Ref HELO ** Go2Net Launches HyperMart Small Business Center
Provides Business-to-Business Portal for More Than 500,000 Online Businesses
SEATTLE, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Go2Net, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNET - news), a network of branded, technology- and
community-driven Web sites ( go2net.com ), today introduced the HyperMart Small Business Center, available at (
hypermart.net ). It provides the Internet's largest aggregation of small and medium-sized businesses with a
comprehensive, one-stop portal featuring the Internet's leading business products, services, and reference materials.
Together, HyperMart ( hypermart.net ) and Go2Net's Virtual Avenue ( virtualave.net ), provide free
Web hosting for more than 500,000 online member businesses, growing at the combined rate of more than 1,500 new member
businesses per day.
The HyperMart Small Business Center's initial resources include co-branded payroll, time and expense tracking, billing,
trademark search and registration, business incorporation services, domain name registration, long-distance and local telephone
services, and credit reports, among other categories. It also features extensive business-focused reference content from Federal
and state government agencies, along with comprehensive archives of research and statistical information focused on Internet
commerce.
''The HyperMart Small Business Center provides our rapidly expanding base of online businesses with convenient access to
core services that any online or offline business owner or entrepreneur needs to run their business,'' said Russell C. Horowitz,
Go2Net Chief Executive Officer. ''As HyperMart has grown, we've received repeated requests from our member businesses
and users for one-stop access to specialized business products, services, and information. The HyperMart Small Business
Center will be of considerable value to our member businesses and individual users, as well as the participating service
providers who are looking to reach a highly targeted demographic focused on the small and medium-sized business sector.''
In the coming weeks, the Small Business Center will be expanded to incorporate additional business products and services.
Initial co-branded offerings for the HyperMart Small Business Center include:
Payroll Online®, which provides payroll processing, payroll tax management, human resource record keeping, and
benefit reporting.
Identity Research, which provides trademark search and registration services.
TimeBills, offering businesses and entrepreneurs an online service to track time, record expenses, maintain project and
client billing information and create quality invoices.
Bizfilings.com, which specializes in incorporating small businesses online. It provides high quality and affordable
incorporation services in all 50 states.
Telegea, which provides online technologies for businesses and individuals to save on long-distance, conference calling
and other custom communication needs.
Hello Direct, a leading developer and direct marketer of telephone productivity tools, including headsets,
teleconferencing, wireless and related desktop products.
CreditReports.com, which provides credit report services for businesses or individuals looking to obtain credit reports
online. The service simultaneously polls all of the nation's three leading credit bureaus -- Trans Union, Experian, and
Equifax -- to compile its reports.
Barnesandnoble.com, which has expanded its distribution network by offering HyperMart businesses the opportunity to
establish a book commerce area on their respective sites by creating links directly to the barnesandnoble.com Business
Solutions homepage.
Additional HyperMart features
The Small Business Center complements HyperMart's industry-leading offerings for small and medium-sized businesses on the
Web. HyperMart's customer support program offers technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week for all HyperMart
member business needs. Its online support areas enable member businesses to easily find information on ecommerce and
numerous Web site creation topics. Additionally, HyperMart provides a business directory, where members can list their
businesses under a series of specified categories.
About Go2Net, Inc.
Go2Net is a network of branded, technology- and community-driven Web sites focused on the following categories: personal
finance, search and directory, commerce and business services, and games. The company also develops Web-related software.
The Go2Net Network's properties include: Go2Net Personal ( go2net.com ), which provides users with a
comprehensive Internet start page offering customizable news, discussion, and stock information, as well as direct access to
Go2Net's own finance, search, free Web hosting, shopping and Java multiplayer game sites; Silicon Investor (
siliconinvestor.com ), the Web's premier financial discussion site, which also offers proprietary articles, portfolio
tracking tools, company research and news relating to business and finance; MetaCrawler ( metacrawler.com ), a
metasearch service that combines various existing search/index guides into one service; Dogpile ( dogpile.com ), a
metasearch service and provider of proprietary search technologies; 100hot ( 100hot.com ), a leading directory of
the Web's most popular sites; HyperMart ( hypermart.net ) and Virtual Avenue ( virtualave.net ), the
Web's leading providers of free business hosting services; Authorize.Net ( authorize.net ), the Internet's leading
payment authorization service; Haggle Online ( haggle.com ), a person-to-person auction service; WebMarket (
webmarket.com ), a one-stop comparison shopping service; and PlaySite ( playsite.com ), the Web's
premier Java-based multi-player games site. The company's Go2Net Labs division develops innovative technologies to enhance
the features and functionality of the Go2Net sites and for licensing to other Internet companies.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the
company's ability to grow its user and advertiser base. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted and
reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include,
among others, the company's limited operating history, the competitive environment in which the company competes, the early
stage of the Web as an advertising and electronic commerce medium, the company's dependence on advertising and
sponsorship revenues, the company's dependence on strategic relationships to drive traffic to its Web sites, consumer
acceptance of the company's new products and services, the company's ability to develop and integrate new technologies and
services into its existing services, and the increased use of the Web for commerce. More information about the potential factors
that could affect the company's business and financial results is included in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended September 30, 1998 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended December 31, 1998, March 31,
1999 and June 30, 1999, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Co
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