Switchouse Announces Strategic Alliance with Snowball.com; Marketing Partnership Offers Entertainment Site IGN.com New Swapping Service

Business Wire, April 13, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 13, 2000

Switchouse (www.switchouse.com), the largest online swapping service, today announced a strategic alliance with Snowball.com (Nasdaq:SNOW), the leading online network for Generation i and the companies that want to reach them. Switchouse and Snowball.com will build a co-branded site on Snowball's male-oriented entertainment network, IGN.com -- offering its 3.9 million unique monthly visitors new ways to get the consumer goods they want.

The Switchouse swapping experience combines the dynamics of a trading community with the shopping experience of a well-merchandised store for music, games, movies and books. To swap at Switchouse, members simply use a one-click listing method to select items, and Switchouse's proprietary matching engine, SwitchCraft(TM), automatically finds many potential swapping candidates.

Switchouse's service is a natural fit for IGN.com's product and news focused audience. IGN.com publishes original editorial and entertainment content on a broad range of topics such as science fiction, movies, video games, PC games, professional wrestling, comics, and male lifestyle editorial. The Switchouse/IGN.com co-branded environment enables registered IGN.com users to automatically register and begin swapping immediately. Plans are also underway to integrate IGN.com content with Switchouse's swapping capabilities. For example, IGN.com users will be able to list games they'd like to swap while reading IGN.com's game reviews.

"Switchouse is excited to extend our leadership position as the largest online swapping service by partnering with Snowball.com, a market leader that has demonstrated the ability to anticipate the needs and desires of Generation i. Switchouse looks forward to bringing the valuable swapping service to Snowball.com's audience, which already shares opinions on music, games and other forms of entertainment," said Switchouse CEO, Michael Lin. "Now the members of IGN.com's community will also be able to share music, games, movies and books with each other. We think the smart shoppers will find this an entertaining activity, in addition to a great bargain."

"By partnering with Switchouse, Snowball aims to provide the most enjoyable and successful swapping experience to IGN.com users and introduce more of Generation i to Switchouse," said Mark Jung, CEO of Snowball.com. "Switchouse offers a great selection of items for swapping in addition to an intuitive interface. We look forward to bringing Switchouse to our users".

About Switchouse

Switchouse (www.switchouse.com) is the largest online swapping service for consumer goods. Paving the way for a new category of person-to-person e-commerce, Switchouse is dedicated to bringing together millions of people on the Internet to help them obtain consumer goods they want using items they no longer enjoy. Founded in July 1999, Switchouse is located in San Francisco, California. For more information, visit www.switchouse.com or call (415) 970-8600.

About Snowball.com

Snowball.com (Nasdaq:SNOW) is the leading online network for Generation i and the companies that want to reach its population of Web-centric young adults. Snowball aggregates top Generation-i produced Web sites and brings its active Net-centric audience to companies that offer products and services targeted to the demographic. The company is consistently ranked by Media Metrix as one of the largest consolidated properties on the Internet. Its primary networks include ChickClick.com, IGN.com, InsideGuide.com and PowerStudents.com. Snowball.com is a publicly traded company headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., with locations in New York and Los Angeles.

About IGN.com

With more than 3.9 million unique visitors every month, IGN.com (http://www.ign.com) is the highest trafficked entertainment destination on the Internet. IGN.com publishes original content about movies, television, science fiction, anime, comics, gadgets, gear, wrestling, PC games, video games and issues important to young men aged 13-30. The site was recently awarded honors as "Best Entertainment Site" by Wired Magazine's Readers' Raves. IGN.com is based in San Francisco and is a property of Snowball.com (http://www.snowball.com). IGN.com is audited by Media Metrix, Inc.