Vistaprint 2006 Annual Report Download - page 25

Table of Contents
We depend on search engines to attract a substantial portion of the customers who visit our websites, and losing these customers
would adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Many customers access our websites by clicking through on search results displayed by search engines such as Google and Yahoo!.
Search engines typically provide two types of search results, algorithmic and purchased listings. Algorithmic listings cannot be purchased, and
instead are determined and displayed solely by a set of formulas designed by the search engine. Purchased listings can be purchased by
advertisers in order to attract users to their websites. We rely on both algorithmic and purchased listings to attract and direct a substantial portion
of the customers we serve. Search engines revise their algorithms from time to time in an attempt to optimize their search result listings. If search
engines on which we rely for algorithmic listings modify their algorithms, this could result in fewer customers clicking through to our websites,
requiring us to resort to other costly resources to replace this traffic, which, in turn, could reduce our operating and net income or our revenues,
prevent us from maintaining profitability and harm our business. If one or more search engines on which we rely for purchased listings modifies or
terminates its relationship with us, our expenses could rise, our revenues could decline and our business may suffer. The cost of purchased
search listing advertising is rapidly increasing as demand for these channels continues to grow quickly, and further increases could have negative
effects on our profitability.
Various private ‘spam’ blacklisting or similar entities have in the past, and may in the future, interfere with our e−mail solicitation and
the operation of our websites and our ability to conduct business.
We depend on e−mail to market to and communicate with our customers. Various private entities attempt to regulate the use of e−mail for
commercial solicitation. These entities often advocate standards of conduct or practice that significantly exceed current legal requirements and
classify certain e−mail solicitations that comply with current legal requirements as unsolicited bulk e−mails, or ‘spam’. Some of these entities
maintain ‘blacklists’ of companies and individuals, and the websites, Internet service providers and Internet protocol addresses associated with
those entities or individuals, that do not adhere to what the blacklisting entity believes are appropriate standards of conduct or practices for
commercial e−mail solicitations. If a company’s Internet protocol addresses are listed by a blacklisting entity, e−mails sent from those addresses
may be blocked if they are sent to any Internet domain or Internet address that subscribes to the blacklisting entity’s service or purchases its
blacklist.
Some of our Internet protocol addresses currently are listed with one or more blacklisting entities despite our belief that our commercial
e−mail solicitations comply with all applicable laws. In the future, our other Internet protocol addresses may also be listed with one or more
blacklisting entities. We may not be successful in convincing the blacklisting entities to remove us from their lists. Although the blacklisting we
have experienced in the past has not had a significant impact on our ability to operate our websites or to send commercial e−mail solicitations, it
has, from time to time, interfered with our ability to send operational e−mails—such as password reminders, invoices and electronically delivered
products—to customers and others. In addition, as a result of being blacklisted, we have had disputes with, or concerns raised by, various service
providers who perform services for us, including co−location and hosting services, Internet service providers and electronic mail distribution
services. There can be no guarantee that we will not continue to be blacklisted or that we will be able to successfully remove ourselves from those
lists. Blacklisting of this type could interfere with our ability to market our products and services, communicate with our customers and otherwise
operate our websites, all of which could have a material negative impact on our business and results of operations.
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