| The markets for local interactive content and transaction services are highly competitive. Currently, the Company's primary competitors with respect to the CitySearch service include Digital City, Inc., a company wholly-owned by America Online, Inc. and Tribune Company, Microsoft Corporation (Sidewalk) and Zip2 Corporation. CitySearch also competes against search engine and other site aggregation companies which primarily serve to aggregate links to sites providing local content such as Excite, Inc. (City.Net), Lycos, Inc. (Lycos City Guide) and, while it is also a strategic partner of Ticketmaster Online,
Yahoo! (Yahoo! Local). In addition, the CitySearch service competes against offerings from media companies, including Cox Interactive Media, Inc. and Knight-Ridder, Inc., as well as offerings from several telecommunications and cable companies and Internet service providers that provide local interactive
programming such as SBC Communications, Inc. (At Hand) and Media One Group, Inc. (DiveIn). The business of selling live events tickets and related merchandise is highly competitive and diverse. Ticketmaster Online's competitors include event facilities and promoters that handle their own ticket sales and distribution through online and other distribution channels, live event automated ticketing companies with Web sites which may or may not currently offer online transactional capabilities and certain live event Web-based ticketing companies which only conduct business online. Where facilities and promoters decide to utilize the services of a ticketing company, Ticketmaster Online competes with international, national and regional ticketing services, including TicketWeb, Telecharge (Shubert Ticketing Services), NEXT Ticketing, Advantix, ETM Entertainment Networks, Dillard's, Prologue, Capital Tickets and Lasergate (Lasergate Systems, Inc.). Several of Ticketmaster Online's competitors have operations in multiple locations throughout the United States, while others compete with Ticketmaster Online principally in one specific geographic region. |