Real and serious losses for Wirtualna Polska as firm strives to levy charges

Wirtualna Polska (WP), Poland's oldest and second most popular portal announced plans to start charging its users for e-mail accounts and other services. "The Internet advertising market is down, revenues from these sources are not enough to cover our costs. Therefore, we are forced to introduce fees," said WP director Marek Borzestowski. Analysts had been expecting the company to follow the lead of it's main competitor, Onet.pl, and initiate Internet Service Provider (ISP) services, particularly as a stake of 50% plus one share of WP is owned by TPSA. According to estimates WP, which is visited by almost 4.5 million Internet surfers every month, brings other ISP companies a revenue of zl. 15 million monthly. "We are considering introducing such services. At present we earn a commission from TPSA which sells our e-mail accounts through it's internet offer," Borzestowski said. The company recently cut employment down to 200 full-time workers and reduced employment costs by 36% over 16 months. Wirtualna Polska recorded net losses of zl. 21 million on sales of zl. 10.5 million in the first quarter of 2002. (Puls Biznesu, p. 3) A.K.