Designs on the Web

Baldwin Louie — Mon, 05 Mar 2001 14:00:00 -0800

AUDIO/VIDEO STREAMING

APPLE COMPUTER
Cupertino, Calif.
CUSTOMERS: ABCNews.com, BBC World, Bloomberg, Disney.com, ESPN.com
REVENUE (2000): $8 billion
NET PROFIT: $786 million

Quicktime, an Apple platform that handles video, sound, animation, graphics and MP3 files, has sold more than 100 million copies, and it just received a face-lift with version 5.0. Too bad Apple had to use the streaming-media tool to broadcast its report that first quarter 2001 losses totaled $195 million - compared with a $183 million profit in first quarter 2000.

REALNETWORKS
Seattle, Wash.
CUSTOMERS: Akamai, Digital Island, Deutsche Telekom
REVENUE (2000): $241.5 million
NET PROFIT: $30.9 million

RealNetworks licenses streaming-media software, including the RealPlayer product line, to content providers and delivery services, as well as to consumers. The company has managed to retain its content-streaming leadership and almost double its revenues in 1999 through key alliances with companies such as AOL, Adobe, Nokia and iXL.

VIEWPOINT
New York, N.Y.
CUSTOMERS: Eddie Bauer, Nike, Hewlett-Packard, Sharper Image, Sony
REVENUE (1999): $3.1 million
NET LOSS: $50.7 million

The company is focusing on interactive imaging and streaming-media technologies. One product, Viewpoint Experience Technology, gives users the ability to rotate images on a site and change colors and patterns. Viewpoint also offers 3D imaging tools and a media player.

WEB DESIGN SOFTWARE

ADOBE SYSTEMS
San Jose, Calif.
CUSTOMERS: Hello Design, Agency.com, Mostasa, Chopping Block
REVENUE (2000): $1.3 billion
NET PROFIT: $288 million

Adobe has a range of popular products: Illustrator creates Web-ready graphics; Photoshop enables users to size, touch-up, and add text or special effects to Web site photos; and LiveMotion goes head-to-head with Macromedia's Flash in the animation category. CEO John Warnock recently made the Gates-like move to CTO in order to take a more active role developing the company's technology.

COREL
Ottawa, Ontario
CUSTOMERS: N/A
REVENUE (2000): $157.5 million
NET LOSS: $55.3 million

Corel sells a suite of products, from WordPerfect Office 2000 to the illustration software CorelDraw 10 to Corel R.A.V.E., an animation package that creates rollover graphics in Macromedia's Flash format. Money problems forced the company to shift its focus to its graphics-development products and away from its Linux software, and prompted the departure of CEO Michael Cowpland last summer. But the company got a $135 million investment from Microsoft in October.

E-COLOR
San Francisco, Calif.
CUSTOMERS: Bloomingdale's, Revlon, 7thOnline, Blindsgalore, Garmentrade
REVENUE: N/A
NET PROFIT: N/A

E-Color's product ensures that visitors to a Web site will see images in the intended color despite differences in operating systems, graphics cards, monitors or hardware. Partnerships with Organic and Reuters promise to extend the brand's reach, as does a recent $24 million second round of financing.

MACROMEDIA
San Francisco, Calif.
CUSTOMERS: MSNBC, Balthaser Studio, Dennis Interactive
REVENUE (1999): $264.2 million
NET PROFIT: $30.4 million

Macromedia, already a giant fish in the multimedia authoring pond, recently acquired Allaire, a Web development software maker. Macromedia's flagship products, Dreamweaver and Flash, enable professional Web designers to create sites with dynamic graphics, animation and sound.

MGI SOFTWARE
Richmond Hill, Ontario
CUSTOMERS: Porsche, Freeserve, iCongo.com, TWInteractive, MarketThreads.com
REVENUE (1999): $30.8 million
NET LOSS: $20.4 million

The company's new Web tools demonstrates MGI's increased focus on imaging software. MGI features 3D, zoomable product-display technology that works with digital cameras and Macromedia authoring tools. Visitors can enjoy 360-degree panoramas, view 3D objects and take virtual tours.

MICROSOFT
Redmond, Wash.
CUSTOMERS: N/A
REVENUE (2000): $23 billion
NET PROFIT: $9.4 billion

Microsoft's FrontPage 2000 will soon be joined by FrontPage 10, the second beta version of which was launched in December 2000. FrontPage 10 can help designers create sophisticated Web pages; it includes photo editing and drawing tools, programs to import and automatically update content from other sites, and Web usage reporting.

NETOBJECTS
Redwood City, Calif.
CUSTOMERS: John Berggruen Gallery, Priory Travel, NDesigns
REVENUE (2000): $34.2 million
NET LOSS: $33.9 million

After watching its stock plummet from a high of $45.69 in March 2000 to $0.47 January 10, NetObjects sold its enterprise division to Merant in order to focus on its small-business products. The most well-known of these products, Fusion, provides drag-and-drop Web design and editing for small businesses.

TRUESPECTRA
Burlingame, Calif.
CUSTOMERS: Kinkos.com, Blockbuster, Nordstrom.com, iVillage, Sears Canada
REVENUE: N/A
NET PROFIT: N/A

TrueSpectra's active layering technology enables customers to match products, browse different colors and styles, and view products with information (such as price) superimposed. The company's color-correction service provides accurate and consistent image color for all users. Its recent alliance with MediaBin adds an image-management component to its interactive imaging-delivery technology.

WEB DESIGN AGENCIES

MARCHFIRST
Chicago, Ill.
CUSTOMERS: CNNSI.com, Sega, Apple, Williams-Sonoma, Excite@Home
REVENUE (2000): $1.2 billion
NET LOSS: $7.7 billion

MarchFirst, formed by the merger of USWeb/CKS and Whittman-Hart, consults in Web design, advertising and brand strategy as well as public relations and event planning. The company became the market revenue leader as a result of the merger but has suffered three rounds of layoffs since November, totaling about 1,750 employees out of what used to be a 10,000-person staff.

SAPIENT
Cambridge, Mass.
CUSTOMERS: ESPN, BMW, E-Trade, Ford, Wal-Mart, Borders
REVENUE (2000): $503.3 million
NET PROFIT: $47 million

Although Sapient hasn't had to make significant staff cuts like many of its competitors have, the company has felt the sting of lower Web development spending by large businesses. Net profits for the fourth quarter were down significantly from last year. Sapient's Web design service provides usability testing, strategy and technology expertise for a range of companies, from startups to major industry players.

USABILITY

E-SATISFY
Arlington, Va.
CUSTOMERS: AT&T, British Airways, CNN.com, Lexus, Women.com
REVENUE: N/A
NET PROFIT: N/A

Formerly known as Customer InSites, the company sells Site Monitor, a tool that gathers information on visitors, providing details on what users like and dislike and how to keep them coming back. The information can then be compared to benchmark data from companies such as Hoover's, Panasonic, Fox News and Turner Entertainment.

WEBCRITERIA
Portland, Ore.
CUSTOMERS: American Airlines, BN.com, CDnow, KPMG
REVENUE: N/A
NET PROFIT: N/A

WebCriteria's site-analysis product is an automated engine that surfs sites the way customers do, comparing accessibility of information and download times to those of competitors. The company's bottom line could be bolstered by a recent $12.5 million cash infusion and the addition of several new engineering, sales and marketing executives.

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Designs on the Web