Beverly Hills Internet, builder of interactive cyber cities, launches 4 more virtual communities linked to real places; SiliconValley, CapitolHill, Paris and Tokyo offer free homesteads to residents of BHI's 'GeoCities'

Business Wire, July 5, 1995

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 5, 1995--Beverly Hills Internet opened today four additional virtual communities based on real-world locations, raising to 10 the number of interactive "GeoCities"(R) BHI has established in the past five weeks.

The new cyber cities -- named after SiliconValley(R), CapitolHill(R), Paris(R) and Tokyo(R) -- join BHI's GeoCities of Hollywood(R), RodeoDrive(R), SunsetStrip(R), WestHollywood(R), WallStreet(R) and the Colosseum(R) in offering cyber citizens the first homesteading program of its kind on the web, according to BHI president David Bohnett.

"The homesteading program enables anyone with access to the Internet to have a free Personal Home Page, or GeoPage(R), within our cityscapes," Bohnett said.

"Because GeoCities are nurtured by communication and sustained by commerce, we are developing new media to endow GeoCities with a rich sense of community, place and interactivity, and also originating new ways to measure our audiences for advertisers," he said. "This is the next wave of the net -- not just information but habitation."

Since announcing the program at its host site five weeks ago, BHI has recorded more than 600,000 accesses, reflecting, Bohnett said, "the intense interest people have in creating cyber communities all their own, linked to places they know, understand and have a strong affinity for."

BHI has introduced a Personal GeoPage Generator that enables homesteaders to create their own home pages in minutes, complete with color graphics, links to their favorite web sites and any personal data they want to share with the virtual world, Bohnett said.

"You may surf the net via access utilities or online services but you'll live in BHI's GeoCities," he said. "There, on the street or in the city of your choice, you'll dwell in a home that reflects the context of your life, become part of the fabric of the community and establish your own net culture."

"Our goal in bridging cyberspace and reality is to attract netters who want to colonize the web -- to put down roots in a GeoCity they feel comfortable and familiar with to call home, where they can express themselves, create their own content, build their own neighborhoods," Bohnett said.

BHI ofers GeoPage homesites with authentic street numbers, giving every homesteader their own unique address on the web. BHI further amplifies the sense of place in its GeoCities by displaying realtime video-cammed images of actual landmark streets.

The video-cammed locations include Hollywod & Vine in Hollywood and Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills as well as the soon-to-be-linked Ginza in Tokyo and ChampsE'lysee in Paris.

At BHI's host site, www.bhi90210.com, netters can click on RodeoDrive to enter a world of upscale shopping, on SunsetStrip for nightlife, WallStreet for business and the Colosseum for sports.

BHI is in the business of building online GeoCities -- cyberspace communities of netters who have their own home pages, create their own content, reside on cyberstreets resonantly named after landmark thoroughfares from around the world and consume the goods and services of advertisers and sponsors that are, as in real life, an integral part of the community. BHI creates, in addition, custom designed commercial web sites.

GeoCities and GeoPages for FifthAvenue, ChampsE'lysee, RioDeJaneiro, Paris, Berlin, BondStreet, Waikki, Tokyo, TheGinza, TimesSquare are service marks of Beverly Hills Internet.

BHI can be reached by e-mail at info@bhi90210.com or on the web at www.bhi90210.com. Its headquarters are at 9401 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, Calif. 90210.

CONTACT: Beverly Hills Internet

David Bohnett, 310/273-0400

or dbohnett@bhi90210.com

or

Jacobson, Altman Associates

Dick Altman, 212/697-2620

or dickaltm@panix.com