Our class had the distinct privilege of visiting digital company giant Onet. Before arriving at their offices, we were told the company is comparable to what Yahoo was in its heyday, but from my experience, I see it as so much more.
I'll start with some stats... if we were back in Poland, those of us 21+ could (responsibly) take a shot of vodka every time they’re in the top of their category:
- #1 Polish mobile web destination platform (# 3 in country after global giants Facebook & Google)
- #1 in online video among Polish media news production
- 275 min of video streaming online
- #1 premium VOD platform – let’s call it the Polish Netflix
- Leading products on ecommerce market
- #1 news website in Poland
- #1 most quoted news in Poland
Na zdrowie! Whoo! I’m feeling woozy just thinking about it!
We were met by Piotr Łegowski, Head of the digital media campus, and Marzena Suchan, Editor-in-Chief of information services. It doesn’t get much better than that! Mr. Łegowski walked us through an explanation of the company and its market situation. It quickly became apparent that we were sitting in a pretty important office.
Łegowski highlighted the market’s trends, including the shift to mobile, and went into a long explanation of the problems that AdBlockers cause for a company such as Onet. He elaborated that Poland has the highest ad block rate in all of Europe, and because digital platforms such as Onet rely on ads for their funding, AdBlockers pose a threat to their revenue stream. Creative approaches need to be taken in order to sustain the business. He also took the time to explain Programmatic and how the auctioning process works for Onet.
Next up, Ms. Suchan spoke with us about how she leads the entire journalism department at Onet. She outlined the structure of her team and addressed the challenge of finding a sustainable business model to support independent journalism. Her spiel included an outline of her department’s use of the Onet website, which features galleries and sliders, interviews, infographics (such as how to find a husband), live reports, and video. She also mentioned that Onet is committed to reporting reliable news, and avoiding fake news and the trap of “click bait.”
Then, Łegowski and Suchan gave us an in-depth view of how they determine the placement of news stories on the Onet website, including headline composition. They showed us the software they use, which is unique to Onet, and how it personalizes each user’s view based on certain habits and demographics.
Both Łegowski and Suchan were very open and warm; they were happy to answer our questions and reveal some of the secrets that make Onet such a force in its industry. I was actually taken aback by how open and lovely they both were, considering how busy and stressful it must be to entertain a school group during their work day.
We capped off the experience with a brief tour of their trendy offices, including a video call with the office in Warsaw!
A big dziękuję to them, and to Professor Bozena Mierzejewska on hooking us up with this incredible opportunity!
No comments:
Post a Comment