BabyCenter.com Proves to be Fertile New Ground for Industry Leading Advertisers

Business Wire, April 2, 1998

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 1998--

General Motors, Unilever HPC, Pfizer and Gymboree Join Prominent Sponsors On Leading Web Site For Expectant and New Parents

A recognized leader in the dynamic new parents market, BabyCenter, Inc. today announced that it had signed on four more significant new sponsors for its widely-acclaimed web site for expectant and new parents -- BabyCenter.com. The new sponsors -- General Motors, Unilever HPC, Pfizer, and Gymboree -- join an impressive list of charter sponsors including Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, SmithKline Beecham, Charles Schwab and Clorox.

BabyCenter.com was launched last November and has quickly received wide acclaim through numerous awards and industry reviews. The site earned a prestigious Webby Award in the Home category, was named by Business Week Magazine as one the Top Five Web Sites to Watch in 1998, and is being featured by Forrester Research as a model web site in the family segment.

"New parents are the ideal segment to truly harness the power of the Web. They are intense information seekers, are online in far higher numbers than the general population, and are sought after by many advertisers due to the important product decisions they make," said BabyCenter President Mark Selcow. "BabyCenter.com delivers the high quality information these discriminating new parents seek and offers sponsors creative new media programs to reach this important segment."

Moving beyond traditional online banner advertising, BabyCenter.com has developed a variety of new sponsorship initiatives for its partners including sponsored mini-sites that focus on educational subjects that are important to new parents. These new methods of communication with an online audience are proving to be both strategic for advertisers looking to expand their reach and popular with consumers who get useful decision-support tools.

For example, Charles Schwab sponsors an interactive college savings calculator on BabyCenter.com. This innovative tool lets parents calculate the future costs of college, design a savings program that fits their budget, and learn about savings vehicles and types of accounts that are right for them. Further information can be requested on the site and sent directly from Schwab. These leads are being generated at a lower cost than is typical for print-based direct mail or other marketing outlets.

BabyCenter.com also features a car seat safety mini-site built for General Motors and the "Baby Stains Hall of Fame" from Clorox, which provides information about stain removal specifically for baby clothes.

"Pampers has made an investment in building expert content from the leaders in baby care such as T. Berry Brazelton, MD and Suzanne Dixon, MD," said Scott Stewart of the Pampers team at Procter & Gamble. "We chose to sponsor BabyCenter.com because we place a high value on the site's quality, medically-reviewed information. The sponsorship has exceeded our expectations both with activity on BabyCenter.com and also in driving traffic to the Pampers site."

About BabyCenter, Inc.

San Francisco-based BabyCenter, Inc., a recognized leader in new media publishing, was founded in 1997 as the only new media publishing company providing a complete resource specifically geared for expectant and new parents. Last November the company launched BabyCenter.com, the most complete and highest-quality web site focused on pregnancy and infancy. BabyCenter.com delivers daily parenting news, articles and information on hundreds of topics, bulletin boards, product buying guides, a baby naming center, and a baby store on the Internet.

BabyCenter is backed by strong corporate and venture investors including Broderbund Software, a leading educational software company, IDG Ventures, a division of IDG, the global publishing company, and Crystal Internet, an Internet venture capital firm.

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Note to Editors:

BabyCenter is a trademark of BabyCenter, Inc. BabyCenter.com can be found on the Internet at www.babycenter.com. General Motors can be found on the Internet at www.gm.com. Unilever HPC can be found on the Internet at www.unilever.com. Pfizer can be found on the Internet at www.kidsears.com. Gymboree can be found on the Internet at www.gymboree.com.

CONTACT: BabyCenter, Inc.

Duncan Drechsel, 415/537-0900 x108

duncand@babycenter.com

Lara Hoyem, 415/537-0900 x120

larah@babycenter.com