WEB.DE Enters Growth Market for PC Security
Karlsruhe, Germany, June 3, 2004. The onslaught of constantly new virus attacks against digital communications is steadily getting worse. Ever more dangerous versions of the threats are spreading more quickly and the user’s need for professional protection is increasing rapidly. The customers of service providers have a strong interest in easily downloadable and automatically updated security services for their local PC’s.
This interest is shared by the Internet portals. Whenever a new virus or worm becomes widespread it can cause severe damage to Internet portals by increasing the network traffic, support calls and also the churn rate of customers – as they lose confidence in the service provider when their computers get infected. That is why Web portals and email service companies have already started to offer their members reliable security concepts to keep e-mails clean from viruses. But viruses spreading through email is not the only problem. Network worms can also gain control of a computer whenever it logs on to the Internet by exploiting security flaws in the operating system. For this reason it is crucial to bring protection – both antivirus software and a firewall with intrusion prevention – also to all the desktop computers in the service provider’s network.
WEB.DE AG in Karlsruhe is the latest Web portal to add F-Secure protection for their customers. WEB.DE is one of the most successful German companies operating in the high-growth and future-oriented Internet market. Providing access to 21 portals as well as numerous services, the Internet portal WEB.DE is one of the most popular German online offerings. More than 30 % of German Internet users are also WEB.DE users. WEB.DE and F-Secure are now working together in order to offer WEB.DE members comprehensive protection against viruses, worms, and hackers. Statistics show that the F-Secure service is systematically faster in protecting against new threats compared to major competitive services.
As a first step, WEB.DE is equipping its premium e-mail offer WEB.DE Club with an additional professional PC virus protection. This enables the more than 10 million WEB.DE users to include a high-quality antivirus service into their monthly WEB.DE subscription. This will continue to accelerate the growth of this digital service (+ 300% subscribers since the beginning of 2003). The current 250,000 Club members will also be able to use this additional service for 12 months as part of their existing membership. WEB.DE Club is the only premium e-mail service in Germany offering its users comprehensive computer protection against viruses, worms, and other computer network threats at no additional charge.
In addition to the integration in the WEB.DE Club, WEB.DE offers additional F-Secure security services under its own “WEB.DE Edition”-brand for all users to purchase and download: “F-Secure Anti-Virus WEB.DE Edition” and “F-Secure Internet Security-WEB.DE Edition.”
WEB.DE chief executive Matthias Greve says: “Virus protection and PC security is an extremely attractive market due to its constantly increasing importance for the user, and with F-Secure we have a partner whose security products are already utilized by over 20 ISPs worldwide. We believe that the WEB.DE users will readily accept these new services.” Digital Services enjoyed the strongest growth in 2003 at WEB.DE (+ 74% year-to-year comparison) and will also contribute considerably to the aspired growth of 35 to 40% in 2004.
About WEB.DE AG
WEB.DE AG, Karlsruhe, is the operator of the Internet portal WEB.DE (http://web.de), which currently reaches one in three Internet users in Germany (9.3 million monthly users, source: Nielsen NetRatings, April 2004). With an array of 21 portals, which are comprised of 300 theme areas and numerous services, WEB.DE boasts one of the most comprehensive German online offerings. The share of WEB.DE AG is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ISIN DE 000 5296503) and is a constituent of the technology selection index TecDAX. Since Q4/2002 (break-even), WEB.DE has been in the black.
About F-Secure
F-Secure Corporation protects individuals and businesses against computer viruses and other threats coming through the Internet or mobile networks. Our award-winning solutions include antivirus, desktop firewall with intrusion prevention and network encryption. Our key strength is the speed of response to new threats. For businesses our solutions feature centralized management. Founded in 1988, F-Secure has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges since 1999. We have our headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, and offices in USA, France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Japan. F-Secure is supported by a global ecosystem of value added resellers and distributors in over 50 countries. F-Secure protection is also available through major Internet Service Providers, such as Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom.