Starbucks Digital Network: Nice Enough, but Isn't the Portal Dead Already?

Following a drumroll that has lasted since last June, Starbucks (SBUX) today rolled out its Starbucks Digital Network -- a content aggregator that is the cream in the coffee for customers who are still reveling in the fact that Starbucks has had free Wi-Fi since last summer. There's just one problem: Hasn't anyone told Starbucks the portal is dead?

True, the venture has enviable content partners across six channels, ranging from The New York Times to Rodale to Nick Jr., but even though it will be the home page for people who use Starbucks' Wi-Fi, it forgets one thing: that most of us come to our laptops -- and even mobile phones, for which SDN is optimized -- with a specific set of online destinations in mind, be it to head straight for Facebook or make a beeline for The Huffington Post. Just like it's become habitual to click past takeover ads that temporarily fill up some sites' home pages, it's habitual to click past content that the user hasn't expressly sought out -- even if Starbucks, with its music and other ventures, has more credibility in the content department than most companies that aren't expressly in the media business.

If this service has a sweet spot, it will be in local content -- because it isn't as ubiquitous as some of the other mass media content on SDN, and because it's the best fit with Starbucks "third place" strategy. Also, it's the channel in which to serve up location-based marketing, since Starbucks will clearly know where its users are at the moment. To that end, Starbucks has partnered with Foursquare to bring users AOL's Patch network of local content sites, local Zagat reviews (for when people actually leave Starbucks!) and has other community bulletin board style features.

If the main objective of SDN is to have people stay at Starbucks until their over-caffeination point -- at which point jittery riots might break out -- another potential winning strategy is for Starbucks to become the Sugar Daddy for people too cheap to pony up for paid content. There are glimmers of this at launch, since the company is giving SDN users free access to The Wall Street Journal, with plans to do that when The New York Times erects its paywall early next year.

But imagine if that idea were extended across most (non-porn) sites to cover everything from from Hulu Plus to iTunes. Of course, it's impossible to say how much that would cost Starbucks, but it's a thought. It's one thing to say Starbucks is now a place where you can go read WSJ.com for free; for most of us, that's fine, but not a compelling reason to visit the store. However, it's entirely another if Starbucks becomes a special zone where most paid content is free -- as long as you don't mind buying a latte in return.

That said, I'm not sure the world has been waiting for Starbucks to create SDN, even if it was waiting for it to get with the program and offer free Wi-Fi. Most of us already know what content we want to consume by the time we approach the barista -- and we don't need Starbucks to help us.