• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 7, 2007

How important is building a series of online beachheads for so-called traditional media companies? Enough that NBC Universal is launching a venture remarkably far afield from Must See TV.

The company is rolling out a combination e-commerce/social-networking initiative that focuses on gift giving. Called GiftDivvy, it's positioned as an easy way for a group to collaborate on buying a wedding or birthday present without picking up the phone. Friends can go back and forth with missives to decide what to buy and how to split the costs. Then a "lead" member of the crew can make the purchase and arrange for delivery.

GiftDivvy is the brainchild of NBCU's digital innovation team, which is charged with discovering new business opportunities that may or may not be related to the company's traditional core competencies. To date, its output includes CalamityGame.com, described as a "physics-based casual game" site, and producing events on Second Life.

In the case of GiftDivvy, Devin Johnson, the executive in charge of the year-old digital team, said: "We saw a gap, people actually want to collaborate on how to buy gifts." While NBCU executives say the venture is targeted at anyone looking to buy with others, it would seem to have particular appeal among those looking for a user-friendly way to divvy up the large-ticket items for key events, which can be cumbersome via online registries.

So far, a rudimentary version of the application is available on Facebook, where friends can network with each other and decide on a purchase. (The service will launch as a stand-alone GiftDivvy.com site soon to reach demos beyond the tech-savvy, younger Facebook users.) For now, a purchase would have to be executed via another site. The final step, where a "lead" member of the discussion can buy the gift via GiftDivvy, is coming.

Plans call for the site to launch in partnership with Amazon.com within the month. Then, the networked group would be able to send a gift selected from the site's unending offerings of kitchen supplies, furniture, electronics, etc. Members of the GiftDivvy group will be able to send money to their chosen purchaser ("lead" member) through Amazon's coming competitor to PayPal. NBCU will profit by taking a percentage of each transaction. Relationships with retailers beyond Amazon are expected if GiftDivvy becomes a viable business.

NBCU's chief digital officer George Kliavkoff said research shows online users spend about 40% of their time on email, 37% consuming content, 18% on e-commerce and 5% on search. NBCU has a solid footprint in the content bucket. Plays like GiftDivvy are an attempt to build a larger presence in the e-commerce arena, where initiatives so far include the NBC store on NBC.com, retail relationships via iVillage and sales of video on iTunes.

"We're trying to track where people spend their time online and line up some of our efforts behind that ... Having more of a direct relationship with customers is something we're very interested in," Kliavkoff said.

He added, "We're competing in an attention economy against all competitors, against anything else that takes time and attention away from our content."

GiftDivvy would seem to have potential synergies with the iVillage e-commerce operations--particularly in the weddings and parenting/pregnancy areas--but Johnson said there are no immediate plans to integrate the system within that site's purchasing chain. He did say his group may look to use iVillage as a marketing platform to boost interest.

But he said initial marketing efforts for GiftDivvy will be modest. Perhaps NBCU will purchase some ad space or sponsorships on Facebook, but it will mainly rely on viral marketing and hope that users create a snowball effect by plugging it to their friends.