A (Young) Star is (re)born - teXt FILES by Kevin G. Belmonte(PHILSTAR.COM INC.)

"A dotcom launch party, in this economic environment? You must be nuts!" This thought crossed my mind as we prepared to formally launch our Young Star (YS) Online property within philstar.com last weekend. There are just so many negatives out there right now — not just the pessimistic sentiment about the Philippines given the socio-politico-economic developments unraveling over the past year. The global financial markets, driven by the U.S. Nasdaq, have taken a severe beating too, losing well over a trillion U.S. dollars in market value since the start of this very "promising" millennium.

But launch we did last Nov. 18 at the Stars Bar and Dining in Glorietta IV. I thought the evening was a rousing success, thanks to the efforts of our "young" team of Ginggay Joven, Katrina Sandejas and Amanda Sandoval. Well over 500 young folks turned up for the event. We had the country’s most popular DJs — Manolet Dario, David Jacob and Jay Tengco spinning the latest dance music through the wee hours of the morning. We had a really hip teen fashion show featuring select designers from Milkwear, the pet project of two young stylish entrepreneurs — Stephanie Villaraza and Joel Ong. And we had Christine Jacob emceeing the event.

The evening was a real eye-opener for me. For one, I had a direct glimpse of a pop culture which I once participated in a long-time ago, but which has evolved with the times. Young folks literally crowded the Stars Bar, shoulder to shoulder, in outfits that were definitely more daring than during my time. Everyone had a drink, some had a cigarette or two, most were busy socializing with their specific circle of friends. There was some dancing (like some really "revealing" dancing atop the fashion ramp), but mostly talking and socializing.

Being a thirty-something now and not a party-circuit fiend, I initially felt like a "fish out of water" (I’m sure a number of my thirty-something friends I invited for the event felt the same way), although as the night went on, I managed to convince myself (rightly or wrongly) that I could blend with this young, hip crowd. Of course, some of my age group buddies, like our dynamic COO Rally Martinez , or Chief Bidshot himself, Patrick Garcia (head of Bidshot.com, the leading online auction site in the country), did not need any convincing. They just blended right in. In fact, they downright looked like early twenty-somethings to me. I wonder how Joe and Marivic Concepcion, our partners from the RFM Group, felt when they walked into the festivities.

Getting back to YS Online, this property also follows philstar.com’s strategy of no reinvention of the wheel where possible, and to leverage the strengths of strong strategic partners to shore up the ol’ value proposition. For the evening, we were joined by our blue chip partners Odyssey Records (the country’s number one music and entertainment store), Localvibe.com (the first website of its kind in the country, delivering the most comprehensive city and happenings guide in Metro Manila), and our "founding partner" Teen Philippines (the franchise of the popular youth-read magazine in the U.S.).

Even during these "hard times," the execution of the business model must go on, with adjustments here and there to meet the environmental challenges and manage and optimize our burn rate. Philstar.com itself has done quite well. Since our Aug. 15 launch, we have almost doubled our size in terms of page views and unique viewer sessions, two key variables in tracking overall market clout. Based on Webtrends, the international performance tracker of many global dotcoms, the site is averaging almost 400,000 page views a day at the moment. That’s close to 12 million page views per month at the moment. I need to stress the words "at the moment," because the trends show our global viewership increasing with each passing week.

In terms of global ranking, philstar.com is now in the Top 40 among the 100 hottest news sites on this planet. Based on their sampling methodology, 100hot.com, a leading web ranking site, puts us at No. 38 this week, up from our position in the mid-50s before our August launch. 100hot.com randomly samples about 100,000 Internet users globally each week (60 percent in the U.S. because of its higher Internet penetration levels) to arrive at its rankings. While there are limitations to this sampling methodology, the results do provide some useful basis for tracking a site’s progress.

I would believe the ongoing events in the country have something to do with the increased interest in the best Philippine news sources. Unfortunately, bad news does sell, and we’ve had plenty of late. As the impeachment trial finally gets underway, I would expect even more global interest in the country. In fact, the Philippines seems to have an unfortunate way of getting associated with "uncertainties" shrouding other countries, for example, the U.S. election stalemate and the comparisons of the Florida recount to a Philippine "election."

Let’s get back to our YS Online property. This is housed within philstar.com and is our focused online site for teens and young adults. Studies have shown this particular age group to be the most Internet-connected demographic at this time. Back in August, we built a "place holder" to house our Young Star content, with the intent of redesigning and further focusing the site to meet the needs of the targeted youth market. Last weekend marked the next phase of our ongoing efforts. Needless to say, we are very excited about the prospects for YS Online. Thanks to the 500-plus who came to our launch night and made this a most memorable night for all.