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June 14, 2003 CNET Channel's Catalog Maintenance Service Helps PC World Business Reduce Costs and Increase Online Sales. St-Legier, June 4, 2003 - CNET Channel, a wholly owned subsidiary of CNET Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: CNET) and PC World Business, the business arm of the United Kingdom's number one computer retailer, today announced an agreement that allows PC World Business to automate the delivery of product information content into its online catalog. PC World Business' e-commerce site, www.pcwb.com, as well as its offline IT catalogs, Definitive Buyers' Guide and Business Buyers' Guide, will all benefit from CNET Channel's standardised and structured product data. "Both our e-commerce site and our off-line IT catalogs are mission critical to our business and it is therefore extremely important for us to select a supplier who can guarantee an efficient long-term data supply," says Craig Williams, E-Commerce manager, PC World Business. "We are impressed by the depth of the data and the development opportunities that DataSource offers us through its various transactive functionalities, such as multi-vendor product search, comparison, categorisation and displaying." Before licensing the DataSource service, PC World Business used product data from its catalog management system, which required a team of more than 5 database administrators in order to keep the data production and maintenance up and running. Additionally, PC World Business' product managers partially contributed with input to the data process. "DataSource will enable us to automate a large portion of our catalog production process, which in turn will result in cost reductions and data quality improvements. As an example, we will benefit from the ability to reduce the volume of returns previously caused by data errors simply by providing our customers with better product data," added Williams. "With the integration of DataSource, we will not only be able to increase online sales through an enhanced purchase environment but we will also give our employees access to critical reference material, providing them with comprehensive, reliable and timely product data." "PC World Business is a key addition to our UK customer base and we are pleased to see CNET Channel play a central role in the development of the PCWB e-commerce site." said James Symington, UK sales manager, CNET Channel. "This agreement illustrates that CNET Channel's standardised and structured product data is critical to customers, helping them improve their online purchase environment while reducing costs and ultimately increasing revenues." DataSource is a service that allows customers to automate the creation of product information and tie it to their own SKU number. This data will then power any internal or external online applications in such a way that the users can search quickly to find what they are looking for, read full product information of the product they wish to purchase, and then compare this product to similar products to ensure they are making the right informed buying decision. CNET Channel's structured product data, which is called Transactive Product Data™ (TPD™), enables fast, detailed searching and comparison as well as full display of product information. About CNET Channel # # # CNET Channel contact: Kaizo contact PC Business World Business contact: |