Classmates.com 2008 Annual Report Download - page 11

Table of Contents
ship partners maintain substantially all floral and specialty gift physical inventory and facilities, and therefore bear the cost of warehousing and
distribution. Our distribution networks also allow our consumer businesses to process peak order flow substantially above that of our average
daily order flow.
Florist Businesses.
FTD provides a comprehensive suite of products and services that promote revenue growth and enhance the operating
efficiencies of its florist members, including services that enable its members to receive, send and deliver floral orders. FTD provides these
services to its network of independent florist members, which includes traditional retail florists as well as other retailers offering floral and
related products and services, that are located primarily in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and The Republic of Ireland. The large network of
affiliated FTD and Interflora florist members provides an order fulfillment vehicle for our consumer business and allows FTD to offer same day
delivery capability to nearly 100% of U.S., Canadian, U.K., and Irish populations.
FTD products and services available to its members include: access to the FTD and Interflora brands and the Mercury Man logo, supported
by various advertising campaigns; access to the FTD florist network; credit card processing services; e-commerce Web sites; online advertising
tools; and telephone answering and order-taking services. FTD also provides point-of-sale and related technology systems that enable its florist
members to transmit and receive orders and manage several back office functions of a member's business, including accounting, customer
relationship management, direct marketing campaigns, and delivery route management. FTD also acts as a national wholesaler to florist
members, providing FTD-branded and non-
branded hard goods and cut flowers as well as packaging, promotional products and a wide variety of
other floral-related supplies.
Our strategy for the FTD segment includes the following key elements: attract and retain consumer customers and generate additional order
volume through innovative marketing initiatives, including cross-marketing to Classmates, MyPoints, NetZero and Juno members; expand our
consumer product offerings; increase the number of florists in our network and expand our suite of florist products and services; and increase our
presence in alternative retail channels such as supermarkets.
Classmates Media
Our Classmates Media services include online social networking under the Classmates brand and online loyalty marketing under the
MyPoints brand. Our Classmates Media services also include international social networking under the StayFriends and Trombi brands. For
additional information regarding our Classmates Media segment, see Note 3—"
Segment Information" of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial
Statements, which appears in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Online Social Networking
Our social networking Web sites enable users to locate and interact with acquaintances from their past, with school affiliations as the
primary focus. Led by our flagship Classmates Web site ( www.classmates.com ) that serves the U.S. and Canada, our social networking
properties comprise a large and diverse population of users, with over 50 million registered accounts at December 31, 2008.
Using our interactive tools and features, our members have contributed to our social networking Web sites a substantial number of distinct,
relevant pieces of content, such as names, school affiliations, profiles, biographies, interests, and photos. Our large membership base and the
extensive user-generated content posted on our Web sites assist us in acquiring new members, and we receive tens of thousands of new free
account registrations each day. We believe this valuable content also brings existing members back to our Web sites, with a significant number
of our members visiting our Web sites on a recurring basis over many years.
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