Subject: Clickshare launches Internet's first micropayments service From: felixk@panix.com (Felix Kramer) Date: Mon, 16 Sep 1996 02:27:12 -0400 (EDT)

Status: RO
X-Status: 

To readers of Newshare-UPDATE:

Here's the text of Clickshare's press release announcing the start of
Clickshare service. This release is also available online at
http://www.clickshare.com/pubpack/releases.html

If you prefer to be removed from the newshare-update list, please reply to
listmanager@newshare.com rather than to me.

Felix Kramer
Marketing Director

Clickshare launches Internet's first micropayments service
"Internet Information Utility" delivers commerce a la carte

        WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Sept. 16  --  Clickshare Corporation's
pioneering multi-site, single-ID, Internet micropayment system went live on
Friday as users began clicking on -- and paying for -- information online.
Purchases from Friday to Sunday by over a dozen first registrants totaled
$62.60.

        "We're the web's first working multi-site distributed
user-management and micropayment service," said Bill Densmore, Clickshare's
chairman. "Now publishers can charge for valuable information on the
Internet, rather than giving it away."

       "Now that 'The Internet's Information Utility' (sm)  is up and
running," said Felix Kramer, Clickshare marketing director, "we'll finally
see whether people will buy information by the click."

        Typical articles from a test archive of domestic and international
articles from The Christian Science Monitor were "Ground Personnel: Gap in
Airport Security System" and "Africa South of Sahara boasts dictators and
wide political freedom" (daily indexes $0.10, articles $0.25). Lead story
in the entertainment industry intelligencer Studio Briefing ($0.50) was
"Job Jitters at Turner" (as the merger with Time Warner proceeds). And the
American Reporter, the Internet's first digital daily, also $0.50, featured
its worldwide Pinkerton Risk Assessment, and an exclusive report on
"Pollution by Super-Size Hog Farms Feared Across Illinois."

        Clickshare allows users to have a single ID and password yet gain
access to multiple web sites. It uses the company's proprietary Digital
Calling Card (sm) technology to track user movements and settle charges.
Its software is a server add-on, not a user application.

        Users can now sign up once, give a credit card online or offline,
log in once per session, and, while preserving their privacy, buy
information -- for a dime from one place, a quarter from another unrelated
site. At the end of the day, they get an email summary of where they've
been and what they've bought. And the purchases show up on their next
credit card statement.

        "Soon, charges may be on phone, cable, newspaper or Internet
Service Provider bills," said Densmore. On the Clickshare web site,
publishers can now see samples of aggregated bills, where revenue streams
are shared between publishers and service providers.

        "Clickshare is designed to scale to a very large number of users
and a very high volume of transactions using a distributed architecture,
including no single centralized database of users," said Dave Oliver,
Clickshare managing director - technology.

       "What we want to do has been difficult," said David Creagh,
electronic publishing manager at the Christian Science Monitor. "Clickshare
makes it easy. We're starting with demonstration content to prove it all
works, because we've not completely resolved pricing and other issues. We
want e-Monitor users to be able to register once, be re-authenticated
transparently, and then have their mouse trails be captured and then
streamed to our traffic report vendor, our auditor, and the transaction
people. One data stream, low overhead. Clickshare is the only product that
allows us to do this."

        Next, Clickshare will sign up additional content providers, link
with strategic partners, and recruit an experienced management team. The
privately held company was founded in 1995 by Densmore, a veteran
journalist, Oliver, a networking expert, and Michael Callahan, a
mathematician and software developer.

        More information is on the web at www.clickshare.com or by sending
blank email to info@clickshare.com.

MEDIA INQUIRIES:
Felix Kramer, Kramer Communications,  212/866-4864
or Bill Densmore or Lynn Duncan:  413/458-8001
Dave Creagh, The Christian Science Monitor,  617/450-2865.


-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
 Felix Kramer, Marketing Director                   CLICKSHARE CORP.
 felix@clickshare.com                          Direct: 212/866-4864
 www.clickshare.com                         Corporate: 413/458-8001
 www.nlightning.com (personal)                    fax: 212/866-5527
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --



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