BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 7, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- SPECIAL REPORT -- LEADERS Tomasz Czechowicz: Poland.com Tomasz Czechowicz Poland.com Position Chairman Contribution Launched Eastern Europe's first portal Ambition To become Poland's equivalent of Yahoo! and prove that local portals can survive global competition It was a wild party last June at a Warsaw nightclub, hosted by the Polish edition of Playboy magazine. Buxom bunnies cavorted in skimpy dresses and booze flowed freely. But Tomasz Czechowicz couldn't have cared less. ''All Tomasz wanted to do was talk about business opportunities on the Internet,'' recalls Jerzy Karvelis, then editor-in-chief of Poland's largest computer magazine, Chip. Six months later, Czechowicz and Karvelis launched Polish-language portal Poland.com. Czechowicz, 29, doesn't fear international giants on his own turf. ''There will be a few big international portals such as Yahoo! and a local one in each country,'' he says. ''People want local content in local languages compiled by locals.'' Analysts agree. ''National portals survive in Europe if they build good directories,'' says Therese Torris, at Forrester Research in Amsterdam. Whether or not Czechowicz can create a money-making Polish portal is far from proven, though. The Net is in its infancy in Eastern Europe, with fewer than 6% of Poland's 40 million citizens connected. Yahoo, a leading portal worldwide, hasn't even bothered to set up an operation in the region because there's so little online advertising there. That doesn't matter to Czechowicz. He's accustomed to carving out businesses before the high-tech elite move in. When communism collapsed in 1989, Czechowicz rushed to set up a PC assembly company called JTT Computer Inc. JTT's sales hit $120 million last year--a solid success in a country with just $2 billion in annual computer spending. Now, Czechowicz means to reprise that formula on the Net. Two years ago he resigned as president of JTT and started Internet venture fund MCI Management, which in addition to financing Poland.com has invested $1.5 million in other Net ventures, including a Web design firm. At the same time, he's pursuing an MBA. ''I still have a lot to learn,'' he says. But if Czechowicz turns Poland.com into a winner, aspiring portal builders all over Europe could be taking lessons from him. By William Echikson To read a correction/clarification about this story, click here. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Europe's Top e.business Leaders Ola Ahlvarsson: Result Venture Knowledge International Tomasz Czechowicz: Poland.com Nina Brink: World Online International N.V. Hasso Plattner: SAP Renato Soru: Tiscali Mark Schneider: United Pan-European Communications Kurt Hellstrom: Ericsson Ernesto Schmitt: peoplesound.com Chahram Becharat: Europ@web Paulus Neef: Pixelpark AG INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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