vivid Licenses Web Tools, Know-How

Building a network of regional Web sites for travelers

by John Evan Frook

In a licensing bid aimed at providing Web design tools and expertise to entrepreneurs worldwide, vivid studios introduced the Vivid Travel Network at Internet World earlier this month in San Jose, California.

Under the VTN program, digital media designers, telephone companies and local broadcasters in such regions as Asia, Europe and South America pay affiliate fees tentatively ranging between $50,000 and $250,000 for vivid-developed technology, ongoing programming expertise, outlines of how to best shape Web content and sales and marketing presentations.

San Francisco-based vivid, which expects to launch a full version of VTN before the end of the year, has just completed a European swing of discussions with more than 30 potential affiliates. About a dozen companies are finalizing business plans to join VTN, according to vivid.

The company formally unveiled VTN late last month at a Web site translated in Italian, French, German, Spanish and Japanese.

"This set of open-standard tools will allow affiliates to quickly build sophisticated, user-engaging, next-generation Web sites for any scale and scope of information," said vivid studios' president and CEO Henri Poole, who confirmed VTN plans.

The program's strategic thrust is eventually to grow a network of regional Web sites for travelers, whereby local Web programmers will produce local content linked to VTN.

Under a model similar to global broadcast television, local programmers will retain all local sponsorships and Web advertising revenue, while VTN will get limited "pixel space" where the network can sell advertising and place certain types of content in areas representing affiliate locales.

VTN is a blockbuster development in the World Wide Web design world. It signals a move by one of the Web's top design companies to branch out from its client-service roots into the realms of technology licensing and network broadcasting. Other Web design companies, such as Digital Planet Corp., have announced entertainment-programming initiatives, but few have moved to license technology and expertise developed in-house on a global basis.

The broadcast advertising model takes the equation a step further, opening up the potential for a lucrative revenue stream to emerge for both local affiliates and vivid.

"Our goal is to let local affiliates push audiences to other sites," Poole said. "We're the facilitator, not the big daddy. We're providing an opportunity for people to share their audience with each other. If you are a developer in Belgium, you can develop relationships with local [travel bureaus], hotels, restaurants and bars. The beauty of this business model is that it is based on the distributed nature of the Net itself."

Soup to nuts

Included in the VTN affiliate technology package are advertising-management systems, including components for delivering guaranteed and rotating impressions; tools for games; language-translation applications; currency converters; and real-time psychographic and demographic filtering of visitors' applications.

vivid Java Group acting director Mark Scott Johnson is spearheading efforts to add other technologies to the package. All the design components will be wrapped in vivid's flexible application programming interface layer, he said, thus enabling Web affiliates to efficiently produce advanced sites.

"We plan to build the biggest distributed network of affiliates in the world," Poole said. "Part of this is reusing existing technology, but more importantly, it's a commitment by our company to provide technology on an ongoing basis. And it's not just technology, but know-how in multimedia development."

Poole said travel was a natural choice for vivid. Existing and emerging travel programming on the Web - including Microsoft Corporation's Cityscape initiative, the Travelocity site (see related story) and travel-industry stalwart Fodor's corporate Web presence - will only serve to complement VTN, Poole said.

"Travel is the largest industry in the world," he said. "It is distributed, fragmented and already has lots of content that no one quite knows where to find. There's also a strong [correlation between Internet users and travelers]. Coupled with the potential to offer business-to-business services, travel is a natural fit."

Pricing for the VTN affiliates is based on a region's current travel-industry revenue and dial-up Internet access penetration. London, for example, generates lots of tourist dollars and has a significant Internet-access installed base, so the license there would be priced at the upper end of the scale.

Meanwhile, an affiliate relationship in England's less-traveled and less-wired West Country would check in at one-fifth the cost. Vivid plans to sell affiliate licenses in the North America as well, rather than retaining exclusive North American rights.

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