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Planet Direct does it 'MyWay'

NEW YORK -- Later this month, Planet Direct will announce a new name and a modified business plan, taking its personalized portal approach to new partners. The old Planet Direct helped Internet service providers offer their customers personalized start pages.
Written by Margaret Kane, Contributor

NEW YORK -- Later this month, Planet Direct will announce a new name and a modified business plan, taking its personalized portal approach to new partners.

The old Planet Direct helped Internet service providers offer their customers personalized start pages. The new Planet Direct, now called MyWay.com, will now also offer co-branded pages to companies like financial institutions and to affinity groups.


'We see the opportunity to do to the portals what Starbucks did to coffee.'
-- MyWay.com Jeff Cunningham

"We see the opportunity to do to the portals what Starbucks did to coffee," said CEO Jeff Cunningham.

Building customer relationships
Cunningham said MyWay's technology, which allows users to develop highly customized sites, will also be key for its partners. Partners will display their content -- anything from updated club news for an affinity group to banking applications for a transaction service, and wrap the customized content around it. The content will help keep customers on the site, he said.

"Partners are scared of losing relationships with their customers," said Cunningham. "They want to monetize the time (people spend online) and enhance the relationship with their customers."

MyWay, which is a CMGI Inc. (Nasdaq:CMGI) company, will also offer its customers the opportunity to work with other CMGI firms, including hosting companies like NaviSite and 1stUp.

Providing access to customers could end up supplementing or replacing other customer retention activities, Cunningham said.

"You'll find that a very large area of growth for companies will be providing access to customers and low or even no cost," added Cunningham.


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