Here Comes the Site
When Cyberstudios launched a year ago, founder Steven Koltai envisioned a company that would bring Web developers together with businesses that needed online content. The former Warner Bros. executive said the Culver City firm would be modeled after studios that produce movies and television shows.
But in the course of cultivating Cyberstudios’ stable of “affiliated developers,” Koltai found that demand for Internet shows still isn’t strong enough to justify a studio devoted to their distribution. Instead, the company has adopted a new focus--developing “themed commerce environments” on the Web.
Today, Cyberstudios will unveil the first of nine planned environments--a Web site for engaged couples called Wedding411 (https://www.wedding411.com). The site will include a raft of applications that allow couples to set up free personal home pages, keep track of wedding plans and communicate with families and friends. The software that enables these applications will be used in the other environments.
In March, Cyberstudios will add a marketplace section to Wedding411. Commissions from online shopping and sponsorship fees for informational areas--such as starting a new home--will provide most of the site’s revenue, Koltai said.
The company has invested more than $2 million in developing the software to support Cyberstudios’ themed commerce environments, Koltai said. The second site is due sometime this winter.
Koltai said he decided to change focus when he realized that cool sites are not necessarily commercially viable. Of 12 ideas Cyberstudios originally pursued, Wedding411 “is what rose to the top,” and the concept was expanded to other topics, he said.
