Netscape Communications Corp - Netscape 2000-2001

NETSCAPE (2000-2001)

AOL's Netscape division released a beta version of Netscape 6, the successor to Netscape Communicator, in April 2000 at the Internet World conference. Netscape 6 included a new browsing engine nicknamed Gecko, which increased the speed at which Web pages were displayed. Until this time, Netscape had made only minor revisions to Communicator 4.5, which shipped in October 1998. After three beta versions were released during 2001, the commercial version of Netscape 6 was finally released at the Comdex show in fall 2000. Estimates of Netscape's share of the browser market ranged from 20 percent to as low as 12 percent. This was compared to between 80 and 88 percent for Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Netscape 6.01 was released in May 2001 to make the browser more stable and fix some glitches that had been discovered.

Traffic at Netcenter lagged well behind that of other portals. In January 2000 Netcenter had 347,000 unique visitors, compared to 37 million for Yahoo!, 26.2 million for AOL.com, 15.6 million for Go.com, 13.8 million for Lycos, and 9.9 million for AltaVista. America Online, in the process of completing its merger with Time Warner, announced an advertising campaign designed to recast Netscape Netcenter as a business professional's portal. In addition to adding AOL features to Netcenter, such as instant messaging and e-mail services, AOL was integrating content from Time Warner into the site. Netcenter's new default pages for categories such as news, sports, and money, would become CNN, Sports Illustrated, and Money. Time Warner-owned CNN also became Netcenter's premier broadcast news partner, replacing Walt Disney Co.'s ABC after ABC's contract with Netscape expired in December 1999.

In Fall 2000 AOL unveiled its new Netscape Netbusiness service, which was designed to help small businesses build Web-based storefronts and engage in business-to-business e-commerce. AOL formed a partnership with Las Vegas-based marketplace developer PurchasePro to develop Netscape Netbusiness. Organized in three sections—My Industry, My Business, and My Life—Netscape Netbusiness Marketplace included e-mail, a business version of Netscape Instant Messenger, industry-specific news, market research, expert opinions, maps and directions to member businesses, and community tools for sharing information. In late 2000 and early 2001 AOL entered into several alliances designed to strengthen its Netscape Netbusiness division, including an agreement with Hewlett-Packard that would link the HP Business Store to Netbusiness and give HP access to the 140,000 mostly small businesses that were using the Netbusiness hub. Other new partners included BroadVision Inc., which would offer personalized e-commerce software; CD-ROM replicator Viva Magnetics; online agricultural marketplace eFruit; and ProfitScape, which handled business-to-business transactions. Monster.com agreed to develop a recruitment industry marketplace for Netbusiness.

The introduction in 2000 of a new version of Netscape's browser and the launch of Netscape Net-business indicated AOL Time Warner's commitment to its Netscape division. When AOL was in the process of merging with Time Warner, some analysts thought Netscape would be neglected, disappear, or be sold off. Instead, it appears that Netscape, one of the original enablers of e-commerce, will continue to impact the way e-commerce is conducted for the foreseeable future.