News

Where we've been, where we're going

The president of NetWorld Alliance talks about the brief history of ATMmarketplace.com, his company's plans for future growth and what it was like to be a Web portal before Web portals were cool.

January 27, 2002

Tom Harper is president of NetWorld Alliance, which operates ATMmarketplace.com, KIOSKmarketplace.com and kiosks.org. He is co-founder of the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), founder of the ATM Advertising Council, and the founding publisher of ATMmagazine.com.

In just over three decades, an entirely new market sector has impacted the telecommunications infrastructure of most of the major countries on the planet. Consumers have adopted this new industry into their everyday lives. Tens of thousands of us rely on it for our livelihoods.

Of course we're talking ATMs, those magic machines that spit out cash the way McDonald's sends burgers through its drive-thru. Other technologies such as wireless communications and the Internet have altered our lifestyles, but ATMs have entered the mainstream of society like no other. Today's fast-paced world finds those three technologies coming together, providing consumers with more time-saving choices than ever.

An amazing one million ATMs will be in service this year, a million machine march that has put people close to their money on what seems like every street corner and retail business in America.

It's also one million revenue generators creating billions of dollars for manufacturers, processors, armored car providers, financial institutions, retailers, private deployers, online news providers - the list is endless.

What a great industry we're in.

Think about it: where would banks be without the ATM? What would our lives be like without ready access to our cash? What would you and I be doing right now instead of reading this article? (Don't answer that.)

Around the globe, ATM deployments areshowing no sign of nearing a perceivable saturation point, and technology keeps driving down hardware costs and heightening security and functionality.

There are those who say the ATM market has peaked, that the inevitable downturn will hit ATMs hard. I choose to think those skeptics are wrong, that new uses and global deployments of ATMs will continue to grow.

Consider the off-premise trend taking hold in the UK, soon to hit the European continent. A massive technology and connectivity boom is gathering steam in China, the world's second-largest economy, that will open up untold opportunity for vendors and deployers. And Australia's ISO market continues to heat up.

The globalization of our industry is not just a prediction anymore. It's happening.

ATMmagazine.com: The legacy

We love our jobs here at NetWorld Alliance. We've got some incredible people on staff and enjoy wide-ranging relationships throughout the ATM world. Many of you reading this have been with us since the early days of ATMmagazine.com.

Now that you've had some time to get to know the magazine's new incarnation, ATMmarketplace.com, I thought it would be beneficial to address our corporate strategy and explain who we are and what we're trying to do - and what it means to you.

What happened to the magazine? That's a question we get often. Allow me to briefly illustrate how it started and where it went.

Back in May of 1997, the infancy of the Internet era, we launched ATMmagazine.com. Our timing was pretty good, as the surcharge bans had beenlifted a year earlier and the industry was in the midst of a meteoric growth spurt. ISOs that would become multi-million dollar corporations were just being formed.

At that time we also got involved in founding the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), which now has over 400 members and a stable of well-attended conferences. The organization has dropped anchor in Europe with a UK-based international director, and plans for global expansion are proceeding.

A few weeks before Thanksgiving in 1999, the magazine hit a saturation point of sorts. We ran out of advertising banners to sell. Our site was enjoying incredible numbers, setting new records for hits and page views every month, but we were out of ad inventory. That might seem a good problem to have, but it forced us to reconsider our strategy. And that's a good thing for you. Why? It forced us to expand the site's free offerings, and make the site better.

Now we've got storefronts, research areas, more news, deeper archives and a growing catalog of products and services offered by top companies.

When we wrote the business plan for our new site we realized we had to change the name. "Magazine" didn't describe the Web portal anymore.

ATMmarketplace.comwas a natural choice,a truer description of what we're all about. And we started NetWorld Alliance, a company devoted to operating online vertical communities. Our first one, as you know, served the ATM industry.

Our next move took us in a whole new direction.

Enter the kiosk world

A couple years ago we saw another young, mushrooming industry taking shape: electronic self-service kiosks. There was evidence of convergence with the ATM world - not that the machines were going to merge into one physical machine anytime soon, but a close enough relationship existed between the industries that we thought many vendors and deployers in one market would soon cross over to the other.

Now the confluence is more pronounced. ATMs are venturing into more interactive waters. Financial institutions are deploying kiosks that include ATM functionality.

Software providers, component manufacturers, graphic designers and advertisers many times see ATMs and kiosks as interchangeable - both types of machines have graphics-capable screens, user interactivity, transaction-based purposes, and most of all, they generate self-service revenue.

NetWorld Alliance is now poised to take advantage of the relationship between the marketsby crossing over to kiosks. We acquired kiosks.org (a leading portal in the kiosk industry) in October 2000, then launched KIOSKmarketplace.com at the beginning of this year. We've been pleased with market response to our new kiosk presence and believe we've brought on an invaluable asset in Craig Keefner, kiosks.org's publisher and now VP of NetWorld.

As a result of his years of hard work, Craig catapulted us into a great position in our newly chosenindustry. We're seeing the power of the "org" from the inside, and we're constantly delighted by the site's global reputation.

Bright futures abound

If the future delivers more real-world cross-pollination between ATMs and kiosks, you'll be the first to know. We'll be watching that trendand our news will reflect all the important developments.

Some signs indicate the two industrieswill share technology. Take our Internet and wireless example - both ATMs and kiosks are putting these technologies to use in new and exciting applications.

The mobility made possible by wireless applications opens up a world of possibilities for kiosks and ATMs. Without the necessity of land lines, machines can be placed almost anywhere, and can be moved as needed.

Cash dispensers and self-service terminals already share retail real estate, deployers, servicers, manufacturers, communication lines and users. If the machines never actually merge in form, the synergy of their practical functionality is already materializing.

We think the cooperative progress will continue - that's why we've invested so heavily in both market sectors. Our hunch is that international growth in both markets may be the next big thing, and we're putting plans in place to be at the forefront of coverage of this global expansion.

We think ATM saturation, commoditization and consolidation may be the simple growing pains of a young industry. Evolving technology promises to bring new jobs and new opportunities.

NetWorld Alliance is excited to jump on the ATM industry bandwagon, touting its victories and providing honest, hard-hitting reporting of its challenges. We're doing our part to be an integral player in the industry by practicing good journalism, building relationships with our industry friends and providing a forum for ATM industry professionals to share ideas.

Thanks for joining us on this wild ride. We've got some surprises in store, and we imagine the ATM industry has even more.

Technology advancements not only impact the world of ATMs and kiosks, they give us new Internet tools and toys to play with.

Which make our jobs that much more fun.