Evite, the online RSVP giant that has stood still since, oh, 1999, has a sister site called Gifts.com that I bet you’ve never heard of.
Its primary function seems to be two fold: a gift guide section running on what I presume is a sales leads generation business, and a stored value gift card that you can buy online and can be redeemed at 120 online stores.
According to Kara Swisher of BoomTown, the parent company IAC has just installed Jason Rapp, formerly IAC’s VP of M&A, as the CEO of Gifts.com. Probably long overdue. Just look at their traffic chart. How do they justify themselves to Barry Diller? And just to extend the conversation, why aren’t IAC doing more with Evite?
I’m surprised that the site has 40 employees. Looking at Gifts.com, you wonder what the hell do they all do. The site is incredibly static and doesn’t offer much value to customers. How many people do you need to update the inventory of merchandise in gift guides, and do some hopefully automated e-commerce transactions? I’d would have thought that they can get by with 10 people, max.
It’s a very real problem with these holding companies with a large portfolio of small sites. They are hidden from view, possibly aimless, seemingly unmotivated, and definitely inefficient. Maybe the new CEO will shake things up. I wish them luck. But even if he does, there are alot of room for smaller nimbler companies to run circles around them.
