Walla! likely to launch world’s first 1-GB e-mail service

Walla!’s new service, which will be free of charge, will include anti-spam and anti-virus software, and will be able to deliver files of up to 30 megabytes (MBs).

Walla Communications (TASE: WALA) Israel’s leading Internet portal with 75,000 customers, reported this morning plans to become the first company in the world to provide one-gigabyte (GB) e-mailboxes to its customers. The new service, which will be free of charge, will include anti-spam and anti-virus services, with no obligation.

Walla! will initially operate a beta version of the new service, and plans to offer the service to the public at large two months from now. The service will be able to deliver files of up to 30 megabytes (MBs).

Walla! is currently completely a project considered to be one of the most complex in the Internet field, due to the advanced storage and management infrastructures it requires. Walla! CTO Erez Pilosof said the project would move the Israeli broadband market up another level, and enable surfers to enjoy storage volumes suitable for constantly expanding broadband e-mail traffic.

This development will have profound consequences for the revenue model of portals and Internet providers collecting fees for basic and value added services from the end customer.

Walla! VP marketing and business development Galit Lifshits Melamed said that under the new model Walla! was announcing today, mass market services (including high-volume e-mail, anti-spam, and anti-virus) would be financed from external sources, such as advertisers and interested business concerns, rather than by the consumers themselves. The current general trend is for companies to seek to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU) by selling value added services to the end consumer.

This measure joins a variety of services launched by Walla! over the past year.

Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on April 21, 2004

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