Jon, don't your sources for answers exceed my own? I don't know if the significance of this technology is equivalent to Western Union's misread of the Ma Bell opportunity, but here's some reading to help you with your question.
SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing Buys
OzEmail's Web Advertising Business
Sydney, 18 March, 1997 -- OzEmail Limited (NASDAQ: OZEMY) ( "the Company" ),
today announced the sale of its international online advertising service, Web Wide
Media. Under the agreement, the business which formerly operated as Web Wide
Media (WWM), will become part of the SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing Inc.
organisation and OzEmail will take in return a substantial minority equity stake in
SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing.
"SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing has established a formidable lead over all of its
rivals in the Internet advertising market, as the largest single source of Web
impressions in the world," said Malcolm Turnbull, Chairman, OzEmail Limited.
SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing's sites already reach nearly half of all active Web
users, according to a PC Meter study.**
"The combination of SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing's market position with WWM's
technology expertise will prove to be an unstoppable force in the industry. We are
delighted that we can participate, as shareholders, in the future growth of SOFTBANK
Interactive Marketing, " added Mr. Turnbull.
Web Wide Media technology solutions have provided international advertisers with
simple-to-use interactive advertising planning, management, campaign performance
and targeting tools. In addition, the company currently manages a centralized ad
serving operation.
"This is a welcome development for our investors, OzEmail now has a minority stake
in one of the most promising and exciting Internet businesses in the world," said Mr
Turnbull. "The joint venture in respect of WWM with British Sky Broadcasting Limited
("BSkyB") has been terminated and as a consequence the issue of options to BSkyB
will not proceed. Following on from the recent release of our Internet phone and fax
services the deal demonstrates that OzEmail has the capacity of not only developing
world class Internet technology, but also of deploying that technology internationally
with major partners."
The SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing's Sydney, Australia office will open later this
month, under the management of Anthony Bertini, Managing Director, Australia and
Asia-Pacific, SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing. Bertini, a 17-year veteran of the media
industry, was formerly President and CEO of Web Wide Media.
As the world's leader in interactive advertising sales representation, SOFTBANK
Interactive Marketing's mission is to develop targeted advertising, marketing and
promotional programs which maximize results for advertisers and media clients. The
company is the largest single source of Web impressions in the world reaching nearly
half - a full 48.8 percent - of all active Web users through its portfolio of eight select,
branded sites.* Currently, SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing offers advertisers over 700
million advertising impressions a month. In 1996 alone, the company sold over one
billion Web impressions -- leading its closest competitor by an estimated 200
percent.**
SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing's clients are a select, prestigious group of Web
sites, including: Carling Net; CompuServe's CSi and SPRYNET services, as well as
compuserve.com and spry.com; LookSmart; MSNBC Weather by Intellicast;
Netscape; Playboy; TV Guide Entertainment Network; The Site; WebChat
Broadcasting System; and ZDNet. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., SOFTBANK
Interactive Marketing also maintains offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas,
London, New York, San Francisco and Sydney, Australia.
*Figures are based on estimates provided by Jupiter Communications and a Coopers and Lybrand study
sponsored by the Internet Advertising Bureau, and are adjusted for commercial online spending and barter
agreements. **All reach figures were derived from a special tabulation of PC Meter data from the
December 1996 survey period for SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing, and represents unduplicated reach
potential of home-based, Web-active persons in the U.S. SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing's reach
estimate is based on sites represented as of 2/28/97.
For further information contact:
Public Relations Dept : prdept@ozemail.com.au
__________________________________________________________________
From Ozemail's Web:
The history of a company generally describes decades of growth and development and
records years of achievements. Internet history however, is quite different.
Commercially new and increasingly popular, the Internet is quickly revolutionising
global communications. Penetration of the Internet over the past few years has been
phenomenal in Australia and the story of OzEmail is the story of the Internet in
Australia.
So where exactly did OzEmail begin?
The OzEmail story begins early in the 1980's. Sean Howard, OzEmail's founder
and Chief Executive Officer, ran a small proprietary electronic mail service known
as
Microtex. Microtex was initially a side venture for Mr Howard, who was at the
time Editor and founder of Australian Personal Computer. In 1984, Mr Howard
sold a majority share of the business to Kerry Packer's Australian Consolidated
Press Limited forming the partnership Computer Publications Pty Ltd. In 1992, Mr
Howard sold his remaining share of Computer Publications to Australian
Consolidated Press, keeping Microtex and relaunching the service as Oz-E-Mail.
The Internet remained a relatively untapped market when Oz-E-Mail officially
commenced proprietary electronic mail operations in St Leonards, Sydney in
December 1992 with just eight employees. They concentrated on developing two
key areas of the business, a proprietary mail system that integrated Lotus cc mail,
Microsoft Mail and Novell MHS Mail systems, and establishing a unique online
proprietary information business using a Windows platform.
Soon the focus began to drift from proprietary software to the Internet. They saw
the real potential of the Internet. It performed similar functions while offering vast
information access.
In September 1994 with investment from Malcolm Turnbull and Trevor Kennedy,
OzEmail as it then became known, commenced offering a comprehensive range of
Internet services to the Australian marketplace.
A robust network was designed to ensure reliability, flexibility and high-speed
connectivity. The OzEmail network initially included 16 Points of Presence (POP)
covering every Australian capital city and 8 medium-to-large-regional cities. Today
the network hosts 40 POPs across Australia providing local call access to nearly
82% of Australians. OzEmail continues to invest substantial resources in upgrading
its technology and expanding its network.
By March 1995, OzEmail had acquired and today continues to hold market
leadership. David Spence, President & Chief Operating Officer and formerly
executive with Australian Consolidated Press joined the Company in August 1995.
The Company continues to maintain an extensive telecommunications infrastructure
that enables it to provide comprehensive Internet connectivity services ranging from
dial-up 28.8k connections to 56k technology through to permanent ISDN
connections.
In November 1995, OzEmail operations expanded across the Tasman, with the
establishment of Voyager, the Company's New Zealand subsidiary. Evidence of
OzEmail's capacity to quickly rollout Internet services is best shown in New
Zealand.
A business and customer service plan was developed, the network built and
configured and within eight weeks Voyager launched with 100% local call access.
Six months later it had attracted more than 10,000 customers.
On May 28 1996, OzEmail Limited became the first Australian high-tech company
to complete an initial public offering of 3,200,000 American Depositary Shares
("ADSs") on the US Nasdaq Exchange. The ADSs trade under the trading symbol
of OZEMY.
After a successful Initial Public Offering, OzEmail continued to move forward and
quickly. The focus was to make OzEmail much more than a simple facilitator for
connection to the Internet. OzEmail's objective was to provide its customers with
more than access to the Internet. With this in mind and through alliances with
leaders in their fields OzEmail began to develop and rollout a growing family of
value added services during the later part of 1996 and 1997.
Recognising the popularity and interest in the Australian stockmarket, one of
OzEmail's first endeavours was to provide OzEmail users with an inexpensive
alternative to Bloomberg and Reuters.
In July 1996, we did just this - and brought OzEmail users direct to the floor of the
Australian Stock Exchange with the introduction of real time stock quotes.
StockWatch's features continue to grow, users can now create their own stock
portfolio and have a progress report emailed to them daily, access Company
announcements and be informed of the day's market performance with updates on
the four common indices.
The next step was to fill the commercial abyss in regional search capabilities for
Australian and New Zealand users. The marketplace needed an intuitive
point-and-click search engine that allowed users to narrow their search criteria to
local web sites and also access the entire database of 54 million full-text documents
on World Wide Web. Together with Hot Bot developer Inktomi Corporation,
OzEmail designed just this - ANZWERS, Australian and New Zealand Web
Enquiry Research System.
Launched in November 1996, ANZWERS is the first search engine to provide
users in Australia and New Zealand with a comprehensive coverage of regional
content and the World Wide Web. Media and public responses to the search
engine have been more than encouraging and users continue to bookmark
ANZWERS as their search engine of choice.
One of Australia's leading weekly computer magazines PC Week, claimed
ANZWERS to be the hottest Website of 1996.
Throughout 1996 OzEmail's customer base continued to grow at a exponential
rate. In addition to being the first choice of many thousands of new users, OzEmail
was also recognised in 1996 as the leading Internet Service Provider by several
Australian computer publications such as Australian Personal Computer,
Internet.au and PC World receiving Editor's Choice, People's Choice and Best
Internet Service Provider Awards respectively.
1997 saw OzEmail adopt Microsoft's Internet Explorer as their preferred browser.
Under a licensing agreement with Microsoft, OzEmail is included in the Microsoft
Referral Server program, effectively placing an OzEmail option within the Internet
Explorer icon of all new Windows 95 desktops allowing users to register directly
with OzEmail.
This agreement with Microsoft makes connecting to the Internet with OzEmail easy
through a simple point and click process on Windows 95 desktops.
OzEmail aims to give their customers more than a connection to the Internet. As a
result OzEmail's family of value-added content services continued to grow in 1997
with the introduction of many new services. These include NewsWatch, a
comprehensive near real-time news service and OzEmail Internet Global Roaming,
a service which allows OzEmail customers to access their Internet and email
accounts while travelling overseas for the cost of a local phone call and access
charges.
Sports fans welcomed the launch of SportsWatch, a joint venture with Pacific
Publications magazine, Sports Monthly and OzEmail. SportsWatch, a real-time
Web-based sports news and feature service provides access to an
around-the-clock virtual news room with Australia's top sport writers and AAP's
real time sports feed that gibes up-to-the minute international and local sports news
and results. .
With the life of a journalists and busy executives highly dependent on faxed
information from corporations, government, education and community groups. The
OzEmail Press Release Centre, launched in October 1997, helps assist in reducing
paper mounds, improve efficiency, keep an eye on competitors and importantly
help journalists and corporates move towards a digital society.
The Press Release Centre using the Web and push-technology allows a user to be
sent real-time information according to their pre-selected areas of interest including
business, finance, travel, or technology. For the corporate the PRC acts as a
clearing house enabling corporations to publish corporate information to the world
in a timely and efficient manner.
In 1998, OzEmail will continue to source compelling, interactive and informative
content with a view to providing OzEmail customers access to quality, premium
value-added services.
Like OzEmail, the New South Wales Government saw the enormous education
potential of the Internet. They had a vision for Internet education in the State. The
result was a promise to the pupils, teachers and people of New South Wales - by
1997 all 2,226 government schools and the 40 district offices in New South Wales
would have a connection to the Internet.
In September 1996, OzEmail was chosen by the New South Wales Government
to be part of this Internet vision as the exclusive Internet Service Provider to install
one dial-up connection in every school. Challenged by the prospect of servicing
more than 800,000 students, staff and teachers across New South Wales, OzEmail
began to rollout 16 additional Points of Presence in regional areas of New South
Wales. This project was completed on budget and on schedule in February 1997.
To add further value to this relationship and also to the wider education community,
OzEmail launched the OzEducate News Service in September 1997. The
OzEducate News service delivers access to breaking global and local news via a
fully searchable Web-based format.
The online advertising venture
Strategic alliances and joint ventures with leading companies ensure that OzEmail
can offer users the quality service and products they deserve. In November 1996,
OzEmail teamed together with Europe's largest pay television company, British
Sky Broadcasting Plc in a joint venture arrangement to deliver the world's first truly
international advertising service, Web Wide Media. Using the technology designed
in-house by Web Wide Media, this service offers advertisers a business solution to
reach the fastest growing consumer group this century.
Advertisers and web publishers can match an individual's web interests with the
advertisements they see. The intelligent Web Wide Media technology also enables
advertisers to identify an individual user by region and time zone. For example,
Pizza Hut can serve advertisements to Australian Internet users during their late
night surfing expeditions regardless of the location of the site they are visiting.
In March 1997, this leading edge technology was sold to Softbank Interactive
Marketing, who identified the potential this in-house developed technology could
bring to their organisation.
OzEmail has moved in a few years from a small Internet access provider to an
international Internet communications company by the launch of OzEmail Phone.
OzEmail Phone, launched in January 1997 by former Australian Prime Minister
Paul Keating, is a service that allows telephone calls to be made from existing
tone-dial telephones via the Internet.
Using technology developed in Australia, OzEmail Phone is the first service to
make the promise of simple, affordable telephone calls over the Internet a reality.
Unlike other services, which require software, speakers, a microphone, PC and a
modem connection to the Internet, OzEmail Phone requires none of these. All
you1ll need to make a call over the Internet is your standard office or home
tone-dial telephone - or even your mobile phone!
In May 1997, OzEmail entered into an agreement with publicly traded German
based Metro Holding who agreed to purchase a 40% interest in a new company
which will hold OzEmail Phone technology and business. The new company, in
addition to licensing the use of the technology to various affiliates around the world,
will provide a service to route calls between one affiliate and another. Metro will be
the exclusive licensee of the technology in Europe (including the UK and Ireland).
This new company became OzEmail Interline (Interline) and it was established in
July 1997. Based in Milton Keynes, England and comprising of shareholders,
OzEmail Limited (48%), Metro Holding AG (40%), and Ideata (12%), Interline's
mandate is to manage and grow the Voice-Over-IP network using the technology
developed through OzEmail Phone.
Towards the end of 1997, Interline began to build the next generation telco by
announcing licencing and franchising agreements with Concentric Networks,
Magitel and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation to deliver Internet telephony services
in the United States, Hong Kong and Japan respectively.
Building a premium Internet Service Provider
Over the next couple of years, Australia will witness a consolidation of players
within Internet market. At the end of 1997, several small Internet service providers
were bought by larger organisations. OzEmail too, joined in the acquisition process
by buying Access One, Australia's third largest ISP, according to research
company www.consult.
Previously owned by ASX listed, Solution 6, Access One have traditionally been
an aggressive player in the corporate and government sectors of Australia. In what
has become an increasingly competitive market, this acquisition significantly
transforms yesterday's competitors into today's allies, producing a bigger, more
powerful and resourceful Internet force.
It not only strengthens OzEmail's ability to better service customers but allows the
Company to draw on the expertise and resources of both companies to ensure
premium Internet services are delivered to Australians. OzEmail's vision is to
maintain and build our position as the provider of leading edge Internet offerings
married with first class customer service.
OzEmail's vision of building a premium Internet service provider was strengthened
by being honoured with numerous awards at the end of 1997. For the second year
running, OzEmail was selected as the Reader's Choice of Best ISP by Australian
PC World magazine readers. In addition to Best ISP, OzEmail's StockWatch, a
service which gives users access to real-time stock data from the ASX, won
Editor's Award for Best Australian Product/Service.
Australia's largest selling computer magazine, Australian Personal Computer, also
awarded OzEmail a Highly Commended for Internet service provision in Australia.
All three awards recognise excellence in service and products to the Australian
marketplace.
New Alliances
In November 1997, OzEmail announced an agreement with Optus
Communications, Australia's largest private telecommunications company. Under
the agreement, OzEmail has begun purchasing discounted wholesale bandwidth
from Optus for its Internet services. With telecommunications costs being a large
component of providing Internet services, OzEmail was proud to be the first major
customer to join the new competitively priced Optus Internet service `Spinnaker'.
In 1998 OzEmail will continue to grow and develop innovative, leading edge value
added services for its customers. With strong strategic alliances, a growing
customer base, experienced management, continued profitability and a strong cash
flow, OzEmail is well positioned for further expansion and lead the pack well into
1998.
Although the Internet is still in its infancy, OzEmail is one of the leading companies
helping the Internet grow up by providing the innovation and expertise necessary
for residential and business customers to optimise the potential of the Internet. |
