WE GO INTERNATIONAL
the more i read about this stock the more i think that it may NOT be a trading stock--but a good hold at these cheap levels--international!!!!
Company Press Release
SOURCE: StarMedia Network, Inc.
Excite and StarMedia Network, Inc. Enter Exclusive Partnership to Offer First Broad Search Services in Spanish and Portuguese to Latin Americans
StarMedia Network Reports Traffic Growth as High as 93% Week-to-Week in the Worlds Fastest Growing Internet Access Market
NEW YORK, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Excite (Nasdaq: XCIT - news; excite.com), the Web's first free online service, and StarMedia Network, Inc. (http://www.starmedia.com), the most widely visited and heavily used online network in Latin America, today announced an exclusive partnership to offer pan-regional users broad search capabilities in their native language -- Spanish or Portuguese.
This relationship marks the first time an Internet company, such as Excite, has tailored its broad search services by continent, country and language specifically for Latin Americans. The partnership between StarMedia and Excite is exclusive and will enable Latin American users to effectively and accurately conduct Internet searches on StarMedia Network. Furthermore, the jointly developed, co-branded channel will allow surfers to easily obtain high quality search results. The channel is slated for launch by the end of the month.
''Continuing our international momentum, we are the first major Internet company to offer broad local language search in the Latin American marketplace,'' said Brett Bullington, Executive Vice President, Excite. ''Seven million Latin Americans are surfing the Internet and we are the first to offer them search capabilities in Spanish and Portuguese through StarMedia.''
The pan-regional Internet Access market is growing faster than anywhere in the world. Mirroring this pace, StarMedia's week-to-week traffic growth has peaked at 93% and averaged 80% per week during the month of November 1997. According to a recent study released by Nazca S&S, the Latin American network of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, pan-regional Internet usage has increased 788% since 1995. The study predicts 34 million Latin Americans will have Web access by the year 2000, a 4,250% increase from 1995. A research study published by NUA Internet Surveys on June 6, 1997, reports that the Internet has grown faster in Latin America than any other communications technology.
''StarMedia is the only branded pan-regional online network available in-language, specifically for Latin American Internet Users,'' said Fernando Espuelas, chairman and chief executive officer of StarMedia Network, Inc. ''Our average visit length is double that of AOL and we expect the new search channel will further increase the time users spend at StarMedia.''
The StarMedia Network offers communications, retail services, information and entertainment programming to a broad-based online audience in their language of preference, Spanish or Portuguese. Creating interactive, online communities among users, StarMedia quickly has become the ''central plaza'' of the Latin American Internet: a place where people come to communicate freely, share ideas, meet people, obtain and exchange information and find trade goods and services.
Analogous to broadcast and cable television networks, the network is free to users and features numerous interest-specific channels. At present, the network boasts nine channels, including CBSTeleNoticias.StarMedia.com, StarMedia Digital, TalkPlanet, StarAttractions, StarMedia Money, Personet, Star Classifieds, StarMedia Libros and StarMedia Mail. The company plans to double its channel offerings by Spring 1998.
Founded in 1994, Excite, Inc. is an Internet media company which offers the Web's first free online service. The Excite Network consists of Excite's two flagship brands, Excite (http://www.excite.com), WebCrawler (http://webcrawler.com). Localized versions of Excite are also available internationally for the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia and Japan. Based in Redwood City, Calif., Excite, Inc. (Nasdaq: XCIT - news) has strategic relationships with America Online, Inc., Intuit Inc. [Nasdaq:INTU - news], Tribune Company [NYSE:TRB - news], CUC Investment Inc., Apple Computer, Inc. and Netscape Communications Corp [Nasdaq:NSCP - news] |
