French PC manufacturer Cibox-LCI SA has taken internet and computer marketing in its country a step further, launching an offering of a free machine with internet access, for which there is no sign-up charge. Last year the Paris-based company offered customers a low-price PC ($327) with a monthly internet access fee of $33. That offering was overtaken, however, by the advent of so-called ‘free’ internet, a trend which invaded from across the Channel in England.
Now Cibox is offering a free PC, for which customers sign up for a guaranteed 36 months’ subscription to its ISP subsidiary Netclic. For this they pay $27.60 a month and receive the right to ten hours’ surfing the Web.
In order to make such an offering, the company has cut a deal with distributors such as hypermarket chains whereby they buy the PCs from Cibox, then give them to the customers. They in turn pay the monthly fee to a finance company, which remunerates the distributors. At the end of the 36 months, Netclic pays the finance company a $230 per computer as remuneration for its activities.
Industry analysts said that Cibox has managed, with its marketing initiatives, to move from being just a PC maker to a service provider with a customer base on which it can sell advertising space on the Netclic site.
