Neto Shops Ltd. and entrepreneur group DSK are planning to launch a private venture for the haredi (ultra-orthodox) community early next year - an Internet search engine of websites and information pages with no direct link to the Internet. The haredi community has largely boycotted the Internet until now for fear of being exposed to content it considers anathema. Consequently, the haredim have foregone the advantages of the Internet and the unlimited possibilities of cyberspace.
Neto Shops aims to penetrate the haredi protected sphere to reach its 1.6 million consumers. The venture, called "Neto-to-Home" has won the backing of the Sacred Education Guards, the supreme authority for granting kosher permits in the haredi sector. Neto-to-Home will provide users with information from many sources, including appropriate magazine articles, business, help wanted, and classified ads, prayer times, and so forth.
Neto-to-Home will distribute for free 200,000 CDs at haredi communities in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Ashdod, Elad, Modi'in Illit, Betar, Haifa and the Krayot, Beersheva, Tiberias, and other towns. Each disk will have 3,000 sites, which look like the real deal. The disks will be updated every two months, and the company aims to have monthly updates. Other applications are under development. Authorized yeshivas will constantly supervise the content.
Neto Shops CEO Nadav Maoist told "Globes", "Today, many businesses cannot reach this target audience because of the high advertising prices charged by haredi newspapers, which cannot be compared with the prices charged in the competitive world of secular newspapers.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 8, 2007
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