DIDAX INC. Reports Substantial First Quarter Growth As its crosswalk.com Web Community; Pageviews Grow 88 %
Over 4th Quarter
PR Newswire - April 06, 1999 11:10
CHANTILLY, Va., April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- DIDAX INC. (Nasdaq: AMEN) said today that during
the first quarter of 1999 its crosswalk.com Web site, serving the broad Christian community via the
Web, continued to obtain rapid growth in its key operating measurements: membership and pageviews.
Membership Virtually Triples Over Last Year; Grows By 27% Over Prior Quarter
The Company said that membership in crosswalk.com grew to 187,500 by the end of the first quarter
of 1999. This compares to 74,287 at the end of the first quarter of 1998, representing a year-to-year
increase of 252%. It also compares to 147,405 members at the end of the immediately preceding fourth
quarter of 1998, representing an increase of 27% from quarter-to-quarter, which equates to a 108%
growth rate on an annualized basis.
Membership in crosswalk.com is free, but requires the member to complete an online registration form
with their name, e-mail address, and limited demographic data.
Average Monthly Pageviews Grows to 4,150,000; Up 88% Over Prior Quarter and Up 690% Over
Same Quarter Last Year
The Company also reported that pageviews at crosswalk.com jumped by 88% from a monthly average
of 2,200,000 in the immediately preceding fourth quarter of 1998 to more than 4,150,000 in the first
quarter of 1999. It also compares to 601,300 average monthly pageviews in the first quarter of last
year, meaning that page views grew by 690% on a year-to-year basis.
Page views are a measure of total pages seen by visitors to crosswalk.com.
William Parker, CEO and president of DIDAX, noted that pageviews and membership are the growth
statistics most important to advertisers and strategic partners. "Our growth trend makes us increasingly
attractive to sponsors and business partners, whose funding enables us to expand content and services
and fuel additional growth. It's a very positive cycle, and it's accelerating rapidly."
Key Factors For Growth Cited
Parker credited the growth to four primary factors.
* Promotional efforts. "We've worked hard to build crosswalk.com's brand awareness within our
targeted audience, including multimedia advertising campaigns, membership promotions and the
sponsorship of numerous live and online events," Parker said. "Plus, with the $16.7 million enhancement
to our cash position following the February 1999 redemption of our warrants, we're now finalizing plans
to significantly expand our promotional efforts against a much broader audience." Parker also noted
increased investment in the technology infrastructure of crosswalk.com, ensuring that members and new
visitors will find enhanced site content and increased speed of use.
* Webcasts. Parker said that the recent live Webcast of the 30th Annual
Dove Awards, as well as the exclusive online introduction of "Live From
The Lambs!", a Sunday night Christian concert series, have driven both
traffic and membership and paved the way for a schedule of major Webcast
events in the future. Crosswalk.com also offers five 24-hour Christian
music radio stations, each with a different style of music, plus on-
demand music sampling and direct access to daily and archived radio
programming from many of the premier Christian radio hosts in the
country.
* Web Safety. "The number one issue for the online Christian community is
how to use -- and let their children use -- the Web safely," Parker
said. "Crosswalk.com's two unique applications make that possible. Our
free CrossingGuard(TM) Web filtering service blocks access to millions
of specific Web pages, and our filtered search engine allows full-Web
searches that exclude intentional or inadvertent links to adult/explicit
sites. Both systems are state-of-the-art, and bottom line, why should
anyone have to pay extra to protect their children?"
* Channel Strategy. "In the final analysis, the day-to-day delivery of
high quality content is the key driver of membership and page view
growth," Parker said. He noted that crosswalk.com launched two new
channels during the fourth quarter, and two new channels during the
first quarter. "We expect to add channels during the course of the
year," he said. Currently, crosswalk.com offers the following channels:
Music, Money, Careers, Home School, Health, News, Men, Women, and
Spiritual Life.
"We have crafted crosswalk.com to reach a very broad community of Christian consumers of
information, services, and products," Parker said. "We have become the leader in serving this
community on the Web, and we expect to extend that lead by continually adding an array of products,
services and value-added applications. We're excited by our growth and the prospects for more
significant growth," he said.
Crosswalk.com serves the broad Christian community primarily as an Internet portal featuring a growing
number of channels. DIDAX previously announced that at its May 1999 annual meeting it would change
its corporate name to Crosswalk.com, which CEO and President William Parker said "is quickly
becoming a well-known brand name, as reflected by the statistics reported today."
The Company generates revenues through the sale of sponsorships and advertising; the online retailing
of Christian and family-friendly products manufactured or developed by others (music, books, apparel,
gifts, etc.); commissions and referral fees from co-marketing relationships; subscription based services;
memberships in affinity marketing programs (affording participants price discounts and other benefits of
group purchasing power); and, to a lesser extent, by providing technology services to various Christian
organizations.
Safe Harbor -- This press release includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties, including, but not limited to, product delivery, the management of growth, market
acceptance of certain products and other risks. These forward-looking statements are made in reliance
on the ''safe harbor'' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For further
information about these factors that could affect DIDAX's future results, please see the Company's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prospective investors are cautioned that
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. Actual results may differ materially from
management expectations. Copies of these filings are available upon request from DIDAX investor
relations.
SOURCE DIDAX INC.
/CONTACT: Gary Struzik, CFO of DIDAX 703-968-4808 x23, or
gstruzik@didax.com; or for investors, Doug Poretz of The Poretz Group, 703-
506-1778, ext. 222, or doug@poretz.com/ |
