San Mateo, CA and Tokyo, Japan -- November 21, 2003 --Weblog software leader Six Apart and NIFTY, one of Japan's leading ISP, have announced a licensing agreement to provide Six Apart's popular TypePad™ weblogging service to over five million NIFTY subscribers in Japan. The ISP licensing agreement, Six Apart's first, signals the beginning of the company's global rollout of its highly-acclaimed weblogging tools.

Starting December 2, 2003, NIFTY will offer "Cocolog," a service powered by Six Apart's TypePad software and customized for NIFTY and Japanese customers. The service will be offered to NIFTY's paying subscribers without additional charge and allow them to easily set up and maintain fully-featured private or public weblogs.

The companies said the agreement is the first in a number of partnerships the firms are discussing together to offer additional services to Japanese users. Terms of the agreement, which include localization, customization and per user licensing fees, were not disclosed.

Weblogs, commonly referred to as "blogs" for short, are one of the fastest growing phenomena on the web, with millions of webloggers all over the world participating in the medium by publishing their thoughts on any topic in this simple, richly linked format. Six Apart, founded by the husband and wife team of Ben Trott and Mena G. Trott, has been a technological innovator in the weblog space since its launch of Movable Type in October 2001. The company's second and highly-acclaimed product, TypePad, offers a hosted service with powerful yet intuitive tools for creating accessible, media-rich weblogs and photo albums.

"People want to share their experiences, opinions and photos with their families and friends, no matter where they live," said Mena Trott, Six Apart's chief executive officer. "NIFTY has already given Japanese users a way to tap into the Internet to communicate, and we're pleased to help them expand their users' horizons through weblogging. We look forward to continuing to partner with NIFTY on a number of new services in the future."

"We believe that weblogs can potentially change not only the way the Internet is used, but also generate new business models," said Tatsuzumi Furukawa, president of NIFTY Corporation. "We chose Six Apart because of the quality of their TypePad service and believe our partnership with them will help weblogs become more popular in Japan, as well as allow new Internet applications to be created.?

Separately, Six Apart announced the formation of Six Apart KK, a wholly owned subsidiary formed to further commercialize the company's weblogging software and services for the Japanese market. Six Apart KK is expected to be operational this month.

About Six Apart Ltd.

Six Apart Ltd., based in San Mateo, CA, is the company behind the Movable Type personal publishing system and the TypePad personal weblogging service. Founded by husband and wife team Ben Trott and Mena G. Trott in 2002 and funded by Neoteny Co., Ltd, Six Apart creates tools that enable tens of thousands of individuals, organizations and corporations to participate in the web's full potential by publishing their ideas on the Internet with simple, yet powerful software and services. For more information about Six Apart, TypePad and Movable Type, visit the Six Apart corporate weblog at www.sixapart.com

About NIFTY Corporation

Established in 1986 as a privately held subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited, NIFTY Corporation, based in Tokyo Japan, is the operator of @nifty Internet services. Since the launch of the NIFTY SERVE, the Japanese online service in 1987, Nifty has grown to be Japan's largest full range online content and services provider with over 5 million users and revenues in 2002 of over $600 million.

Contact:

Krause Taylor Associates for Six Apart Jane Anderson 650-854-3883 direct 408-918-9080 main ja@mailblocks.com

Posted by nseki at 11 21, 2003 12:00 AM