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TIME EUROPE Friday, December 15, 2000 Think Pink Queercompany.com establishes an online talking point for the gay community By JENNIE JAMES London Cultivating the correct brand image is a challenge for any start-up staking a claim in cyberspace. In an advertising campaign, should you stick with the obvious, so that everybody gets the message, or go for the unusual, to set tongues wagging? Finding such a balance initially proved a particularly difficult task for Queercompany.com (www.Queercompany.com), a London-based gay and lesbian portal that launched last month, offering editorial content and finance and travel services. Even before it appeared online, the fledgling website had already parted ways with one advertising agency saying that its proposed ads were "too gay." Instead, Queercompany's current advertisements show a picture of a lone, thoughtful-looking woman alongside the slogan, "If you think telling your parents that you're queer is hard, try telling your daughter." The intended effect, say Henrietta Morrison, 32, and Dominic Richards, 34, who co-founded Queercompany, is to reach out across the gay and lesbian spectrum. "We wanted to create a look that was inclusive and made a connection with people rather than adding to stereotypes," says Richards. Indeed, the raison d'être of Queercompany as a niche portal is evident from the moment the visitor starts to make her way through the site's membership registration process. For example, among the six options in response to the query "What you strut your stuff as" are gay, bisexual, crossdresser and an emphatic "Mind your own business." Visitors can find a selection of theater, film and music reviews and the 1980s pop icon Boy George is a resident D.J. on the site's Queerwaves Radio. Launching next year: Queer Love, an online dating section. As with all start-ups, Queercompany must tap into dependable revenue streams if it is to progress. "The problem with most community or special interest portals is that the initial model — advertising, e-commerce and sponsorship — doesn't really work," says Michael Whitaker, CEO of NewMedia Spark, a venture capital and incubation firm. "Banner advertising rates aren't high enough." Queercompany has other strings to its bow, including commissions earned from the sale of financial products online — some of which have been especially created for Queercompany's target audience. In the gay market, says Whitaker, it is widely believed that such products offer a good opportunity to generate revenue. Certainly, there is considerable spending power within the so-called pink economy — based on market research, Queercompany values the annual disposable income of the U.K.'s gay community at about $14.5 billion. But gaining access to things like mortgages can still be problematic for those in same-sex relationships. Queercompany screens all the products posted on its site to make sure they are free of discriminatory clauses. While its founders still lament a certain lack of understanding and tolerance amongst the wider community — for example, it was not until last month that legislation to lower the age of consent for homosexuals in the U.K. to 16, the same as for heterosexuals, reached the statute books — they do speak positively of the reaction they received when they first sought funding. "We met with three venture capitalists, all of whom were interested," says Morrison, a director of the specialist publishing house Arberry Pink. Eventually, Queercompany struck a deal with Norwegian company Smedvig Capital, who offered first-round funding of about $5 million. "They could see very clearly that this market was underserved," says Richards, founder of the English Teddy Bear Company, a chain of retail stores across the U.K. Not that it looks likely to remain that way for long. The site already has competition from other gay and lesbian portals such as Rainbow Network (www.rainbownetwork.com). But Queercompany plans to take its format into France, Germany and Spain, and also hopes to set up bricks-and-mortar outlets. There may even be off-line dating events. And despite the fact that it is a niche portal, it clearly has a broader appeal — at last count, some 12% of those who had registered for membership of Queercompany.com were straight.
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