Netcenter Goes Global

In an attempt to meet the demands of a growing worldwide
online market, Netscape Communications
Corp.
plans to increase international coverage on its Netcenter portal.


Visitors in Australia, France, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Japan, the
United Kingdom and Italy can now take advantage of localized content found
on Netcenter. This expansion is part of the company’s “Project Turbo”
campaign, intended to boost Netcenter’s traffic.


Content on the international sites include a set of channels on the home
page that organizes local content, services and directories for Internet
users. These channels range from personal finance
to sports, travel, news and business and include a new Netscape channel
for company and product information.


Also as part of the expansion, Netscape launched a selection of
global and local search capabilities on its international sites. Companies
that plan to provide these services include Excite Inc., dLycos-Bertelsmann and Infoseek; as well as Associated New
Media’s UKPlus,
France Telecom’s Voila, Nomade, HispaVista, LookSmart, Virgilio, and Web.DE.


“The goal of our international effort has been to complement the global
site by building out local content and commerce services
that give users a new way to experience the Internet,” said Linda Lawrence,
Netscape vice president in charge of International
Netcenter.


“The time is right to extend our international Netcenter offering,” said
Mike Homer, executive vice president and general manager of
Netscape’s Netcenter division. “The number of Internet users
outside the U.S. grew 52 percent this year alone and by 2002 more than
half of all Internet users will come from outside the U.S. We’re positioned
to take advantage of that growth
opportunity, both in the short-term and the long-term.”


Netscape is the latest in a series of portal sites augmenting their
offerings to customers. Tuesday, competitor AltaVista announced a redesign of its
site, and Lycos Inc. recently acquired Wired Digital Inc.


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