You might think that www.manunitedcentral.cjb.net had all the hallmarks of an official site, with a wealth of information, pictures and other features.  Equally www.redissue.co.uk calls itself 'the definitive Manchester United website'.  You can even buy the domain name www.mufc.co.uk from its current owner, if you fancy adding to the wealth of cyberspace content on the club.

So how does the actual, real Manchester United web presence distinguish itself from all the noise surrounding it?  The club's business and operations manager Mark Hargreaves, who has overall responsibility for internet strategy, has a number of answers.

Partnerships are key.  The club has developed alliances with Sky to show video highlights of games on its four internet TV channels, with Vodafone to send text messages with scores and commentary, with Fuji to provide pictures of games and other events - bought online and sent by post -with Ladbrokes for online betting and with other suppliers for ringtones, logos, quizzes, merchandise, travel and tickets etc.

Healthy income stream
A further, surprising partnership is with Terra Lycos Asia to provide similar content for the millions of Man Utd fans living in China, many thousands of miles away from Old Trafford.  This site is part owned by the UK club with a profit share arrangement and receives, according to Mark Hargreaves, 1.5 million unique hits and 15 million page impressions per month.  The main site registers one million unique users per month and a further 15 million page impressions.

By most criteria, this is a sizeable amount of traffic and points the way towards a healthy income stream in future years.  As it stands, the club doesn't see its electronic offerings as a big money-earner, but Mark Hargreaves looks forward to widespread broadband penetration over the next two years as a commercial opportunity.  "We're positioning ourselves to be ready to take advantage," he said.

Another partnership to cater to an Asian country's fanbase is in negotiation, capitalising on the wildfire broadband growth in the region.  In the UK, meanwhile, technical development of picture and video messaging for mobile phones is underway.

Speed is important, in a variety of ways.  In the coming season, fans will be able to see highlights from Champions League games by midnight of match day.  So browsing fans are less likely to confuse the legitimate club website with the array of pretenders, because there is such a plethora of highly developed technical capabilities, many of them free to use. 

Providing a service
Mark estimates that around half of the site is free, with various levels of subscription offered for access to certain areas.  Two out of four of the TV channels are free, for example.  "You can't ignore the normal fan who wants to read about the club," he said.  "We're here to provide a service."

Nevertheless, the UK's most profitable football team did not get where it is by accident.  Having exclusive video interviews with David Beckham is something which any broadcaster would pay good money for and Manchester United fans are the ideal audience for his musings.  His profile in Asia is especially high and has been a big factor in the popularity of the Chinese website.

There are some commercial conflicts on the margins of the club's e-commerce strategy.  Hutchinson has acquired the rights to distribute highlights from the 2003/4 season Premiership matches to mobile phones, which cuts across Manchester United's link-up with Vodafone.  But since the technology to receive such material is currently in its infancy and there is such minimal penetration in the market, this is not seen as a serious problem.  In a couple of years, Manchester United may be calculating, the contract will be up for renegotiation and maybe Vodafone will outbid its rivals.

The most recent major redesign of the three main websites was in April 2002, shortly after video streaming had been introduced.  Sky TV played a pivotal role in formulating what Mark Hargreaves calls the 'user journey', improving the usability and look and feel incrementally.  "You can't get everything right first time," he said.  "We're always learning."

What first strikes a visitor about the http://www.manutd.com/ site is its energy and freshness.  Of course, winning the premiership again, especially after trailing arch-rivals Arsenal for most of the season, lends itself to celebration.  But there is a real zip about the site and a feeling of welcome, with a bunch of free goodies on offer for anyone with an affinity with the reds.  While the various pretenders can fill their pages with pictures and comment, it takes a serious amount of investment to video stream highlights around the world a couple of hours after the final whistle.