FIVE DOTCOMS SELECT ORACLE8i OVER MICROSOFT SQL SERVER

Oracle Corp, a provider of software for e-business, announces that five rapidly growing dotcoms have either replaced Microsoft SQL Server with Oracle8i or have selected Oracle8i over Microsoft SQL Server to meet heavy demands on their sites. The five companies -- GUILD.com, idmarket.com, quepasa.com, Sparks.com and WHN (parent company of WhatsHotNow.com) -- are confident that their new Oracle8i database platform will keep pace with the growing traffic on their sites, as well as deliver the performance and quick response times needed for optimum customer service.

GUILD.com

GUILD.com, a Madison, Wis.-based company that offers the world's most complete online collection of original art, launched its Microsoft SQL Serverbased Website in March 1999. Traffic to the site tripled every month in the first three months, from a couple dozen simultaneous users to more than 200. By the end of spring, scalability problems arose.

"We migrated from Microsoft SQL Server because we needed much more scalable muscle. Oracle gives us that," said Nathan Harper, GUILD.com's CIO. "We also wanted a partner with technical credibility in the investment community, a 'speed' ethic, bandwidth and a broad product line."

idmarket.com

idmarket.com's e-business technology had to be able to move at warp speed in order to succeed in the customized packaging and identification products industries. As a result, the company chose to base their new Web-enabled marketplace on Oracle8i over Microsoft SQL Server. With e-business under control, idmarket can move forward with their plans to serve as a news and information resource for OEMs, suppliers, distributor, brokers and converters for packaging and identification products.

"In the e-commerce market, millions of dollars are at stake each day, and ebusinesses cannot afford to lose customers due to poor site performance," said Chris Duffy, idmarket.com's CTO. "Oracle8i offers our site greater performance and more stability, while at the same time providing us greater expansion capabilities as we continue to reach more customers."

quepasa.com

Quepasa.com, the premier online community for U.S. Hispanics, recently migrated from Microsoft SQL Server to Oracle8i to manage a rapid increase in membership and extend its ability to capture one of the fastest growing online segments -- the $443 billion U.S. Hispanic market. Oracle8i enables quepasa.com to meet the needs of its members who desire a complete suite of valuable interactive services and relevant content in English and Spanish.

"Quepasa.com has become one of the most highly visited Websites for U.S. Latinos," said Gary L. Trujillo, Chairman and CEO, quepasa.com. "Because of our need to manage significant current and future growth, we decided to migrate from Microsoft SQL Server to Oracle8i since it has received high marks for performance and scalability. We believe Oracle8i is a winning product that meets the needs of quepasa.com and we look forward to a long, successful relationship with Oracle."

Sparks.com

To make sure their customers get the best possible experience in the face of their red-hot growth, San Francisco-based online card store Sparks.com is migrating from their Microsoft SQL 7 Server database to Oracle8i.

"We needed much more than what we could get from Microsoft. With Oracle, we have higher availability and scalability in a parallel server architecture -- and we need that with our load of shoppers," says Jason Monberg, Sparks.com's CTO. "Our customers get faster pages and better up-time for a completely seamless experience. That keeps them coming back."