Anyone else surprised that neither PASA nor NZRO seems to have been helped so far today by news of their big "alliance" (copied below)? Not only has it been on the wires, but CNBC spent a long time on it this morning talking with the people involved...
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Wednesday December 15, 9:51 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Quepasa.com and NetZero Announce Strategic Alliance
Premier Online Community for U.S. Hispanics Joins Forces With Leading Free Access Provider to Bring Free Internet to the U.S. Latino Market
PHOENIX--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--December 15, 1999-- Quepasa.com (Nasdaq: PASA - news), the premier online community for U.S. Hispanics (www.quepasa.com) and NetZero, Inc. (Nasdaq:NZRO - news), the nation's largest provider of free Internet access based on number of registered users, today announced a strategic alliance whereby NetZero will offer free Internet access along with quepasa.com's full spectrum of content, consumer applications, and services designed for the U.S. Hispanic market.
Under the exclusive agreement, NetZero's current and future subscribers may select a customized quepasa.com start page that features highly relevant news, content and services in a bilingual format for the Latino community. NetZero users also will have the option to select a version of The ZeroPort(TM) which will be customized for the U.S. Hispanic market. The ZeroPort is the unique, easy-to-use navigational tool for NetZero users that provides ``speed dial' to some of the most popular destinations on the Web. Through the use of The ZeroPort, subscribers will be able to utilize the quepasa.com bilingual search services regardless of where they navigate on the Internet. NetZero and quepasa.com indicated that the customized service will be available in the first quarter of the calendar year 2000.
``Making the Internet available to every Hispanic family in the U.S. is a key mission of quepasa.com,' said Gary L. Trujillo, Chairman and CEO, quepasa.com. ``This represents a key distribution partnership to achieve our goal of maintaining quepasa.com's focus and leadership in the U.S. Hispanic marketplace. Quepasa.com and NetZero are working together to ensure that Hispanic families throughout the United States will be able to participate in the Internet revolution and be involved in a way that is culturally relevant to the U.S. Latino community.' Thirty-three million Latinos make up the fastest-growing minority in the United States. Currently, 36% of U.S. Hispanics are online and U.S. Hispanic households are purchasing computers at twice the rate of other U.S. households. By the year 2000, online penetration in the U.S. Hispanic market is expected to soar to 43%, resulting in 3.6 million US Latino households online. Using its proprietary zCast(TM) tracking and targeting technology, NetZero will be able to provide advertisers with valuable one-to-one marketing capabilities in this rapidly growing market.
``The NetZero mission always has been to bring the benefits and freedom of the Internet to the masses and to provide easy access to the wealth of content on the Web,' said Mark R. Goldston, chairman and chief executive officer of NetZero. ``This agreement allows us to provide the rich and meaningful content of quepasa.com to our NetZero users in the U.S. Latino market.'
As part of quepasa.com's commitment to make the Internet accessible to the U.S. Hispanic market, quepasa.com will distribute to the Latino community approximately two million software CDs containing the NetZero free Internet service and quepasa.com co-branded start page. A NetZero hyperlink also will be included on the quepasa.com Web site to give quepasa.com visitors the opportunity to easily download the NetZero software.
About quepasa.com
Quepasa.com provides the rapidly growing U.S. Hispanic market with information and interactive content available in both Spanish and English. The site was founded in 1998 and includes a search engine, free e-mail, free Web pages, Spanish-language news feeds, worldwide weather information, chat rooms, games, maps, and message boards. Quepasa.com has entered into strategic partnerships with leading providers of media, content and technology including: Reuters NewMedia, Inc., Associated Press, Hispanic Business Magazine, Screaming Media, Inc., AutoNation, Inc., Net2Phone, Inc., Telemundo Network Group, Fox Sports World Espanol, WeatherLabs, Inc., Inktomi, GTE Internetworking and Exodus Communications.
About NetZero
NetZero is pioneering a new Internet service model that provides consumers with free access to the Internet while offering online advertisers an effective way to target those users. NetZero offers consumers free and unlimited nationwide Internet access, free email and navigational tools through The ZeroPort. The ZeroPort is a persistent on-screen device which serves as a navigational tool providing users with instant ``speed dial' to key sites on the Internet for functions such as shopping, auction, e-commerce and services. Users can even access essential features such as search, e-mail and browse, all without having to launch their browser. Customized information such as stocks, news and sports can also be delivered directly to the desktop through The ZeroPort. For advertisers, NetZero utilizes its proprietary zCast technology to provide unique one-to-one targeting capabilities and the ability to track users throughout their online experience. Between the October 1998 launch of NetZero and September 30, 1999, approximately two million users registered for its free Internet access service. NetZero offers its services in more than 1,800 cities across the United States. |
