(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
|
|
| NTT to Add Cybermall to goo Internet Portal Site
|
|
October 27, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT)
said that it will add a cybermall to the "goo" search service operated
by its subsidiary, NTT Advertising Inc., as of April 1999.
|
Electronic commerce-related services provided by search sites generally
are in the form of a linking service that guides visitors to shopping
sites. The NTT service will be different in that its electronic settlement
functions will be provided on the goo site itself. Goo will incorporate
many shopping sites, and offer a choice of payment methods including
credit cards and bank transfers.
Goo claims to have 4.5 million page views a month, ranking second after
Yahoo! Japan among search services in Japan.
Recent changes have been made to enhance the usefulness of the goo site.
A free email service was added in May and 140,000 people have already
joined. As of Oct. 16 the two search options -- Power Search and Value
Search -- were combined into a single search facility.
Also, its content has been enhanced with the addition of CNET Japan,
a multimedia-related overseas news service, to goo's line of information
services.
NTT said these new and improved features are aimed at raising goo's hit
rate to 10 million page views a month, and at upgrading goo into a portal
site that users will prefer as their Internet port of entry.
Japanese sites based on those owned by U.S. companies such as Yahoo!
Inc. and Netscape Communications Corp. have been at the forefront of
Japan's portal-site industry. NTT's planned cybermall is expected to
give goo a big boost toward fulfilling its ambition of becoming a stronger
homegrown portal site.
Related story: Netscape
Starts Operating Netcenter Japanese Site
(Nikkei Multimedia)
|
|
|
