Designs On The Web - Company Business and Marketing

Industry Standard, The, March 5, 2001 by Jeff Palfini

The market leaders in online tools and expertise.

AUDIO/VIDEO STREAMING

APPLE COMPUTER

www.apple.com

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 facelift 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

www.realnetworks.com

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

www.viewpoint.com

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

www.adobe.com

San Jose, Calif.

CUSTOMERS: Hello Design, Agency.com, Mostasa, Chopping Block

REVENUE (2000): $l.3 billion

NET PROFIT: $288 million

Adobe has a range of popular products: Illustrator creates Web-ready graphics; Photoshop enables users to size, touchup, 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

www.corel.com

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

www.e-color.com

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

www.macromedia.com

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

www.mgisoft.com

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

www.microsoft.com

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

www.netobjects.com

Redwood City, Calif.

CUSTOMERS: John Berggruen Gallery, Priory Travel, N Designs

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.