Internet kiosks click into shopping malls

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Service provider Zip Internet has signed a two-year agreement with property developer Westfield to provide public net access terminals at 11 retail sites.

Zip sales and marketing director Raj Bhandari said Westfield, which had been trying out internet kiosks since March last year, would install a minimum of 15 terminals at shopping malls in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

In a separate project, the Quality Hotel chain would install up to 30 terminals at its properties throughout New Zealand after successful trials at two hotels in Auckland.

Mr Bhandari said the internet kiosk concept had been around for several years but had failed to take off because service providers had taken the wrong approach.

"It's not a new idea, but kiosk companies have been working with unsustainable business models.

"Simply providing an internet access terminal and then getting the coins out of it is not going to work."

Zip's terminals provide a mixture of free public access to advertiser content and coin-operated general surfing at the rate of $2 for 15 minutes.

Advertisers pay from $300 a month for an on-screen button that links users to their website; for $1600 a month, Zip will provide a kiosk that is painted in the company's livery.

Mr Bhandari said other kiosk providers had assumed incorrectly that site owners would be willing to pay for installation costs.

Penrose-based Zip paid property owners a rental of between $150 and $500 a kiosk a month, depending on the prominence of the site.

"The most difficult customer to reach is the person who is walking by, but a kiosk sited at high-traffic locations, such as a food hall in a shopping mall, will do just that."

Mr Bhandari was unable to provide figures for use, but a kiosk installed at St Lukes shopping centre last Tuesday had taken between $60 and $70 by Friday afternoon.

John Devaney, marketing manager at Avis New Zealand, said his company had taken advertising space on about 15 Zip terminals, and four kiosks would sport the Avis logo.

"We've reserved the outside branding option for prime sites - the Auckland Bridge Climb, the Visitor Information Centre in Queen St and the Copthorne hotel near the Viaduct Harbour."

Although users can log in to the Avis global car reservation system from any kiosk, Mr Devaney agreed that it was unlikely many shoppers would hire cars that way.

"We are not expecting a return based on booking numbers but the location and branding will help establish Avis as an internet broking company," he said.

"For a moderately low investment, we are getting the chance to try something out that fits in with our objectives."

Internet bookings at present represented less than 10 per cent of Avis' revenue, but Mr Devaney said he believed this would grow.

Some United States-based operators were now getting up to 30 or 40 per cent of their business from the net.

He also believed people would warm to internet kiosks in the same way they had become used to bank automatic teller Machines in supermarkets and petrol stations.