Wednesday, May 14, 2008

an interesting one to look into: gmkt

with a focus on small and mid-size merchants, south korea's gmkt, which is 10% owned by yhoo, continues to see its market share grow. at the end of last year it was 22.4%, up from 18.8% at the end of 2006. in south korea, e-commerce is a $17B market, and that was up 17% last year; gmkt continues to be a share gainer in its market. as they move into new categories, they have whole new levels of growth. competition is stiff, and now wireless telecommunications services provider skm has jumped into the business. the company's focus is on clothing, accessories and electronics, and has added food staples and perishables such as meat, fruits and vegetables. advertisers like what they see, as gmkt now draws 18M visitors. their "special sauce" is the advertising platform they have inside the site - much like goog's ad model. in the first quarter, advertising was 43% of total revenues, up from 37% a year ago and 29% two years ago, and margins have increased. first quarter earnings jumped 50% to 21 cents per share, as revenue climbed 35% to $65.4M. analysts that cover the shares see earnings being up 26% this year and next, to 88 cents a share. one to watch..

No comments: