INTERVIEW: Poland's top Internet portal Onet.pl plans foreign expansion, rollout in 2007

Poland's top Internet portal Grupa Onet.pl, a unit of listed television broadcaster TVN, will unveil several new projects, including one to expand abroad, in mid-2007, the company's chief executive Lukasz Wejchert told Interfax in an exclusive interview Monday.

"Over the past years, we've been investing in the quality of our product on the Polish market," Wejchert said. "It seems to us we're getting to the level where the quality of our offer is good in Poland and now is the time to look around outside the country. There are plans that we will be communicating at the beginning of the second quarter."

Wejchert declined to specify which markets Onet.pl is looking to for future growth. While no major Polish Internet firm has yet made any forays abroad, there have been initial plans for expansion to Russia and Ukraine and other eastern neighbors.
Onet.pl continues to be Poland's most popular portal, with 61.3% of the surfers visiting it at least once in July-September 2006. Wp.pl, owned by France Telecom's Polish incumbent Telekomunikacja Polska (TP), is second with 50.8% of users visiting the portal in the reported period. Listed portal Interia.pl, which is controlled by integrator Comarch, is third with 34.2%. Agora's gazeta.pl portal was fourth with 15.4%, according to MillwardBrown SMG/KRC research.

None of the leading portals have international market presence. Poland's largest online communicator Gadu-Gadu, which heads for a Warsaw Stock Exchange debut in February, plans to spend PLN 39 mln on acquisitions, including foreign takeovers. The company also announced plans to launch the local version of its own communicator on the Ukrainian market before it considers rollout in Russia.

Wejchert said that Onet.pl would also unveil other domestic projects on top of its international expansion plans.

"Foreign expansion would definitely be an interesting project," Wejchert said. "But in the second quarter, we also have several other projects that will enter the market, including a project that we considered at end-2004 and it will be impossible to copy quickly, even at a high cost."

Wejchert declined to provide the details of the project, adding Onet.pl was currently selecting a promotional agency for the new Internet service.

The move comes in response to the announcements made by Wirtualna Polska, which launched a campaign aimed at claiming the top position on the market within two to three years.

Over the past few years, Onet.pl developed a number of vertical portals like the dating portal sympatia.pl and bought several social networking sites including Poland's top web log site blog.pl and a social networking site grono.net.
Source:wiadomosci.onet.pl