Digital River Unveils its New SoftwarePassport Technology

Hosts webcast today at 12:00 p.m. EDT on how to drive global online sales through a new DRM approach called Digital Revenue Management

HostReview.com
Wednesday, April 14, 2004; 12:00 AM

MINNEAPOLIS, April 14, 2004-- Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV), a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, today announced it has taken an entirely new approach to Digital Rights Management (DRM) with the introduction of its SoftwarePassport™ technology. Operating as an integrated part of Digital River's comprehensive e-commerce platform, SoftwarePassport is designed to go beyond traditional DRM, offering software publishers Digital Revenue Management. With its sophisticated marketing and licensing capabilities, it is intended to enable publishers to not only protect their software, but also market, sell, distribute and track their digital assets across untapped, global online markets.

“With the introduction of SoftwarePassport, Digital River is going on the offense,” said Joel Ronning, Digital River's CEO. “We are departing from the traditional defensive approach to Digital Rights Management to focus on revenue generation. Consequently, we have created a new approach called Digital Revenue Management. By embracing this change in mindset, we believe software publishers can enhance their ability to enter rapidly-developing online markets that are growing out of the increasing shift from physical to digital delivery.”

According to some industry reports, the digital sale and delivery of software worldwide is expected to grow significantly through 2006. When segmented by region, some estimates indicate that this growth is even stronger outside North America with digital delivery anticipated to grow at more than 60 percent per year as compared to growth within North America of nearly 38 percent per year.

“With our SoftwarePassport technology, we intend to help our clients proactively and strategically expand their online businesses by opening up sales opportunities in international regions that historically have been considered high-risk markets either because of piracy levels or other complex e-commerce requirements,” said Ronning. “Using our technology, publishers now will be able to vary the price of their software and manage their licenses on a country-by-country basis so they can make purchasing their products online as affordable for a consumer in China as the United States. By being able to more effectively meet the socio-economic purchasing profiles of a particular country, we believe publishers can significantly increase their ability to generate revenues in geographies that until now were considered too risky or cost prohibitive to enter.”

SoftwarePassport integrated with Digital River's global e-commerce solution is designed to enable publishers to proactively create, protect and measure global online revenue streams in developing and existing e-commerce markets. SoftwarePassport is intended to help publishers:
Control and automatically limit the price point and activation of a product by country to meet local price thresholds;
Easily manage their digital assets and online marketing strategies through a single wizard interface;
Create a seamless online buying experience for their customers through convenient in-application purchase pages;
Cost effectively distribute a product title into multiple online markets – trialware, direct and retail – through a single, simplified process; and
Customize protection through delivery, control, activation and monitoring of licenses for proper usage and payment.

“Once companies make the shift from physical to digital delivery, they automatically enter the global marketplace,” continued Ronning. “The challenge of conducting business in global online markets is being prepared to compete regionally by selling at local, cultural levels. Digital River is prepared to take charge at these local levels, which represent uncharted business territories for many companies. We intend to be a global e-commerce guide for our clients, leading them through the very complex issues involved in running an international online operation. By integrating SoftwarePassport into our already-established e-commerce platform, we can offer our clients a seamless solution for selling and protecting their digital assets in online markets.”

Together, Digital River's e-commerce capabilities and platform offer companies a comprehensive solution for running an online business on a worldwide basis. Not only does Digital River build, host and manage e-commerce sites on behalf of its nearly 35,000 clients, but it also handles the complex global operations related to anti-piracy, governance, currency management, taxation, fraud prevention, multi-lingual customer service and localized and cultural approaches to optimizing online purchasing.

Digital River plans to provide more details about its SoftwarePassport technology during a webcast titled, “Digital Revenue Management: A New Approach to Digital Rights Management.” The 60-minute webcast, aimed at key marketing and sales executives responsible for online sales and international expansion, will be held today, Wednesday, April 14, 2004, at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Dave Alampi, vice president of product marketing and management at Digital River, will host the webcast forum.

To join the webcast, login at http://www.placeware.com/cc/esdevents/A?id=digitalriver0414&pw=946118 . The audio for the webcast may be heard inside the United States or Canada by dialing: (800) 214-0745; or internationally by calling: +1 (719) 457-0700. The webcast passcode is 760482.

About Digital River
Digital River, Inc., a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, builds and manages online businesses for nearly 35,000 companies worldwide. Its e-commerce solution and infrastructure are designed to help companies of all sizes maximize online revenues as well as cut the costs and reduce the risks associated with running an e-commerce operation. The Digital River® international e-commerce suite includes site development and hosting, order management, fraud prevention, site merchandising, reporting and analytics, product fulfillment, e-marketing and multi-lingual customer service. Digital River's clients include 3M, ACT!, Autodesk, H&R Block, Motorola, Novell, Staples.com and Symantec.

Founded in 1994, Digital River is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices throughout the United States and in Europe. For more details about Digital River, visit the corporate Web site at www.digitalriver.com or call 952-253-1234.

Digital River is a registered trademark and SoftwarePassport is a trademark of Digital River, Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks, registrations or copyrights of their respective owners.