Company Press Release
biz.yahoo.com
Wednesday April 21, 5:30 am Eastern Time
SOURCE: Go2Net, Inc.
Go2Net Relaunches HyperMart Business Hosting Service
Now Includes More Than 185,000 Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses
SEATTLE, April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Go2Net, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNET - news), a network of branded, technology- and community-driven Web sites (http://www.go2net.com), today introduced a fully redesigned version of HyperMart ( hypermart.net ), the Internet's premier free business hosting service. The redesign includes a completely new interface, along with an array of features and services for HyperMart's membership, the Web's largest community of small- and medium sized businesses, which is adding more than 20,000 members per month. Today Go2Net also introduced the most comprehensive customer support program in the free Web hosting sector: Technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week for all HyperMart member needs.
As part of the redesign, HyperMart now offers a comprehensive business directory, where members can list their respective businesses under a series of specified categories. Additional new features include html check, image optimizer and link check, all geared toward helping HyperMart businesses improve their respective Web sites.
''This is the first of several significant enhancements to HyperMart,'' said Russell C. Horowitz, Go2Net Chief Executive Officer. ''In the coming months, Go2Net will empower HyperMart's small and medium-sized businesses to sell goods and services in a fully secured, transaction-enabled environment. We'll also integrate Go2Net's Haggle Online auction service for HyperMart members to apply in business-to-business and business-to-consumer settings. In moving forward, we'll continuously add features and services to firmly establish HyperMart as the leader in its class.''
To that end, Go2Net has revamped HyperMart's member support area to enable member businesses to easily find information on numerous Web site creation topics. Additionally, Go2Net has established a new e-commerce reference area for HyperMart members to better understand matters related to Web commerce. The site redesign sets the stage for HyperMart's next upgrade, which will include shopping cart and turnkey commerce site-builder solutions.
About Go2Net, Inc.
Go2Net is a network of branded, technology- and community-driven Web sites focused on the following categories: personal finance, search, commerce, and games. The company also develops Web-related software. The Go2Net Network's properties include: Go2Net Personal ( go2net.com ), which provides users with a comprehensive Internet start page offering customizable news, discussion, and stock information, as well as direct access to Go2Net's own finance, search, free Web hosting, shopping and Java multiplayer game sites; Silicon Investor ( siliconinvestor.com ), the Web's premier financial discussion site; StockSite ( stocksite.com), which offers proprietary articles, portfolio tracking tools, company research and news relating to business and finance; MetaCrawler ( metacrawler.com ), a metasearch service that combines various existing search/index guides into one service; 100hot ( 100hot.com ), a leading directory of the Web's most popular sites; HyperMart ( hypermart.net ), the Web's leading provider of free business hosting services Haggle Online ( haggle.com ), one of the Web's premier person-to-person auction services; WebMarket ( webmarket.com ), a one-stop comparison shopping service; and PlaySite ( playsite.com ), the Web's premier Java-based multi-player games site. The company's Go2Net Labs division develops innovative technologies to enhance the features and functionality of the Go2Net sites and for licensing to other Internet companies.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the company's ability to grow its user and advertiser base. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the company's limited operating history, the competitive environment in which the company competes, the early stage of the Web as an advertising and electronic commerce medium, the company's dependence on advertising and sponsorship revenues, the company's dependence on strategic relationships to drive traffic to its Web sites, consumer acceptance of the company's new products and services, the company's ability to develop and integrate new technologies and services into its existing services, and the increased use of the Web for commerce. More information about the potential factors that could affect the company's business and financial results is included in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 1998 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 1998, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE: Go2Net, Inc.
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