ePublicEye.com Enters Strategic Alliance with La Opinión to Support E-commerce Among Spanish Speaking Internet Users.

Los Angeles, CA. -- October 12,1999 --ePublicEye.com the largest aggregator of customer satisfaction data on small to mid sized Internet companies, announced today that it has entered in to agreement with La Opinión, the nation's leading Spanish language newspaper, to help Spanish speaking consumers find reliable Internet merchants. Under the agreement, the partnership has launched a Spanish translated version of ePublicEye.com's merchant monitoring and rating service. The service allows subscribing merchants to be monitored 24 hours a day for reliability and customer satisfaction. Internet shoppers are then given access to, consumer generated, reliability ratings that measure merchant performance in key areas , including management accessibility, safety of payment process, reliability of advertising claims, on-time delivery, customer support, refund policy, privacy practices, and comparative prices. This service's primary focus is directed toward adding confidence to the Spanish speaking population's purchasing decisions on the Web and stimulating the inclusion of Spanish speaking merchants into e-commerce.

The buying power of the US Latino marketplace is approximately $383 billion—as reported by a study conducted by the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia in late 1998. According to the Bureau of the Censuss' Current Population Reports 1995-2050, the US Latino population is estimated at over 30 million and projected to grow at 10 times the rate of other ethnic groups, including whites. "This is a huge and vastly under served market on the Internet. We are committed to ensuring that the Hispanic community has access to the best resources and information for making safer purchases online," said Errol Smith co-founder of ePublicEye.com. La Opinión's commitment to the Spanish speaking community is well established and we are pleased to partner with them on this initiative," says Smith.

Domestically, according to a TNS Intersearch study that appeared in the May, 1999, Hispanic Market Weekly, 32% of PC owning households in the US are Latino; 59% of those are on-line. Hispanics are the fastest growing segment in Internet access, and 99% of them recognize La Opinión's brand in Southern California. As e-commerce grows, so will the need for certified web sites, and ePublicEye.com is not only a leader in this, but is also the only company that provides this service in Spanish," said Hugo Enciso La Opinión's Business Development Manager. "Therefore, the benefits of our partnership are clear: we both will gain traffic and brand recognition, and Hispanic consumers will benefit from the reliability and trust provided by this alliance."

Under the terms of the agreement ePublicEye.com and La Opinión will co-promote the service, and share in the revenues generated from subscription fees and enhanced services.

About ePublicEye.com:

Since 1996 ePublicEye.comhas maintained a focus on building confidence between consumers and small to mid-sized Internet merchants. Pioneers in the use of consumer feedback to promote safer e-commerce, ePublicEye.com the largest aggregator of customer satisfaction data in this market segment, trusted by over 7,500 small to mid-sized merchants to continually survey their customers. As a result, ePublicEye.com is uniquely positioned to support the expanding roll of Spanish speaking community in the e-commerce revolution.

About La Opinión

La Opinión is the nation's largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, founded in 1926 in Los Angeles, CA. it circulates throughout the five-county Southern California area and reaches over half a million readers. The paper has been published by the Lozano family since its founding. La Opinión also has established marketing partnerships with the Los Angeles Times, KMEX-TV(Univision), Radio Unica and Grupo Gigante supermarkets, and is about to launch its new web site with all the newspaper content online, archive search capabilities and other useful features.

To visit the beta site go to http://espanol.epubliceye.com

For more information Contact William Clinkscales at 818/547-0222 or wms@epubliceye.com