Français About Main Menu What's New Submit a site

ENTERWeb is a Knowledge Portal for Small Business in Developed and Developing Countries with a special one stop window on Microfinance. This Internet based information clearinghouse provides, through a proprietary rating system, direct links to QUALITY sources of information on microfinance, community development, small business, finance, international trade, entrepreneurship, enterprise development and the economy ENTERWeb is unique amongst Knowledge Portals as it does not only identify, select, list and rate quality web sites according to their content depth and value added for the user, but also provides a detailed description highlighting key areas of potential interest.

• ENTERWeb is a specialised thematic vertical portal providing a wide range of Business Information Services through a meta index with 800+ entries covering 28 separate topics (microfinance, community development, cooperatives, entrepreneurship, finance, management, marketing & trade, technology, education & training, business law, support & advisory services, cyberbusiness, networks & meta guides, policy, incubators, economics, environment, business news, Y2K, business research, knowledge economy, women & enterprises, etc. )
  
  
• ENTERWeb provides coverage on a geographical basis (Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America) while an Interactive discussion group (ENTER-L) on Enterprise Development in Developed and Developing Countries is also included.
  
  
• It was created in October 96 and is a registered trademark in Canada.
  
  
• There are about 10,000 visitors per month and this number is steadily growing (doubling every year since its creation)
  
  

• Basically anyone looking for quality information on microfinance, microenterprise, small business, finance, international trade, enterprise development, etc both in developed and developing countries.

How Successfull is ENTERWeb?

• ENTERWeb has won a number of well known and respected awards such as: Argus Clearinghouse Digital Librarian Award, Web of Culture, Jayde Gold Diamond, Mining Company, Blue Web'n Site, Scout Report SignPost, World Class Supersite.
• In addition ENTERWeb is an InfoSeek Select Site, a LookSmart Editor's choice, a Microsoft France Guide's selection. It is also included in the Internet Public Library Reference Center and in ELDIS the British Library for Development Studies.

• ENTERWeb's audience has also been steadily growing: one thousand visitors in January 98, four thousand in January 99, and ten thousand in March 2000.

• ENTERWeb is already one of the best known portals for small business in developed and developing countries.
  
• Its main value added is its proprietary system of identifying, describing, evaluating and rating websites of potential interest.
  
• It complements traditional search engines and enable to save time when looking for quality information.
  
• It has the potential to become the leading world portal for Business Information Services both for developed and developing countries.

As it now stands ENTERWeb has been developed as a limited operation, with all setup, development and operational costs (representing close to 4,000 hours of work since October 1996) born internally with no external revenues being generated. This is not sustainable in the longer term if the site is to achieve its full business information potential.

• Internet based business information services cannot recover their costs through fee based arrangements as the current trend is towards freely available information available on the net. Subscription based solutions with login and password would not be a viable solution for ENTERWeb as more than 95% of present visitors would not register if they have to pay.
  
  
• Banners advertising is not really a viable solution either as it requires in its normal form (clickthrough) very large volume of visitors to generate acceptable revenue levels. The most promising solution for sustainability is a combination of sponsorship / copyright licensing with large institutions and/or corporations,.with possibly as a complement, banner advertising on a monthly rental basis.

Type of support required

Licensing Agreement

• For institutional use of copyright content (identification / description of sites, rating system).
  
• Based on concept similar to shareware system (free for personal use, requires licensing for institutional use). In that sense ENTERWeb would be selling the institutional use of its free content in order to reach financial self-sustainability.
  
• Could be on a lump sum basis per year for a three year period subject to renewal

Direct sponsorship

• Underwriting development costs (% of initial investment costs + recurrent development and operational costs on yearly basis)
  
• Hardware support
  
• Software support (for development, maintenance and control)
  
• Development of appropriate system for collecting detailed statistics on site visitors and establishing on-line questionnaire.
  
• Translation costs (initial costs + recurrents costs on yearly basis) Spanish - Japanese (?)
  
• Geographic focus
  
• Referencing and promotion, Marketing campaign
  
• Development of an internal search engine (spider to index all sites included in ENTERWeb. Search engine to perform on resulting data base)
  
• Could also be on a lump sum basis per year for a three year period subject to renewal.