NextCard Inc., an online credit card issuer, reported a net loss of $16.6 million, or 31 cents per share, for the first quarter. However, it reported $70.5 million in operating revenue, representing roughly an $8 million increase from fourth quarter 2000.
NextCard, San Francisco, said the loss for the first quarter, which ended March 31, was in line with analyst forecasts. The company predicted that it would be profitable by year's end because of the revenue increases. The first-quarter revenue figure represents a 210 percent jump from $22.7 million for the same quarter a year earlier.
NextCard attributed a large part of its revenue increase to the reduction of the acquisition cost per account, which was $49 for the first quarter, 39 percent lower than for the year-ago period. The company reached 881,000 customer accounts for the quarter, compared with about 337,000 accounts as of March 31, 2000.
