The "Dot-coms" Shall Rise Again, More Sensibly this Time

Several publicly traded dot-com companies have recently reported their first profitable quarters, including Ask Jeeves, Inc., LookSmart Ltd. and MarketWatch.com Inc.

Other publicly traded Internet companies that have remained profitable include eBay Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Expedia Inc., Amazon.com Inc., FindWhat.com Inc. and E-Trade Group Inc. Dot-coms Google Inc., DealTime.com, InfoSpace Inc., Netflix Inc. and Overstock.com Inc. are also expected to announce their first profitable quarters this year. "We used to be up against a lot of stupid money that invested in bad ideas," said Larry Kramer, Chief Executive Office of MarketWatch.com. "Now that most of the bad businesses have disappeared, the remaining companies are getting down to doing some real business."

These companies have experienced difficult times to achieve a profit, including sizeable staff reductions and severe budget costs. However, Internet sales are also on the rise with consumers purchasing more products and services over the Internet, and advertisers are again more willing to invest in online advertising. LookSmart reported that its paid search listings increased 16% in 2002 to $96 million, and it estimates that these listing may increase as high as $150 million in 2003. "People are very excited again because we have become a growing company," said Jason Kellerman, LookSmart's chief executive. "There is definitely a feeling that we are in the right space at the right time."