IVILLAGE

IVILLAGE was founded by two women in 1995, Candice Carpenter (CEO) and Nancy Evans (Editor in chief). In 1999 they have grown into a billion dollar business - and yet they are still losing money. This is very common for hot Internet companies. On April 22 1999, Charlie Rose interviewed them, and here are the interesting points.

Evans: IVILLAGE was intended for women. It has contents, but from day one, it became clear women went around the content to talk to each other.

Carpenter: Men want to surf, women have no time to surf, they want to get on and get things done. Evans: Dialog and relationship, that is the key.

Carpenter: IVILLAGE sees its revenue coming from advertisement and e-commerce. Big companies find it attractive to use IVILLAGE to dialog with potential customers.

A prediction. In 2000, two thirds of the small businesses in USA will be owned by women.