Walla!
Walla! Communications Ltd. (Hebrew: וואלה! תקשורת בע"מ) is an Israeli internet company headquartered in Tel Aviv and is fully owned by Bezeq. Walla!'s web portal provides news, search (powered by Google Search) and e-mail, among other things. It is also one of the first Israeli internet portals, and is considered as one of the most popular web sites in the country. As of October 2016, Alexa rankings put it in the top 9 sites by traffic originating in Israel.[1] Its online news outlet Walla! News is one of the major Israeli news websites.
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 Walla! portal's main page screenshot as on October 2016 | |
| Type of business | Public company |
|---|---|
Type of site | web portal |
| Available in | Hebrew |
| Traded as | TASE: WALA |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Headquarters | 166 IBN Gvirol St., Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Owner | Bezeq (100%) |
| Key people | Avraham Gabai (Chairman) Gadi Hadar (Founder) Erez Pilosof (Founder) Gadi Hadar (Founder) Ido Eshed (CEO) |
| Net income |  ₪132 Million (FY 2009) |
| Registration | optional |
| Users | 2.5 Million active users |
| Current status | active |
History
The portal was founded by Erez Pilosof and Gadi Hadar in 1995 as Israel's first online website directory, and soon afterwards acquired by "Mashov Computers Marketing", a member of The Mashov Group headed by Yaki Dunietz and David Assia. In 1998, the company, traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, changed its name to "Walla! Communications Ltd". In the same year, the company was acquired by Formula Systems, headed by Dan Goldstein, and in 2001 it merged with IOL, a similar site run by the Haaretz Group.[2]
Services
Walla! provides news from Israel and around the world, 24 hours a day. Most news stories that appear in Walla! came from the Haaretz Group, news agencies and other content providers. However, during the year 2006, Walla! started building an independent news and editorial staff, which produces original news stories and special features. In addition, Walla! produces original content in various fields such as sports, cinema, music, fashion and food. The website offers many programs and services, a search engine, E-mail, online shops, chats, and video on demand.[3]
- Walla!News – Breaking news and analysis from Israel and around the world, 24 hours a day
- Walla!Mail – A free email service offering unlimited storage space
- Walla!Shops – An online shopping network and part of the Bezeq group, designed for purchasing different products and services online. The site provides trading categories such as in electricity products, smartphones and mobile phones, furniture and fashion. E-commerce in Israel for 2012 was estimated by Google Israel as totaling a minor figure of $1 billion.[4]
- Walla!Music – On demand music as well as the option to listen to various radio stations live
- Walla!Cellular – Downloads for mobile phones
- Walla!pedia – In 2005 Walla made use of the GFDL copyright license on which Wikipedia runs and copied the entire Hebrew Wikipedia's database. Walla! displays the articles under the headline Walla!pedia, but mentions that the articles originated from Wikipedia. Unlike Wikipedia, the users cannot edit the articles and the former versions and history of the articles are not shown.
- Yad2 – classifieds with listings for cars, apartments, items for sale, services and more.
References
- "walla.co.il". Alexa. 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-20.
- "IOL - Walla merger".
- "Walla! IR - ENGLISH".
- "Israel: Great at Making Startups, Terrible at E-commerce". Haaretz. 2013.
