Irvine-based Financial Media Group Inc. is out to lure Internet visitors with its own brand of Wall Street.
After the technology bust shook out scores of dot-coms, Chief Executive Albert Aimers started the company’s WallSt.net site in 2003 from his Laguna Beach home.
The site targets “do-it-yourself” stock market investors with business news and social networking. It’s gone as far as try to brand its name, putting the site’s logo on everything from baseball caps to women’s thongs sold at WallSt.net.
What started with an investment of $750,000 has grown into a publicly traded company, albeit on the low-profile Bulletin Board exchange, with a market value of about $15 million at recent check.
“Our passion was to go out there and knock off TheStreet.com or Market-Watch.com,” Aimers said.
That hasn’t happened. Web site tracker Alexa.com ranks WallSt.net in the top 56,000 of all sites it monitors. TheStreet.com is in the top 2,000, while MarketWatch.com is in the top 1,000.
But Aimers says he’s on the right course.
“We’re gaining traffic day by day,” he said. “It will take a few more years to get where we want.”
Last year, Financial Media reported a loss of more than $3 million on revenue of nearly $7 million.
The loss was due in part to stock investments Financial Media held in other companies.
WallSt.net makes up 90% of Financial Media’s revenue, Aimers said.
The other 10% comes from hosting expos, processing financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and writing press releases for companies, he said. Even with the thongs, the online store doesn’t do much, Aimers said.
The company likely will raise more money, according to Aimers.
WallSt.net offers various ways for readers to get information about companies and stocks. Social networking,reader forums and personal Web pages,are linked to the site. Podcasts and video are woven throughout.
Stories on small to midsize companies are a main feature. One recent story was on Arizona’s Taser International Inc., maker of the stun gun.
Some stories come from news wires and other sources, while breaking news comes from Reuters. Stock quotes are from Quotemedia.com.
In the early days, WallSt.net was just a couple of editors and a few technical people. Today, it employs 45, with five salespeople working out of a New York office.
The idea for the site came when Aimers said he saw new uses developing on the Internet.
“We wanted to take Web 2.0 and apply it to the financial industry,” he said.
Early on, Financial Media looked for a way to distinguish its site. The company found a niche interviewing chief executives.
“Our biggest hurdle was getting a foothold into CEO interviews, especially with tier one companies,” Aimers said.
About five interviews are published each week, all of them from publicly traded companies. Some are from the Fortune 500 list.
Aimers said he’s looking to add educational content that will require fees for subscribers.
The social networking stuff was added this year. A separate site, MyWallSt.net, is designed to allow users to learn about and communicate with each other.
Aimers declined to comment on the number of members so far.
“The idea is to have a social community of investors who can interact with each other with personal web pages similar to the MySpace.com concept,” Aimers said.
