Facebook Pixel Code

Disney overhauls website to gain digital footing

Trying to finally master the internet the way it has theme parks or animated films, the Walt Disney Company has redesigned its website, Disney.com, for the third time in five years.

Trying to finally master the internet the way it has theme parks or animated films, the Walt Disney Company has redesigned its website, Disney.com, for the third time in five years.

The new site, introduced this month and promoted as ?cleaner, simpler, more elegant?, is one way Robert A Iger, Disney?s chief executive, hopes to turn around the company?s gaming, mobile and internet division after 15 consecutive quarters of losses ? some $977 million in total.

Iger is optimistic about new products, which include an ambitious and unannounced gaming initiative code-named Toy Box. He has promised that Disney Interactive will turn a profit sometime next year. ?It?s about time,? he told analysts in May, sounding a bit fed up himself.

But questions abound. Disney has now taken several stabs at creating a thriving Web site, and has vacillated on game strategy. Has the entertainment giant finally solved the riddle of new media? Or is it playing a no-win game on the whiplash-fast Web? Furthermore, why has the deep-pocketed Disney taken this much time to figure it out?

?We?ve been waiting for years and years and years,? said Jessica Reif Cohen, a senior analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. ?For traditional media companies, this really does seem like a totally different skill set.?

Figuring out the internet is critical for all media companies, but Disney?s future in particular depends on a winning strategy. The children it hopes to turn into lifelong consumers of its products are increasingly living online. Disney Channel used to be the company?s most important welcome mat. Now executives refer to Disney.com as the ?front door?.

The interactive division?s losses are small for a company that last year recorded $4.8 billion in profit on $40.9 billion in revenue. Cohen noted that new media is ?not a primary driver? of Disney shares, which have climbed 57% over the last year, to about $51.90. But at some point those losses threaten to besmirch an otherwise stellar record for Iger, who has said he will step down as chief executive in 2015.

?I don?t think he?s going to want any black marks,? Cohen said.

Almost every major media company has had a difficult tangle with the web or gaming. Time Warner and AOL. News Corporation and MySpace. Viacom and the Rock Band game maker, Harmonix.

Disney is no different. In 2001, under Iger?s predecessor, the company took $878 million in charges to close its Go.com portal. But recently, Disney has had more technology brainpower than most.

Get live Share Market updates, Stock Market Quotes, and the latest India News and business news on Financial Express. Download the Financial Express App for the latest finance news.

First published on: 23-10-2012 at 03:22 IST
Market Data
Market Data
Today’s Most Popular Stories ×