Calgary, Canada-based Ecommerce Tools Inc has revealed a three- point revenue strategy for its latest acquisition, a product called MediaStick, developed by Scott Woynarski. He describes MediaStick as a browser-independent internet portal. That means it sits on the user’s desktop as a bar on the screen – rather like Alexa Internet’s intelligent search engine, which appears as a persistent browser frame. Also like Alexa, MediaStick learns the user’s areas of interest and provides what it thinks is relevant content. Ecommerce Tools says it plans to leverage MediaStick in three ways: through turnkey e-commerce software; by selling targeted advertising space and sponsorships; and by analyzing and reselling user data to businesses who can use the information to develop targeted marketing solutions. Presumably they’ve had a good hard look at the privacy issues involved. Woynarski says Ecommerce Tools’ distribution strategy for MediaStick is critical to its success: Rather than select a distribution chain and pay for its passage, we have built a low- cost distribution model for MediaStick by answering a market need, he said. The idea is that internet service providers (ISPs) will offer the software as the cornerstone of value-added service offerings.
