Walt Disney Co - Disney Put Its Content Online, Portal Strategy For E-commerce, 1998-2001, Disney Revises Its Internet And Portal Strategy, 2000-2001

The Walt Disney Co.'s most successful Internet role was as a content provider. Since the mid-1990s the company has operated Web sites for kids and parents, including Family.com and the subscription-based Blast online. It developed other Web properties, including ESPN.com, ABC.com, ABCNews.com, and other Disney sites. In 1998 the company embarked on a strategy to create an Internet portal to compete with America Online and Yahoo!, among others. It acquired an interest in search engine Info-Seek in 1998 with an eye to transforming it into an Internet portal. In 1999 Disney purchased the rest of InfoSeek and launched the Go.com portal. Go.com was renamed the Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) in 2000, a separate company that encompassed all of Disney's Internet ventures. With AOL gaining added muscle through its merger with Time Warner, it became clear that Go.com would not be able to compete with the leading Internet portals. After sustaining more than $1 billion in losses from Go.com and other Internet properties, Disney announced plans to close Go.com in 2001 and fold the WDIG back into the company. The company said it would focus on information and entertainment content rather than portals and electronic commerce.