Enom 2010 Annual Report Download - page 20

Table of Contents
We face significant competition to our Content & Media service offering, which we expect will continue to intensify, and we may not be able to maintain
or improve our competitive position or market share.
We operate in highly competitive and still developing markets. We compete for advertisers and customers on the basis of a number of factors including
return on marketing expenditures, price of our offerings, and ability to deliver large volumes or precise types of customer traffic. This competition could make
it more difficult for us to provide value to our consumers, our advertisers and our freelance content creators and result in increased pricing pressure, reduced
profit margins, increased sales and marketing expenses, decreased website traffic and failure to increase, or the loss of, market share, any of which would
likely seriously harm our business, revenue, financial condition and results of operations. There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete
successfully against current or future competitors.
We face intense competition from a wide range of competitors, including online marketing and media companies, integrated social media platforms and
other specialist and enthusiast websites. Our current principal competitors include:
Online Marketing and Media Companies. We compete with other Internet marketing and media companies, such as AOL, About.com and
various startup companies as well as leading online media companies such as Yahoo!, for online marketing budgets. Most of these competitors
compete with us across several areas of consumer interest, such as do-it-yourself, health, home and garden, golf, outdoors and humor.
Integrated Social Media Applications. We compete with various software technology competitors, such as Jive Software and Lithium, in the
integrated social media space where we offer our social media applications.
Specialized and Enthusiast Websites. We compete with companies that provide specialized consumer information websites, particularly in the
do-it-yourself, health, home and garden, golf, outdoors and humor categories, as well as enthusiast websites in specific categories, including
message boards, blogs and other enthusiast websites maintained by individuals and other Internet companies.
Distributed Content Creation Platforms. We compete with a growing number of companies, such as AOL and Yahoo! that employ a content
creation model with aspects similar to our platform, such as the use of freelance content creators.
We may be subject to increased competition with any of these types of businesses in the future to the extent that they seek to devote increased resources
to more directly address the online market for the professional creation of commercially valuable content at scale. For example, if Google chose to compete
more directly with us, we may face the prospect of the loss of business or other adverse financial consequences given that Google possesses a significantly
greater consumer base, financial resources, distribution channels and patent portfolio. In addition, should Google decide to directly compete with us in areas
such as content creation, it may decide for competitive reasons to terminate or not renew our commercial agreements and, in such an event, we may
experience a rapid decline in our revenue from the loss of our source for cost-per-click advertising on our owned and operated websites and on our network of
customer websites. In addition, Google's access to more comprehensive data regarding user search queries through its search algorithms would give it a
significant competitive advantage over everyone in the industry, including us. If this data is used competitively by Google, sold to online publishers or given
away for free, our business may face increased competition from companies, including Google, with substantially greater resources, brand recognition and
established market presence.
In addition to Google, many of our current and other potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as greater name recognition,
longer operating histories, substantially
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