AOL Digital City Kicks Off Major Expansion to Widen Lead in Fast-growing Local Online Market.Business Editors DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2000 New Digital City 2000 Service Sets Gold Standard in Consumer Convenience for Local Residents and Visitors Expansion to More Than 200 Markets Creates First "Local Everywhere" Network Digital City Wireless to Add Additional Convenience Where the PC Leaves Off DCI (Display Control Interface) An Intel/Microsoft programming interface for full-motion video and games in Windows. It allowed applications to take advantage of video accelerator features built into the display adapter. Market Leadership Drives Record Growth in Local Advertising and E-Commerce With More Than 2,000 Partners America Online See AOL. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. ), the world's leading interactive services company, today announced a major expansion of its market-leading Digital City local online brand. The Company launched its new Digital City 2000 service, offering local residents and visitors in each of its markets an unprecedented degree of online convenience and functionality. It also announced that in the next 30 days, Digital City will complete its expansion from its current 60 markets to more than 200 from coast to coast, and will launch Digital City Wireless, adding a new level of convenience on wireless phones, pagers, and other handheld devices. The local content market is one of the fastest-growing in the online world. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Jupiter Communications, 54% of the $7.7 billion spent on online advertising in 2002 will be spent locally, an increase of more than 700% over today's figures. The America Online/Roper Starch 1999 Cyberstudy found that 54% of online consumers go online for local entertainment information at least occasionally. Digital City has long been the established leader in the local content market. It was the first local city guide online and the first to operate in more than 50 markets. With almost five million unique visitors A count of how many different people access a Web site. For example, if a user leaves and comes back to the site five times during the measurement period, that person is counted as one unique visitor, but would count as five "user sessions. per month, the service leads its closest competition by nearly 75%. DCI averages 40 million page views per week, for a total of more than 2 billion page views each year. On the strength of this market leadership, DCI has been able to attract more than 2,000 interactive marketing partners, enjoying strong national, regional and local advertising support. Ted Leonsis, President of AOL Interactive Properties, said: "Digital City is already one of the fastest-growing parts of AOL, and the clear leader in one of the biggest growth markets on the Web. The incredible convenience we are offering consumers with our new service, on the first truly nationwide local online network, is going to take that growth to supersonic levels. With Digital City, America Online Inc., the leading interactive service in the world, is also going to be the leading service in consumers' own neighborhoods." Paul DeBenedictis, President of Digital City, Inc. said: "We've spent more than a year working with consumers to really understand what they want in a local content network. Digital City 2000 and Digital City Wireless make it easier than ever to plan your day, your week, or your future in your own home town and virtually anyplace you visit." Digital City 2000 Offers Groundbreaking Convenience The new Digital City 2000 service reshapes the local online experience with an unprecedented degree of online convenience. With an easy to navigate design and content from MapQuest and hundreds of local partners, the new Digital City makes it easy for consumers to: Plan an Outing: Users can look for events in the Going Out area featuring the Internet's most comprehensive entertainment and nightlife guide, purchase tickets for movies, concerts and other events, use the service's new What's Nearby feature to answer questions like "what restaurants are near that movie theater?", and get directions for the entire day from MapQuest. Make the Most of the City: Whether it's the best hardware store in their own city, or the best place to stay someplace some·place adv. & n. Somewhere: "I didn't care where I was from so long as it was someplace else" Garrison Keillor. See Usage Note at everyplace. they've never been before, consumers can take advantage of Digital City's Best of the City area featuring picks in a wide range of categories from DCI editors, and the Local Experts Directory offering real-people recommendations from thousands of volunteers across the country. Plan Your Life: Digital City's Get Stuff Done section offers easy access to local housing and job listings, health care information and other tools to help get situated in a new environment or make basic changes. It's also easy to find neighborhood stores and malls, localized online auctions, and personal ads. Create Your Own Local Site: Digital City 2000 is the only local online network to offer rich personalization through the My Stuff feature that lets users customize categories like My Yellow Pages, My Movie Theaters, and others, and take advantage of AOL's My Calendar feature. Digital City Creates Most Extensive Local Online Network, Adds Content Partners By completing its expansion to more than 200 markets from coast to coast, Digital City is creating the most extensive local online network in existence, with "local everywhere" coverage of the entire country. Each new Digital City site will provide a rich combination of proprietary local programming and top-quality content from local partners, to create a one-stop destination for local information. Program offerings will include entertainment, dining and local resource guides; directory services in key areas such as auto and health' and Digital City's dynamic community features. A complete list of Digital City markets is attached. With more than 200 premium content partners already in place, Digital City also announced today several new agreements that will further enhance Digital City 2000 offerings and provide members with additional resources to get things done in cities nationwide. These new content providers include OpenTable.com, the leading online restaurant reservations service, imandi.com, the largest e-services network that matches consumers with local service providers, and Metro Networks Metro Networks is a broadcasting outsourcing company based in Houston, Texas. It is a subsidiary of Westwood One, which is managed by CBS Radio. The company operates a number of local and regional news and traffic facilities that provide regular reports to affiliates, together with , the largest provider of traffic reporting A traffic report is an element of a radio program or TV news broadcast that informs listeners about general traffic conditions, locations and severity of traffic accidents, road construction detours/slowdowns, etc., on roadways within the broadcast area. services and a leading supplier of local news, sports, weather and video news services to the television and radio broadcast industries. Metro Networks is a subsidiary of Westwood One Westwood One, Inc. (NYSE: WON) is the largest radio network in the United States based on programming quantity. It is based in the city of New York, and it is managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation. History The company was founded by Norman J. . About Digital City, Inc. AOL's Digital City, the nation's leading local online network, provides users with an easy-to-use, customizable resource to help them quickly find high quality, up-to-date information and tools in the cities where they live and visit. Whether planning a night on the town, or looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. the best local stores or services, AOL's Digital City is the single local source people can rely on to help them save time in their daily lives. Through a unique blend of entertainment and traveler's listings and information, shopping and services resources, "Best of the City" editorial picks, and real-people reviews by its nationwide network of "Local Experts," AOL's Digital City makes any city feel like home . . . fast. About America Online, Inc. Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia Dulles, Virginia is an unincorporated census-designated place located in Loudoun County, Virginia, part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. The headquarters of AOL, Orbital Sciences Corporation and ODIN technologies and the former headquarters of MCI Inc. are located in Dulles. , is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 21 million members, and CompuServe, with more than 2.5 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ ("I Seek You") A conferencing program for the Internet from Mirabilis, Tel Aviv, Israel (www.icq.com). It provides interactive chat, e-mail and file transfer and can alert you when someone on your predefined list has also come online. , AOL Instant Messenger See AIM. and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; the Netscape Navigator An earlier Web browser for Windows, Macintosh and X Windows from Netscape that provided secure transmission over the Internet. Soon after its introduction in 1994, Navigator, or just "Netscape," as it was commonly called, quickly became the leading browser on the Web. and Communicator browsers; AOL MovieFone, the nation's #1 movie listing guide and ticketing service; and Spinner.com and NullSoft's Winamp, leaders in Internet music. Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. , the company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy. "Statements in this press release regarding the timing and benefits of new markets and services are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. " provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations or beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: the inability to develop and implement the required technologies; inability to achieve commercial success for the new services; increased competition and its effects on pricing, spending, third-party relationships, the subscriber base and revenues; and inability to establish and maintain relationships with commerce, advertising, marketing, technology and content providers. For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer to the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially in the "Forward-Looking Statements" section of the Management's Discussion and Analysis Management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) A report from management to shareholders that accompanies the firm's financial statements in the annual report. It explains the period's financial results and enables management to discuss topics that may not be apparent in the financial section of the Company's Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1999 and the Risk Factors section of the Company's S-3 filing S-3 Filing The most simplified registration form. It can only be used by companies that have been required to report under the '34 Act for a minimum of twelve months and have met the timely filing requirements set forth under Form S-2. that became effective in November 1999." |
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