TALLINN - The Delfi group, which runs Internet sites in all three Baltic states, announced on May 31 that last year's revenues soared 67 percent to 90.2 million kroons (5.8 million euros) and that it expected another 25 - 30 percent jump this year. Chief executive Ville Jehe said that the Estonian portal accounted for 36 percent of the group's total income, or 32.3 million kroons.
In Latvia, the portal generated revenues of 1.5 million lats (2.1 million euros), or 37 percent of total group sales. Jehe said the Latvian portal would make the largest contribution to the group's revenues in 2007.
The five portals managed by the group 's Estonian-registered Delfi AS 's control an estimated 45-48 percent of the Baltic Internet advertising market, the company said.
The company claims that at the end of 2006 it had 1.8 million users in the three Baltic countries. According to data from the Gallup e-Ratings Internet study, Delfi's Estonian portal was visited by nearly 500,000 people per month. Last year the number of users increased 22 percent.
In Latvia, the Delfi portal announced that sales increased 50 percent last year and that earnings grew 2.4 times to 635,000 lats (903,529 euros).
Delfi head Juris Mendzins told the Baltic News Service that several significant projects related to Latvia's parliamentary elections and the World Cup in soccer had been implemented last year.
He said that the Delfi Internet portal is visited by an average 287,000 people daily.
Commenting the financials, he said that Delfi sales increased thanks to the growth of advertising volumes in the portal and the total advertising market in Latvia. This year the portal plans to generate 1.8 million lats in sales, he said.
In the words of Jehe, "We forecast revenue shares of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania at respectively 33 percent, 37 percent and 30 percent this year."
Latvia's position as the dominant revenue-country is explained by differences in market volumes, Jehe said. "By the same logic the Lithuanian market can be expected to make the biggest revenue contribution in a few years' time," he added.
In 1999 IT company MicroLink created Delfi portals in Estonia and Latvia, and then in Lithuania in 2000. At the end of 2003 all the three portals were bought by Findexa, one of the largest Norwegian media outfits.
In April the company announced that it had launched a Russian-language Web portal in Ukraine (www.delfi.ua).
In addition to news, the portal offers personal advertising service and TV programs, the company said.
