The New Niche: Women's Business
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday November 26, 1999
SheSaid.com.au a women's Web site that already has cosmetics companies negotiating for the merchandising rights is the second Internet venture to be launched by Ms Monique Harris and Ms Sharon Smith in almost as many weeks.
The pair, backed by an incubator fund called Powderbox which has another two sites ready to go, left jobs at OzEmail and Fairfax Online to make their own splash in the industry.
SheSaid.com.au has been moulded to replicate the success of US sites women.com and iVillage, which have attracted a following on Wall Street because of their ability to deliver an audience of female shoppers to advertisers.
iVillage, the largest, raised $US84 million ($133 million) on the Nasdaq in March.
A high female skew in its traffic was also seen as a key to the success of LookSmart in the US.
``Three years ago it would have been a lonely site. There were not many women online," says Ms Smith.
But researcher www.consult now says 34 per cent of all Australian Net users are female, and women account for half of new users coming online.
Ms Harris believes SheSaid will give cosmetics and consumer goods companies such as Proctor & Gamble, which typically marketed through women's magazines, a reason to move to Internet advertising in Australia.
The site is produced by three editorial staff under the guidance of director Ms Helen Asher, who has a background in niche magazine publishing with Gadfly Media.
Stories on finance (in the vein of ``How to not let your ex-husband take your money"), travel and health aim to attract a core audience of 25- to 35-year-old women.
Content partners include ChaosMusic, LookSmart, AAPT, Horan Wall and Walker, and Liberty One's new food site.
Pay TV shopping channel TVSN will share transaction revenue on sales directed to its markfoys.com site, and is a foundation sponsor alongside Greater Union.
A SheSaid merchandising range of fashion and cosmetics is also in the pipeline.
ShesSaid's backer, Powderbox, is an incubator set up by Mr Richard Poole. It is providing seed capital to four ventures, including an upcoming wine site and a gay and lesbian site. Tempest Online Media, Ms Harris and Ms Smith's Internet advertising company, was the first Powderbox venture to launch.
Mr Poole acted as a corporate adviser to Chaos Music, securing Mr Malcolm Turnbull's involvement in the online CD retailer which expects to list on the Australian Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of between $32.5 million and $40.8 million.
Mr Poole will hold 4 per cent of Chaos after the float.
Compared to the industrial digs at Redfern's Australian Technology Park incubator project, Powderbox companies are housed in the sleek serviced offices of financial advisory firm Silverstream on George Street.
Silverstream is expected to provide mezzanine financing for the growing companies.
Mr Poole says Powderbox ``has on tap as much capital as we want".
The goal is to take each of the start-ups to either a public float, profitable business or acquisition target.
© 1999 Sydney Morning Herald
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