unclewest...IDTC.....T/WMT
I think the portal announcement is more important
hopefully leading to the S-1 filing ??
---------------------------------------------------------------
Monday February 1, 8:17 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Net2Phone Launches First Multimedia
Shopping Portal
Easysurf.com is the first e-commerce portal to be powered by IP Telephony
Enhanced features help web users buy products online
HACKENSACK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 1, 1999-- IDT's (NASDAQ: IDTC - news)
Net2Phone today launched easysurf.com (www.easysurf.com or www.ezsurf.com), the first web
shopping portal powered by Internet telephony.
Easysurf.com allows visitors to learn about online merchants' services and communicate with them
through direct voice interaction. Easysurf.com gives users added convenience by offering vital
information about multiple merchants without the need to visit each vendor's site. For example,
easysurf.com lets users know if a site offers secure transactions, whether it is multi-lingual and what
sort of return policy it honors. The site is the only shopping portal giving users the ability to use
Internet telephony services to make their experience online significantly easier.
By incorporating Net2Phone's multimedia services, visitors are able to contact retailers free of
charge via voice interaction without having to visit a company's web site. Additionally, with 89% of
computer users worrying about transactional security (Dell/Louis Harris & Associates poll),
easysurf.com presents unique capabilities for users to speak to a ''live'' human representative,
resolving security fears and adding a human element to an increasingly digitized universe.
Easysurf.com provides three communications tools that allow web shoppers to reach a sales or
customer service representative. They are:
Click2Talk, giving customers the ability to talk to an e-tailer's sales or customer service
representative over the Internet using a PC and Net2Phone's free Internet telephony software.
Click2CallMe, enabling the customer to request a call back from the e-tailer at a designated
time
Click2Mail, letting customers send an e-mail message to any e-tailer directly from
easysurf.com.
For example, if someone is logged on to her computer in Moscow and wants to send tulips to her
Aunt Minnie in Paris, she can visit the easysurf.com web site. She checks the list of vendors within
the category of ''Gift and Flowers,'' and notes that 1-800-FLOWERS offers global shipping,
accepts her credit card, and will even give her frequent flier miles on United Airlines. She clicks on
the ''Click2Talk'' option to be connected to a 1-800-FLOWERS specialist, where she asks about
prices on the tulips, confirms that the orange ones that she loves are in season and can be shipped to
Aunt Minnie in time for Valentine's Day all without leaving the easysurf.com web site.
Through online advertising and direct marketing campaigns to already existing Net2Phone users,
easysurf.com will be marketed to millions of web surfers who can take advantage of value-added
information needed to buy products online. Additionally, IDT will introduce and promote
easysurf.com to its current customers, and will embed an easysurf.com icon into the next release of
the Net2Phone client software, which is expected to be bundled worldwide through relationships
with IBM (NYSE: IBM - news), Creative Labs (NASDAQ: CREAF - news), Packard Bell/NEC
Europe and others.
''Web surfers who shop online are looking for convenience and low prices. With easysurf.com,
we've created a way for customers to rapidly be connected to a retailer's customer service
representative without having to jump from page to page looking for a 1-800 number or where to
send an email,'' said David Greenblatt, Chief Operating Officer of Net2Phone. ''Businesses can now
expand their efforts globally to reach their customers to ensure 100% shopping satisfaction.''
For more information about easysurf.com, please call 888-872-1230 or send e-mail to
sales@click2talk.com.
IDT is a leading emerging multinational carrier that combines its position as an international
telecommunications operator, its experience as an Internet service provider and its leading position in
Internet telephony to provide a broad range of telecommunications services to its wholesale and
retail customers worldwide. The company provides its customers with integrated and competitively
priced international and domestic long distance, pre-paid calling cards, Internet access and, through
its Net2Phone product offerings, Internet telephony services including Net2Phone Direct, Net2Fax,
and Click2Talk. For more information about IDT's Internet telephony services, please visit
www.net2phone.com.
Except for historical information, all of the expectations and assumptions contained in the foregoing
are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, include, but are not limited
to, the competitive environment for Internet telephony, changes of rates of all related telco rates and
services, legislation that may affect the Internet telephony industry, IDT's ability to operate the
services described on a large scale commercial level. For additional information regarding these and
other risks associated with the company's business refer to the company's reports filed with the
SEC.
Contact:
IDT Public Relations, Hackensack
Sarah Hofstetter
201-928-2882
or
IDT Investor Relations, Hackensack
Janine Kutliroff
201-928-4391
EOM-------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm only in this for the spin-off/ipo potential..
Jim in CT.. |
