Web 'Emcees' Wanted

Wanted: Wal-Mart-type greeters for the Web. Must be good with people, own a computer and be able to type well.

Kona Systems Inc., a Hawaiian Internet startup firm, is taking marketing to a new level by hiring Web "emcees" to help sell its interactive video system. Currently, a camera is trained on a Kona employee, who gets an audio message when a visitor logs onto the Kona site, http://www.konasys.com. The "emcee" then greets the visitors and asks them to send messages to him via e-mail, which he responds to in real time. The service only works on PCs.

The company is now using a handful of employees as emcees, but wants to hire several more from the outside to fill additional three- or four-hour shifts that cover the morning hours in New York, London and San Francisco, said Nancie Bonstedt, Kona's director of operations. Emcees will be able to work out their homes, she said.

Kona Systems President CJ Villa called the emcee job part entertainer and part site guide. "A Website is the world's door to your company," Villa said. "Having someone at this door to greet your visitors makes your Web site a friendlier, more human face."

Villa will benefit if his customers see it this way as well. Kona's latest product, EarthShow Network, is a live interactive video system that powers real-time video interaction through low-demand components called WebHeads. The program works on most Internet browsers, including Windows 95 and 98 and Netscape's NT. Users are charged based on the amount of time they use the viewer.

Bonstedt said it's too soon to tell whether the "emcees" have had an effect on sales of EarthShow Network, since the product just came on the market a few weeks ago.

(Contact: Nancie Bonstedt, Kona Systems, 888-566-2670)