Alticor, the owner of the multilevel-marketing company Amway, is pouring millions of dollars into a new Web site called Fanista that will be part Amazon (online retail), part MySpace (social network) and part Amway. The Web site, set to make its public debut this week, will initially sell DVDs and CDs. It plans to add video games, digital downloads and books. People can simply use Fanista as a place to shop. But the company hopes most consumers will join as members--signing up is free--and then recruit their friends for a 5% commission on sales.
Somet analysts say Fanista faces an uphill battle. "Historically, with the exception of Amazon and Wal-Mart, the shopping mall approach hasn't worked online," says David Card, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. Amway also suffers from an image problem. Conscious of the negative connotation of multilevel marketing, Fanista has coined a happier term. The site describes the sales model to users as "common interest commerce."
