Netscape Communications
Tuesday signed marketing agreements with three leading European companies
in an effort to expand its European Netcenter portals.
Netscape’s new and expanded deals with World Online, Lycos Bertelsmann and VNU aim to deliver services and localized
content to European consumers.
Netscape, a subsidiary of America Online Inc.,
also claimed that its
European Netcenter portal sites have doubled traffic during the first three
months of operation.
“Our relationships with European companies such as World Online, Lycos
Bertelsmann, and VNU demonstrate the value of Netscape browser and the
strong momentum of the international Netcenter sites in Europe,” said Linda
Lawrence, vice president of international Netcenter.
Netscape Communicator will be the default
browser for the World Online
service in seven European countries and will be distributed by World Online.
Lycos Bertelsmann and publishing company VNU expanded a deal with Netscape
to deliver additional localized content to Spain and the Netherlands. The
companies cited Netscape European Netcenter’s traffic increase among the
reasons for the expansion of their agreements. Lycos Bertelsmann will also
deliver search features to Netcenter.
Netscape Netcenter 2.0 launched in the Netherlands on
Tuesday, with added features provided by VNU.
In Spain, Lycos Bertelsmann announced that its search and local content is
now available on Netcenter 2.0.
Netscape launched International Netcenter 2.0 sites in the France, Germany,
Italy,
the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the U.K. in October 1998. Netscape now
boasts 15 million registered users in its 18 international sites.