Key Addition to Go2Net's Ecommerce Strategy
SEATTLE, July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Go2Net, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNET), a network of branded, technology- and community-driven Web sites, today announced a comprehensive licensing agreement with Intershop Communications, Inc., the leading supplier of sell-side electronic commerce hosting solutions. Under the agreement, Intershop will provide easy-to-use, browser-based interfaces for setting up online storefronts to members of Go2Net's HyperMart (http://www.hypermart.net ) and Virtual Avenue ( virtualave.net ) business hosting services. Together, HyperMart and Virtual Avenue comprise the Internet's largest aggregation of small and medium-sized businesses, with more than 375,000 member businesses, growing at the combined rate of more than 1,000 new member businesses per day.
Using Intershop's ePages and Intershop3 ecommerce solutions, Go2Net will provide its HyperMart and Virtual Avenue business members with a series of easy and cost-effective options to build ecommerce capabilities for their respective businesses. The software makes store acquisition, set-up and design all possible for any business with access to a Web browser.
Intershop's highly customizable options enable businesses to start out at very basic levels and add more sophisticated features and functionalities as their respective businesses grow online.
"Adding Intershop's e-commerce technologies to the services currently offered through HyperMart and Virtual Avenue, Authorize.Net's transaction processing services and the Haggle Online auctions services creates a leading end-to-end commerce solution for small and medium sized businesses," said Russell C. Horowitz, Go2Net Chief Executive Officer. "Intershop is the established leader in its category and provides an ideal fit for HyperMart and Virtual Avenue's expanding base of member businesses."
Today's agreement complements Go2Net's acquisition last week of Authorize.Net ( authorize.net ), the Internet's leading payment authorization system for online businesses, which has relationships with more than 34,000 online merchants. Go2Net also recently acquired the Haggle Online (http://haggle.com ) auction service, which will be extended to HyperMart and Virtual Avenue members for their use in business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions. Go2Net plans to integrate the Authorize.Net and Intershop offerings into the HyperMart and Virtual Avenue sites within 3 months. Additionally, Go2Net and Vulcan Ventures Inc. yesterday announced a $20 million cash investment in CommTouch Software, Ltd., which will make free E-mail services available to HyperMart and Virtual Avenue business members, allowing these businesses to offer free E-mail to their sites' users under the individual business names.
"Go2Net has built a formidable community of businesses on the Web and Intershop now offers those businesses equally-formidable tools to sell their goods and services to their customers over the Internet," said Stephan Schambach, CEO of Intershop. "Ecommerce has emerged as the next business frontier; those businesses that embrace it will thrive. Go2Net and its business members understand that."
A recent Go2Net survey of HyperMart member businesses found that approximately 70 percent of the respondents expressed a desire to sell their respective goods or services via the Internet. Since Go2Net's acquisition of HyperMart in August 1998, the service has grown from approximately 60,000 member businesses to more than 235,000. Go2Net acquired Virtual Avenue in April 1999, and the site has since expanded from 85,000 member businesses to more than 140,000.
About Intershop Communications, Inc.
Intershop Communications, Inc. is the world's leading provider of sell-side electronic commerce software for complete business-to-business and business-to-consumer solutions. Intershop customers include many of the world's largest telecommunications companies and commerce service providers such as BCE Emergis, Bell South, Concentric, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Mindspring, PSINet, Swisscom, Telecom New Zealand, and Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch. Major corporations have chosen Intershop as their enterprise e-commerce application including Bosch, Canon USA, Celestial Seasonings, Electronic Arts, Hewlett-Packard, Mercedes Benz U.S. International, Nat West and Silicon Graphics. To date, Intershop is the global leader in Internet commerce licenses with more than 20,000 store licenses sold.
Founded in 1992, Intershop is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in the U.S., Germany, France, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Sweden and the United
Kingdom. For more information, call Intershop at 800-736 5197 or send e-mail to sales@intershop.com or visit www.intershop.com. |
