Headlines - PC World starts selling broadband

[HEXUS]

Struggling computer retail giant launches ?Get Connected? initiative to offer broadband and digital TV.

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[DR]

Didn't DSG originally form Freeserve which they then sold off to Orange?

[Scott B]

Wikipedia seems to back you up on that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeserve

[DR]

Yep so they had a perfect oppotunity to actually stay in front of the curve with that and dominate the market - as we all remember freeserve grew.

For them to compete would be nothing but tricky - the purpose of reselling someone else's package? Yep you get a rebate each month but so much lower than what they could have had?

I am confused why someone steering this ship would end up pushing them towards stores rather than concentrating on their etail offering? Meaning they acknowledge people are going online all the time (and I suspect also know) to purchase products - so why not make their online offering a massive hit rather than just offering BB?

[Scott B]

Yeah, its funny. According to Wikipedia DSGi made a ton of money from the IPO of Freeserve and was one of the pioneers of the "generate loads of traffic by giving stuff away and then sell ads against it" model.

You would expect DSGi to have thought "we want some more of that" and continued to innovate, but no.

Maybe the pure retail part was just too great a commitment.

[Lucio]

It's basically "hassle free" money. Whilst they won't make as much cash as they did running Freeserve, they do get a healthy cheque each month for the sales without having to do any more support than "phone the 0870 number on the packet".


What I don't get is what CPW is getting from the deal, there can't be that many people who don't have broadband yet, and of those would they really pick it up whilst in PC World? It doesn't seem much of a market....

[Scott B]

This initiative looks like a response to the CPW/Best Buy deal. Sorry if that wasn't clear from what I wrote.