Customer experienced 2X improvement in performance leveraging Akamai’s comprehensive solution set
CAMBRIDGE, MA AND SALT LAKE CITY, UT – December 10, 2008 – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, and Vehix, a multi-platform digital automotive network, today announced that Akamai’s Dynamic Site Accelerator service is accelerating its automotive web site. More than 2 million unique visitors each month visit www.vehix.com. Vehix is also using Akamai’s Media Delivery solution to deliver rich, online video content, such as video buying guides on Vehix’s Video Center. Powered by Akamai, Vehix delivers informative, easy-to-use, and interactive online video buying guides, allowing consumers to conduct automotive research that makes their car-buying experience easier and more enjoyable.
E-commerce web sites are becoming richer – offering more dynamic content, applications, and video. To engage shoppers, these features must load quickly and perform as expected. Vehix is leveraging the globally-distributed Akamai Platform to improve performance across its site, including image delivery, dynamic elements – such as search inventory, research pages, ratings and forums – and video assets, creating a complete high-quality online experience and user engagement for consumers and car dealers through its online community.
“From comparing information on resale values to researching for a new car model, our site is an active marketplace where consumers and dealers gather the latest car information,” said Michael van Thiel, chief technology officer, Vehix. “And as online communities become more sophisticated, consumers seek far more innovative, personalized features as part of their web experiences. Therefore, we’ve added more dynamic content, video and applications to our site that ensure an engaging, interactive experience for our users and dealers in which they can search, preview and watch video reliably and quickly when looking for car information. We have seen improvement in speed double in certain parts of the country and expect more as we fully optimize Akamai’s offering. Akamai is the clear choice for us to deliver such an engaging online user experience.”
Leveraging Akamai’s Media Delivery solution, e-commerce customers such as Vehix can deliver and deploy video quickly and effectively, allowing customers to view rich media without the typical loading, buffering and playback issues that often plagues streaming video. Akamai’s Dynamic Site Accelerator solution is designed to speed up and accelerate the delivery of dynamic and interactive content and transactions. As a result, e-commerce customers have indicated that Akamai’s solutions help them meet today’s consumer expectations for a fast-loading, always available site, regardless of the number of interactive elements, dynamically-generated content, or variance in Internet conditions.
“The trend to leverage online video, user forums and reviews, as well as other social media and interactive features on e-commerce sites, is expected to continue as retailers discover the real value of rich media and Internet applications. Akamai is key to ensuring this multi-platform approach via our broad solution set,” said Brad Rinklin, vice president, global marketing, Akamai. “We believe that by leveraging Akamai’s Dynamic Site Accelerator and Media Delivery solutions, our customers can not only accelerate the delivery and performance of their dynamic content and applications online, but can also provide the best possible online shopping environment for end-users who expect an engaging and interactive site.”
About Vehix
Vehix is a multi-platform digital automotive network designed to provide consumers with a truly one-stop automotive shopping experience. Vehix, through its unique content, inventory and advertising network, offers superior written and video content, objective third-party information and best-in-class research tools. All of Vehix’s car research and purchase tools are available on multiple platforms, including the Internet, cable television, video-on-demand, and on mobile devices. Vehix launched in 1996 as an online automotive portal designed to facilitate the research and purchase processes for consumers. Vehix is owned by Comcast Spotlight, a division of Comcast Cable. For more information, visit www.vehix.com.
The Akamai Difference
Akamai® provides market-leading managed services for powering rich media, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai’s services have been adopted by the world’s most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai’s global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, interact, and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com.
