System sells stats on demand
Stat-USA, the Commerce Department's fee-funded statistics retailer, has put up an online newsstand that lets customers buy individual documents through a third-party transaction service. "As far as we can tell, we're the first agency to use this kind of system," Stat-USA director Ken Rogers said.
Stat-USA, the Commerce Departments fee-funded statistics retailer, has put up an As far as we can tell, were the first agency to use this kind of The documents already were available to paying subscribers through the Web site at The Newstand service provided by QPass Inc. of Seattle requires that buyers register Stat-USA began operating as a commercial enterprise in 1995, when Commerce took it The first year, we lost a large amount, Rogers said. The second years In the last two years, Stat-USA has taken in significantly more than it has spent and Today, about 75,000 subscribers each pay Stat-USA $150 per year or $50 per quarter. A survey two years ago of lapsed Stat-USA subscribers showed many wanted information A pay-per-use option is less expensive for these users, Wendling said. It would be enormously expensive for us to develop a system like this QPass officials regard Stat-USA as an ideal content provider because its data is unique A customer registers with QPass in a Secure Sockets Layer session, gives a credit card QPass Engine software runs at the content providers site to furnish pricing and Thats our point of integration to the Web site, Willis said. Newstand sells documents from Stat-USAs National Trade Data Bank, Globus and Software agents produce document descriptions and access document files when customers Users must supply a QPass password the first time they request a document during a QPass retains individual customer information, but content providers can track The QPass system can work with any kind of digital material, from streaming video to Every dollar that comes in is vital to Stat-USAs survival, but Rogers said that, I would not want to go back to an appropriated budget, he said. We
online newsstand that lets customers buy individual documents through a third-party
transaction service.
system, Stat-USA director Ken Rogers said.
http://www.stat-usa.gov. But Newstand, which opened Dec. 8 at the site, sells individual
documents to nonsubscribers for $1 to $20 apiece.
for a free QPass membership and bill charges to credit cards. QPass is adding more content
providers to its system, including other government agencies, said Cornelius Willis, vice
president of sales and marketing.
off-budget and set up a revolving fund from sales of economic reports,
business-opportunity lists and other trade data.
loss was about $12,000.
has replenished the revolving fund, Rogers said.
They also can buy site licenses. But the pay-per-use model promises to open a
significantly larger market.
only for a limited time or a specific purpose, said Bob Wendling, the marketing director.
Web site visits also showed a sharp drop-off when the visitors encountered the quarterly
or yearly registration process.
Economical technology for small, one-time purchases was not available, however, until
QPass approached Stat-USA.
in-house, Rogers said.
and authoritative. That is the key to selling a digital product, Willis said.
number and receives a password. Customer data is maintained on Hewlett-Packard Co. HP 9000
servers running Microsoft Windows NT at a secure service center hosted by Exodus Corp. of
Seattle.
rules tied to uniform resource locators. A control station lets the content provider
specify each items price.
State of the Nation collections. The Web site servers run Windows NT at Commerce
headquarters, and two dedicated servers run the QPass software.
request them, passing on the transaction information to QPass for credit card billing.
browser session.
commercial activity on a Web site. Within the first week Newstand was open for business,
it sold several thousand dollars worth of documents at no more than $20 each.
database searches. Because it all is tied to the URL, it doesnt matter what
they sell, Willis said.
despite the attendant risks of operating that way, he is happy with the status as a
fee-based service provider.
have more flexibility. And, lets face it, its fun making money.