Bill Chasse, a 10-year veteran of the small business and list delivery practices at infoUSA, has been tapped as president/CEO of the data compiler's new Internet division, infoUSA.com, which will launch a revamped Web site next month.
Chasse had formerly been president of the Omaha, NE, company's small business and consumer group. infoUSA.com is being repositioned as a vertical portal catering specifically to small businesses and entrepreneurs. It will be based in Sunnyvale, CA.
“We're going from a destination site to a sticky Internet site for small businesses,” Chasse said.
infoUSA chairman/CEO Vin Gupta is betting that the Internet will be a primary driver of the company's future growth.
The new Web site will offer users a menu of resources designed to keep them at the site, including information on starting, financing and managing a business, a national Yellow Pages directory and the requisite business sales leads and mailing list products. Other firsts include the availability of consumer lists and the sale of advertising as well as free e-mail, news and stock quotes.
Products of partner companies will be sold on the site. One of the first offerings will be a Web site directory constructed by matching the registration file of Internet domain provider Network Solutions, Reston, VA, with the infoUSA business database. Small business content will be extracted from the database of published works from Commerce Clearing House.
infoUSA has formed a partnership with Internet mailing service E-Letter, San Jose, CA, that will enable users to write and mail a letter online to a list uploaded from its consumer or business database.
infoUSA will build traffic for the site through its largest advertising campaign ever that will roll out the week of May 17. The national campaign will include 30-second TV spots on CNBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg and the CNN airport network as well as print ads in Red Herring, Business 2.0, CIO, Internet World. Traffic also will be generated by offering a private label yellow and white page service to Internet licensees, portals and Intranet sites that will automatically link them to infoUSA.com.
