NeoPets, rapidly growing Internet start-up, is facing a decision on its international expansion strategy - whether to enter a joint venture with conglomerate in Singapore to use the Asian markets, as well as what other parts of goal. NeoPets allows its users - mostly children and teenagers - to create and care for virtual pets in the online world. The web site is free for users and supported by advertising is akin to product placement in films. NeoPets reached profitability within four months after the start of operations at the end of 1999, mainly due to the fact that he spends nothing to attract customers, relying solely on word-of-mouth. As of July 2001, the company had more than 8 million unique users and reached number one in four of all the web sites for the U.S. "stickiness", the average amount of time users spend online. "Hide
by Thomas R. Eisenmann, Liz Kind Source: Harvard Business School 31 pages. Publication Date: March 12, 2002. Prod. #: 802100-PDF-ENG
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