Compete, Inc. Ushers in New Era of Competitive Intelligence and Unveils Service Harnessing the World's Largest Pool of Online Users.

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2001

Compete Reshapes Online Intelligence, Provides Actionable Insights

for Companies Looking to Impact the Bottom Line

Do you know how your competition is performing today? If you don't, you should, say the competitive intelligence experts at Compete, Inc. Launched today, Compete specializes in online and analytical consulting services focused exclusively on customer intelligence. The services draw on the world's largest pool of online users, helping businesses impact the bottom line by providing actionable insights based on visitor behavior at their site, their competitors' sites, and across the Internet.

"Compete fills a major gap in today's competitive intelligence arena by supplying critical, timely information that helps companies build and transform their businesses," said Man Jit Singh, CEO, Compete, Inc. "Today's economy is a whole new ballgame, and the old school ways of looking at information just don't meet the needs of today's competitive business arena. In a fluid market, a company's ability to efficiently modify its strategy is critical to achieving and maintaining success. Compete not only supports companies with the strategic planning of their online needs, it also provides guidance that can benefit a company's offline business."

Drawing from the clickstream data of more than 8 million Internet users on 200,000+ sites, Compete has the largest pool of active online users in the industry. The firm partners with ISPs and browser companion companies to license demographics and usage information that reveal trends and insights into consumer behavior. Compete helps businesses improve their bottom line by providing the actionable insights needed to manage product and service mix, pricing, partnerships, acquisitions, web design, and media expenditure, while also identifying competitive weaknesses.

"Real competition online has just begun," said Carol Baroudi, Vice President, Hurwitz Group. "We're well beyond price wars and buying customers. Online entities in it for the long run have to compete vigorously, have to compete intelligently, and have to compete now. What Compete's offering brings to the market is a radically different approach that helps companies really understand who their competition is and what they can do about it. Profitable eBusiness isn't just about getting customers -- it's about keeping them and keeping them happy -- in concrete, active ways. For this kind of business savvy, businesses need more info than they can capture from their site alone. Hurwitz Group believes Compete's services exemplify just the kind of services serious eBusinesses will use to go head-to-head in this increasingly competitive market."

Compete: Setting The Standard

Conceived in direct response to the question: "What can I do right now to improve my company's performance?" Compete's founders grew dissatisfied with standard Internet audience measurement tools and decided to license raw clickstream data and mine it for business insights, arming companies with a competitive advantage. Compete has been in development for the last year, refining proprietary technology processes that mine the industry's largest pool of clickstream data. This extensive effort is intended to ensure success in setting the standard for customer intelligence by enabling businesses to maximize their online and offline investments.

The company's core offerings include: Compete First Take, an online subscription service providing actionable metrics, and Compete Consulting Services, providing business recommendations and insights for clients in the context of their market through interpretation of Compete's rich data. From demographic analysis and detailed information about customers behavior on competitors' sites to online price elasticity studies, Compete delivers strategic recommendations and customized reports based on clients' unique needs, specifically designed to optimize their customers' online experience, and ultimately, maximize loyalty. Compete First Take brings reports of actionable metrics to the desktop of managers in companies requiring immediate competitive intelligence to support their business decisions, including:

--Search Terms Report - Most popular search terms and use frequency

--Page Tracker Report - Tracking of specific pages

--Homepage Clicks Report - Most popular links off homepages

--Average Stay Report - Site usability indicator in an industry context

--Traffic Report - Trends of unique visitors and page views

--Subdomain Report - Most popular subdomains

--Pages Report - Most trafficked pages

Compete's varied service offerings and depth of information bring significant hard-dollar benefits to a number of audiences, including product managers, business developers, and marketers. "Differentiation is key in the online jewelry arena, and Compete provides us with the insights we need to stand out from the crowd,' said Shmuel Gniwisch, founder and CEO of ICE.com. "Compete gives us an inside advantage, letting us know what appeals to potential customers on our competition's site -- and what's working well on our site. Whether it's a new site layout or special offers, Compete's research makes sure we're making informed decisions that will strike a chord with our customers, turning browsers into buyers."

Compete's Industry Capsule

Highlighting the importance of arming businesses with actionable insights on what visitors are doing, buying, and looking for on their own site, their competitors' sites, and across the Internet, Compete today released its first "Industry Capsule." The Industry Capsule provides a top-level look at timely market information. This month's findings focus on online brokerage and financial information sources, providing true insights that companies can use to change their online services or offerings -- transforming their eBusinesses. Following are highlights from the first Compete Industry Capsule snapshot for April 2001:

--Cisco was the most popular ticker symbol searched online, followed by Lucent, Intel, Oracle, JDS Uniphase, Sun Microsystems, Juniper Networks, EMC Corp., Yahoo! and Microsoft.

--Three out of every five pages viewed at Yahoo! Finance were stock quotes. One out of every six pages viewed at Yahoo! Finance were individuals' portfolios. After checking stock quotes and portfolios, the most popular activity at Yahoo! Finance was looking up ticker symbols.

--Two out of every five pages viewed at MSN MoneyCentral were stock quotes. Stock charts and the Investor homepage were the next most popular sections of the MoneyCentral web site.

A copy of the full report is available from Compete, Inc. upon request.

According to Marc Engel, director of analytics, Compete, "These findings demonstrate the in-depth information that Compete provides--the vital information that businesses need to improve their online performance. By understanding what visitors to financial sites are doing and what stocks they follow, companies can optimize service offerings to maximize loyalty."

About Compete

Founded in August 2000, Compete, Inc. specializes in online and analytical consulting services that provide competitive advantage through customer insight. The company's mission is to enable businesses to take action based on what visitors are doing, buying, and looking for on their own site, their competitors' sites, and across the Internet. With Compete, clients can actively manage their product and service mix, pricing, partnerships and acquisitions, web design, and media expenditure while taking advantage of competitive weaknesses. Compete respects individual privacy and the privacy policies of its data providers and does not license any personally identifiable information from them. Compete is backed by Charles River Ventures and idealab!. For additional information please visit Compete at www.Compete.com.

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