Mission StatementMission 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.
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.
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
Goal and StrategyGoal 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.
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 1st year.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
Creating Value
New parents were busy. Online stores made it convenient for them and saved time.
Discreet information during early pregnancy.
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.
Previously Identified eCommerce Opportunities
Service company that offered online content.
Target by stages of pregnancy. Preconception Pregnancy Baby Toddler
DSIR
Online content attracts users and engages them.
The larger the community the more information available.
The bigger the chat rooms and forums.
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.
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
Online Baby Content
According to iVillage, ParentSoup is a branded online community similar to BabyCenter.
Family.com Yahoo.com
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.