive, will collaborate with Alloy on content for the web site as well. Alloy is enmeshed in less of a financial struggle than other teen sites: It turned a profit last quarter.
Highbrow e-tailer Luxlook.com will close
Luxlook.com, an online retailer of top-of-the-line fashion and fashion accessories, will shut its doors by the end of the month. Sales at the U.S. and U.K. sites will end on May 31, and the site that serves the rest of Europe will shut down May 18. Luxlook.com launched in September. The site’s sales had grown slowly, and like many internet companies of all types, it was having a hard time finding additional funding. Much of the site’s staff, which totaled about 100 people at its peak in the fall, will be laid off as a result of the shutdown. E-commerce sites catering to the wealthy have not fared well, nor have fashion and beauty sites. Worth.com, a portal featuring styles for the super-wealthy, was scaled back drastically in January. BeautyJungle.com and Eve.com have gone out of business, and Drugstore.com acquired Beauty.com.
Anti-porn congressman receives porn virus
U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook, an Oklahoma Republican, is known for his anti-porn stance. For years, he has been lobbying to filter pornographic web sites from computers in public libraries. But earlier this week, he said he received a fast-moving email virus that linked to a porn site. Once it infected a computer, the virus would call up one of four porn sites and email itself to all the addresses in the recipient’s address book. The virus got to Istook via an email from his niece. The congressman warned everyone in his address book about the email, which potentially could have made him look like he really wasn’t practicing what he preaches. Istook, meanwhile, claims that when he personally read the message, he was sent to a blank page rather than a racy one.
May 18, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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