I have worked with the Web 3.0 framework for months now, and taken a crack at defining how the web is likely to evolve in the future. So here’s a recap of the thesis so far. I will be adding a dimension to this framework shortly, so it is a good time to stop and
If you have the problem of head lice or are looking for some of the best diet tips ever, chances are that you would head to WebMD’s (NASDAQ: WBMD) health portal to find your answers. More serious illnesses like Diabetes and Cancer drive tremendous traffic on health portals, WebMD being one of the largest in
M&A and VC activity Increased traffic and stickiness of online health sites have led to a number of deals in the current year. In July 2007, NBC Universal and GE Commercial have jointly invested $25 million in Healthline, a fast growing health vertical. In June 2007, Meredith, a leading media and marketing companies acquired Seattle-based
Web 3.0 formula discussion (4C, P, VS) Context Online health portals are targeted at meeting specific user needs. HealthGrades for example provides ratings and profiles of hospitals, nursing homes and physicians to consumers, thereby, aiding the consumer to select the best physician and treatment. In most health sites, the context is split-up between men, women
Business Model Online health sites earn majority of their revenues from advertising and sponsorship programs. They also earn revenues by licensing and retailing products through their site. WebMD (Nasdaq: WBMD), the leading portal for online health, for example, saw its advertisement and sponsorship revenues grow by 45% to $52.4 million and licensing revenues increase by
Top Players and Rankings With more and more users going online for quality content on health, fitness, medication, and expert advice, there is a rising demand for healthcare portals. Some of the top sites for health are WebMD Health, NIH.gov, MSN Health, Yahoo! Health and EverydayHealth. Health queries, medication, symptoms are very popular among users.
Overview Online Health is definitely attracting eyeballs and the recent data released by comScore proves it. On an average, 31% of the total U.S. Internet users or 55.3 million U.S. Internet audience visited health information sites each month during the first quarter of 2007. The online health segment grew by 12% in 2006. These sites