VDAT from early EDGAR filing with marketing objective target markets and opportunities. I would say the management has executed IMO very well and we are just getting started: The below was forwarded to me by a fellower VDAT enthusiast and investor.
Visual Data Corporation, a Florida corporation (the "Company") was formed in May 1993 with the goal of becoming the predominant digital multi-media content provider in the advertising industry. In August 1997, one year after exiting from its development stage activities, the Company completed its initial public ffering. As used herein, the Company includes HotelView Corporation, a Florida corporation ("HVC") incorporated in September 1993, CareView Corporation, a Florida corporation ("CareView") incorporated in August 1997 and CondoView
Corporation, a Florida corporation ("CondoView") incorporated in January 1998, all of which are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Company.
The Company develops digital multi-media libraries of interactive visual information which can be marketed and distributed through a variety of media, including the Internet, other On-line services, laser disc, DVD and, eventually, Interactive Television ("ITV"). Much like a magazine selling advertising space, the Company generates revenues through fees paid by companies which advertise and showcase their products in one of the Company's innovative multi-media libraries, each of which are targeted to a specific industry, such as travel, health care and interval ownership. Each of the libraries, or "Views," are essentially marketing companies designed to distribute advertising over new, non-traditional media, supplementing traditional advertising mediums such as print, television and radio. Unlike traditional advertising which is essentially passive, the use of non-traditional media should, in management's opinion, allow the Company's messages to have greater impact and higher recall because of the active interface between the advertiser and the consumer and the proactive nature of the medium. The ability of the product to be revisited at the consumer's discretion, combined with the detail of the message provided by the video, will also permit a more aggressive promotion by the advertiser (the Company's client) by allowing the client the opportunity to supplement their traditional advertising, broaden reach and frequency, and, hopefully, improve market position.
As discussed above, the Company's libraries will be offered to the general public through various media. The Company's first library, HotelView(R), is a visual library of hotels and resorts, including nearby services and attractions which was initially available through a travel agency distribution channel developed by the Company and since November 1997 on the Internet at the Company's web site www.hotelview.com. Additional libraries which possess certain synergies to HotelView(R), including CruiseView(TM), AdventureView(TM) and ConventionView(TM) will be offered through the travel agency distribution channel and the Internet as these libraries are developed. The Company currently has 11 additional libraries in various stages of development, including CareView(TM) and CondoView(TM) which the Company expects to debut in fiscal 1998. Management of the Company currently anticipates that many of the Company's
other libraries, such as MedicalView(TM),
1
CampusView, Health and FitnessView(TM) and ProductView(TM), will be fully developed and launched as soon as high speed data transmission capability, such as cable modems, is widely available. The Company owns, or in the case of libraries under development will own, all of the content included in its libraries.
Consumers today are accustomed to television, a visual medium of full-motion, full-color video that is sound enhanced and readily available to everyconsumer's home or business. On-line computer users are accustomed to TV-like monitors and displays providing access to graphics and text databases on every topic imaginable through service providers that make connections to these databases affordable and easy. Computers outsold television sets in 1995 for the first time in history. The combination of accessible, indexed, on-line information in full-motion, full-color video forms the basis and the requirement for multi-media Internet capability or ITV. Beginning in 1997, certain
technological advancements, including cable modems, digital satellite and high speed wireless modems, began to become available to consumers. These advancements will enable suppliers and users of the Internet to access
multi-media information efficiently. Management of the Company believes content such as that offered by the Company will become increasingly more in demand to fill voids created by the expanded capacity these new technologies provide.
In the opinion of management, the current demographics of the Internet consumer offers the Company a very favorable platform for using the Company's products and services to advertise and promote client products and services. For instance, according to Nielsen Media and the U.S. Census Bureau, it is currently estimated there are 50,000,000 Internet users worldwide, of which 30,000,000 are in the United States. The total number of worldwide users is expected to reach 200,000,000 by the end of 1998. Current statistics reflect that total Internet advertising revenues in 1996 were approximately $267 million, with only 38% of those advertising dollars spent on computer products. By the year 2000, it is estimated that 41% of Internet commerce will be travel related, one reason the Company chose HotelView(R) as its first library. Of the people on-line, the average annual income is $72,000 (compared to $32,000 nationwide), 25% generate income of at least $80,000 annually and 50% are professional or managerial.
Further, there has been a notable increase in on-line purchasing, having increased from 19% in 1995 to 27% in 1997. A survey by the Emerging Technologies Research Group revealed that 39% of users who have made purchases on-line reviewed on-line advertising prior to purchasing. |
