Hoover's Online - Hoover's Goes Online, Constructing An Online Business Information Portal, 1996-2001

Hoover's Online is a business information resource and portal that is operated by Hoover's Inc., a publicly traded company headquartered in Austin, Texas, with fiscal 2001 revenue of $30.8 million and more than 300 employees. A subsidiary, Hoover's Media Technologies, Inc., is a content aggregator and application services developer that was formed when Hoover's acquired Powerize.com, Inc. in August 2000. Hoover's Inc. also licenses its content and publishes books, reports, and CD-ROMs. For fiscal 2001 ending March 31, about 49 percent of Hoover's overall revenue was derived from online subscriptions, 37 percent from advertising and e-commerce, 10 percent from licensing, and 4 percent from print products and CD-ROMs.

Hoover's Online offers a wide range of business information, some of which is available for free and some to paid subscribers only. The site includes proprietary information developed by Hoover's as well as content from third-party providers. Hoover's proprietary database of business information covers more than 17,000 public and private enterprises worldwide and more than 300 industries. Through alliances and partnerships with other information providers, Hoover's Online contains content and links from sources such as Dun & Bradstreet, Harris InfoSource, InfoUSA.com, Market Location, Media General Financial Services, Mergent FIS, and NewsEdge.

The Hoover's Online site is organized into the following channels: Companies and Industries, Money, Career Development, News Center, Business Travel, and Purchasing Center. The site also features an easy-to-use site search where users can search for company names, ticker symbols, personal names, and more. Additional links are provided at the home page for such services as IPO Central, e-mail news alerts, portfolio tool, free newsletters, business links, small business, Hoover's wireless, and Hoover's European sites.

Hoover's core asset is its database of information on public and private companies and industry segments. Much of this information can be accessed for free through a site search or through the Companies and Industries channel. For specific companies and industries, non-subscribers have access to company capsules, which include basic contact information, a descriptive paragraph or two, a list of the top three competitors, the most recent year's sales and net income, a link to stock quotes, number of employees, and profiles of the company's top three executives. Subscribers have additional access to a more detailed company profile and history, in-depth financial information, a more comprehensive list of competitors, and information on the competitive landscape, as well as access to advanced search features. As of 2001, Hoover's offered individual subscriptions for $29.95 per month or $199.95 per year and annual enterprise subscriptions ranging from $1,750 for five seats to $45,000 for 1,000 seats. Larger enterprise subscriptions were negotiated on an individual basis, based on the number of seats. Hoover's Online had about 285,000 paying subscribers as of March 31, 2001.

Hoover's other channels organize links and information targeted at the other interests of individuals and companies looking for business-related information. The Money channel includes investment-related links to mutual funds, emerging markets, foreign markets, bonds, IPO news, insider trading, stock buy-backs, and earnings and forecasts. Available links and content at the Career Development channel include a job bank, a salary wizard, and information on trade shows. The Business Travel channel organizes links to facilitate flight bookings, car rentals, and hotel reservations. Informational links are furnished for more than 100 city guides; a flight tracker; travel tools such as maps, a currency converter, and even information on traffic delays; and weather information. Hoover's Purchasing Center channel is where users can buy industry and topical reports written by Hoover's and other sources, including Dun & Bradstreet, Factiva, ICON Group, eMarketer, and others. Hoover's also offers four free e-mail newsletters: IPO Update, a weekly roundup of IPO activity; Hoover's Online: Week at a Glance, which includes news summaries, a brief description of a new company, and tips for finding business information; Hoover's Industry News Digests, twice-weekly news summaries available for the advertising, healthcare, Internet, and telecommunications industries; and Hoover's Online Europe Weekly.