Web 3.0 & IAC (Part 2)

Vertical Strategy

IAC is present in some of the most promising verticals like Dating & Matchmaking, and Real Estate among others. The Company is looking at expanding its verticals both through organic and M&A means. We will discuss the Company’s offerings in the different verticals in the following paragraphs.

Dating & Matchmaking
Match.com is the world’s leading dating and relationship community with more than 15 million people around the world participate in it. Match.com is ranked 4th in the US in terms of market share. Udate.com is an affiliate of Match.com and is designed for people seeking fun and friendship online, as well as for those returning to the dating scene after the end of a previous relationship. Chemistry.com launched in February 2006 is the first relationship site to recognize that chemistry is essential to an enduring, romantic relationship. It is the fastest growing relationship site. Chemistry.com offers the benefits of online matching with the power of face-to-face meetings, where the true test of chemistry occurs.

Entertainment
CollegeHumour.com is a leading entertainment site appealing to young males. The site delivers daily comedic content, including videos, pictures, articles and jokes, both created by the CollegeHumor staff and submitted by users. The site attracts more than 6 million monthly unique users and generates more than 200 million monthly page views. Ticketmaster is the world’s leading ticketing company, operating in 20 global markets, providing ticket sales, ticket resale services, marketing and distribution.

Travel
The Company moved out of mainstream travel after it spun off Expedia from IAC. Based in Miami, Florida, Interval International, IAC’s other travel business, has a network in excess of 2,200 time-share resorts in 79 countries, and nearly 2 million member families worldwide. Interval is an interesting business that today leverages its Web 3.0 potential only marginally.

Lifestyle / Shopping
In the lifestyle / shopping segment the Company is present with its lineup of direct marketing brands including Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, Improvements, Smith+Noble, The Territory Ahead and TravelSmith Outfitters. These brands are available through in home catalogs and the Internet. Shoebuy.com has used its innovative virtual inventory model to become one of the largest retailers on the Internet focused on all categories of footwear and related apparel. Shoebuy.com also operates Bagsbuy.com, which represents all categories of bags including handbags, backpacks, luggage, baby gear, briefcases and laptop bags.

On hsn.com, customers can find an array of unique products and brand names in categories such as Beauty, Jewelry, Home/Lifestyle, Fashion and Electronics.

Pronto.com was launched in November 2006 as a comparison-shopping engine. Pronto.com’s comprehensive product search includes five times more merchants than most leading comparison-shopping sites and covers products available from the largest and most popular online retailers to smaller, niche merchants with unique items.

Gifts.com is a premier gift shopping site, offering consumers a suite of interactive, personalized services that enable them to be better, more organized gift givers.

Social Networking
Evite is a social planning site featuring invitations, social networking, local information and event listing. Evite empowers users to make more informed decisions based on recommendations from friends and colleagues about where to go and what to do.

Search
Ask.com is the second largest pure search engine on the Web. Ask.com was acquired by IAC in July 2005. Ask.com has been continuously improving its search capabilities and working on introducing cutting edge products like Ask3D and Ask® Mobile GPS™. Bloglines is a free online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. Excite is another comprehensive search tool with content and resources from over 100 leading providers.

Citysearch is a leading local search and directory company that provides the most up-to-date information on local businesses, from restaurants and retail, to travel and professional services. The Company sees search as an important focus area and in the words of its Chairman Barry Diller “the search business will act, as “glue” that would bind together far-flung online services ranging from mortgage loans to event ticket sales to community activities, shopping and bars and restaurants.”

Real Estate
The Company operates Domania.com, a consumer real estate site, with the Internet’s biggest free database of real estate companies. ServiceMagic is the nation’s leading online marketplace connecting homeowners with pre-screened and customer-rated home service professionals. RealEstate.com offers consumers a better way to buy or sell a home through a comprehensive suite of real estate services, tools and content as they progress through their home buying or selling process. iNest Realty is a real estate broker specializing in newly constructed homes.

Personal Finance
GetSmart is a leading financial services marketplace that offers borrowers access to a range of home loan products from a network of more than 250 lenders. LendingTree is America’s number one online lending exchange that connects consumers with multiple lenders that compete for their business. Since inception, LendingTree has facilitated more than 20 million loan requests and $152 billion in closed loan transactions. HomeLoanCenter.com is the leading consumer-direct online mortgage lender dedicated to matching homeowners with the right loan, and is part of the LendingTree family.

IAC is also testing its full-fledged personal finance community site FiLife.

Gaps in the IAC portfolio
IAC is not present in some of the most important and rapidly growing categories like auto, health, jobs, music, photo-sharing, film, sports, and women.

(To Be Continued)

[Part 1]

This segment is part 2 in the series : Web 3.0 & IAC
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