MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (October 20, 1997) - Netscape Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:NSCP) today unveiled plans to extend its existing online commerce offerings by creating a new Netscape Marketplace section in its Netscape Netcenter online service. Netscape Marketplace will expand upon Netscape's success in online software sales by providing members with seven new electronic commerce categories of products and services. These new categories include computers, office products, consumer electronics, events & tickets, books, music and travel. Netscape also announced its first two commerce partners who have signed agreements for Marketplace, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and N2K Inc. (NASDAQ: NTKI). The new Marketplace section enhances Netscape Netcenter's business focus by adding more online commerce offerings to existing software, community and content services.
Netscape pioneered Internet commerce with its software store, which has been available online since August 1995 and is one of the Net's leading commerce sites. International users from over 165 countries can go to the new Netscape World Shop to purchase and download online licensed copies of Netscape client software. Netscape Netcenter also offers third-party software from more than 100 developers through Netscape Software Depot by software.net. Now with Netscape Marketplace, Netscape will enable users to purchase both business productivity tools as well as "time saver" items. Books and music are expected to be available by the end of the year and premier partners for the other five categories are expected to be announced later this quarter.
"As electronic commerce continues to flourish, the expansion of our commerce offerings to create Netscape Marketplace is the next logical step toward our goal of providing Netcenter members with online, one-stop access to the information, products and services they need," said Jennifer Bailey, vice president, Web site at Netscape. "According to a recent report by Media Metrix, Netscape's Internet site accounts for nearly half of the workplace traffic on the Web. The site, which already includes one of the first and most successful online stores, is an ideal vehicle to provide busy professionals with easy access to top brand commerce items. By working with such leading partners as Amazon.com and N2K's Music Boulevard, Netscape is supplying its large business audience with access to some of the most popular commerce items."
In conjunction with Amazon.com and N2K's Music Boulevard, Netscape is unveiling its first two Marketplace offerings. These initial offerings will save time for Netscape Netcenter members by including two of the most popular online commerce items - books and music Ð conveniently available within Netscape's business online service.
Amazon.com will serve as the exclusive bookseller for Netscape Netcenter. Amazon.com will create and maintain a co-branded storefront providing fast and easy access to Amazon.com's 2.5 million book titles and its comprehensive search and browse features. In addition, the company will feature book titles, editorial content and sales promotions created specifically for Netscape Netcenter members and will be bookmarked in future releases of Netscape client software.
N2K's Music Boulevard will be featured as the exclusive music partner for Netscape Netcenter and will provide members with a co-branded version of N2K's Music Boulevard, which includes over 185,000 CDs and cassettes spanning every music genre: rock, country, jazz, hip-hop, folk, classical, electronica and more. Through Netscape Marketplace, users will be able to search, sample and purchase music from Music Boulevard's vast selection of music titles and related products as well as access its family of content-rich music genre sites including Rocktropolis.com, Jazz Central Station.com and Classical Insites.com. Visitors will also have the ability to download individual music tracks using the Music Boulevard e_mod system. In addition the service will feature editorial content and sales promotions created specifically for Netscape Netcenter members.
Both N2K's Music Boulevard and Amazon.com will be integrated within Netscape NetSearch, a service which currently assists the millions of Internet users searching for information on the Internet, and which will expand to enable retailers to provide users with specific product searches.
"Today's business user wants easy access to huge amounts of information," said George Aposporos, vice president of business development at Amazon.com. "Through this deal with Netscape, Amazon.com places its 2.5 million titles conveniently at the fingertips of millions of Internet users."
"Music is one of the most popular commerce categories on the Internet," said Jon Diamond, vice chairman of N2K Inc. "The busy business professional is also a proven music fan, and this partnership with Netscape will give numerous Netscape Netcenter members an integrated music experience, offering the best in music content and retail services. "
Leveraging Netscape's leading-edge software, Netscape Marketplace will be an easy-to-navigate site that will include cross-retailer services such as a simplified checkout process, search, gift service, discounts and promotions. For business professionals browsing the Web with limited free time, Netscape Marketplace will serve as a convenient online market providing selections from best-of-breed retailers. Netscape also plans to expand its commerce offerings with future components such as financial services and subscription content programs.
Netscape Netcenter, Netscape's free, member-based community, is accessible easily from the Netscape Internet site. In addition to its new commerce offerings, Netscape Netcenter provides users with the following: Content, which includes customizable services that bring business users easy, central access to useful and compelling news and information and leverage the features of Netscape Communicator client software; Community, which contains services to enable communication and collaboration between professionals and businesses; and Software, which provides services that make it easy for users to update and maintain the leading-edge software they need to take full advantage of the Internet and Intranets.
Netscape Communications Corporation is a leading provider of open software for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers, development tools and commercial applications to create a complete platform for next-generation, live online applications. Traded on Nasdaq under the symbol "NSCP," Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View, California.
Additional information on Netscape Communications Corporation is available on the Internet at http://home.netscape.com, by sending email to info@netscape.com or by calling 650/937-2555 (corporations) or 650/937-3777 (individuals).
N2K Inc. is headquartered at 55 Broad Street, New York City, NY 10004. Internet address: http://www.n2k.com. Telephone: 212/378-0331.
Amazon.com, Inc., is headquartered at 1516 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101. Internet address: http://www.amazon.com. Telephone: 206/622-2335.
Netscape, Netscape Navigator, and the Netscape N logo are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States and other countries. Other Netscape logos, product names, and service names are also trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation, which may be registered in other countries.
Music Boulevard, Rocktropolis.com, Jazz Central Station.com and Classical Insites.com are trademarks of N2K Inc.
Amazon.com and Earth's Biggest Bookstore are service marks of Amazon.com, Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from predicted results. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, the unpredictability of its future revenues, and risks associated with capacity constraints and management of growth. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in the company's final prospectus, dated May 15, 1997, as well as the company's Form 10Q for the second quarter ended June 30, 1997, both filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.