From InfoSpace website,
Infrastructure services for consumers, merchants and wireless devices
The Company
InfoSpace.com (NASDAQ: INSP), is a leading provider of infrastructure services for consumers, merchants and wireless devices. InfoSpace.com's highly flexible comprehensive services allow its partners to offer the best of the Web to their customers at anytime, anywhere and on any device, while maintaining their brand. InfoSpace.com services are rapidly deployed using the Company's patent pending distributed, scalable architecture. The Company's technology has been designed to support partners across multiple platforms and formats, including the growing number of emerging wireless devices.
InfoSpace.com consumer services are used by end users and distributed through portals and affinity sites; its merchant services are used by local merchants and distributed through regional bell operating companies, merchant banks and other local media networks; and its wireless services are used by mobile users and distributed through leading carriers, device manufacturers and software providers.
Naveen Jain, chairman and CEO, founded InfoSpace.com in April 1996 with the vision of delivering real world information on the Internet - anytime, anywhere and on any device. He became interested in this field when he noticed that the Internet failed to provide people with the useful and relevant real-world information they needed. What began as an interactive "people and business finder" has evolved into extensive Internet infrastructure services, offering enabling technologies and services that reach more than 86 percent of Internet users. Jain took InfoSpace.com public in December 1998.
As the number of Internet users increases, so does the number of Web sites competing to attract and retain these users. International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates the number of Web sites will grow to 7.7 billion in 2002, with some 170 million people going online by the year 2000. As these users increasingly look to the Internet to find information, communicate and shop online, InfoSpace.com provides the infrastructure services to help consumers, merchants and wireless providers continually expand and enrich their offerings with services that provide users with a "one-stop-shop" for information most useful and relevant to their lives.
InfoSpace.com Services
Consumer Services
InfoSpace.com's broad range of consumer services help its affiliates increase traffic, strengthen the value of their brand, and create additional opportunities to monetize their users. InfoSpace.com's affiliate network has grown from 1,800 to more than 2,100 Web sites in the past three months, including 4 of the top 5 most trafficked sites on the Internet. InfoSpace.com's affiliate network gives the company an unduplicated reach of more than 86 percent of all Internet users.
InfoSpace.com's consumer services include content services, such as integrated directories, news, lifestyle information; community building services such as address book and calendar; and communication services such as instant messenger, chat, message boards and e-mail.
Merchant Services or Merchant.com
InfoSpace.com's end-to-end merchant services give merchants the ability to create, promote, sell and distribute their products and services across multiple channels through InfoSpace.com's broad distribution network. InfoSpace.com has extensive reseller agreements with regional bell operating companies, including BellSouth, SBC and US WEST, merchant banks such as Capital One and other local media networks who provide InfoSpace.com's services to millions of local merchants worldwide.
According to the Kelsey Group, $3.6 trillion is transacted through the 10 million local merchants. These merchants spend at least $40 billion annually on promotions and Web-related activities.
InfoSpace.com merchant services include:
Page Express enables local merchants to create a Web presence
StoreBuilder enables merchants to build on-line stores
ActivePromotion enables merchants to create targeted product promotions and distribute them across InfoSpace.com's network
ActiveShopper provides an open marketplace where consumers can find, research and purchase products from our merchant network
Wireless Services
InfoSpace.com's wireless services include content, commerce, personalization, person-to-person messaging and location-based services that users can access from their wireless devices. These services are distributed through wireless carriers, device manufacturers and software providers.
InfoSpace.com is working with wireless carriers such as AT&T and Sprint; device manufacturers such as Nokia, Ericcson and NeoPoint; and software developers, such as Phone.com and AvantGo, who offer InfoSpace.com wireless services to millions of mobile users.
Localization, or location-based services, is a very important feature for mobile users because it enables them to eliminate time-consuming steps on their phone. For example, InfoSpace.com is the only company today providing location-based directory services that enable mobile users to search for information, such as finding an Italian restaurant closest to where they are at that point in time.
The rapid adoption of InfoSpace.com's next-generation wireless services demonstrates the company's early market leadership in this area. InfoSpace.com supports new formats such as WAP and WML to offer advanced wireless portal services, in addition to the services it has been providing on existing devices for more than three years.
InfoSpace.com has offices in the United States, India, Canada and the United Kingdom
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