______________________________________ Stratfor's FREE Kosovo Crisis Center - http://www.stratfor.com/kosovo/crisis/ The most comprehensive coverage of the Kosovo Crisis anywhere on the Internet ______________________________________ Stratfor Launches its Asia Intelligence Center A little over two months ago, Stratfor opened its Kosovo Crisis Center. In a sense, this was an experiment. We wanted to see whether we could use the web to deliver intelligence with the speed of television and the depth of print. The goal was not only to provide news but also Stratfor's own intelligence analysis in real time. This required the crew at Stratfor to give up a few minor pleasures, like sleep, family, friends, and to focus on war, violence, and brutality. But, it beats working for a living. The result seems to be pretty good. In April, we had about 718,000 individual sessions on our site and over 780,000 in May in spite of declining interest in the war here in the United States. That's pretty good for a site that has marketed itself only through a single email and as a header on our GIU. We've decided to try to generate revenue (yes, we need to make money) from advertising rather than charging subscription fees. So please click on our advertising, since we sometimes get paid by the click and it helps keep us away from the dreaded term: subscription fees. Money aside, we are particularly proud of the daily emails condemning us for either being in the pay of the Serb government or NATO dupes. That, plus the fact that we have received emails praising our work from inside of NATO headquarters as well as from Belgrade convinces us, even more than the numbers do, that we have a role to play and a service to provide. In fact, both the Village Voice and Rush Limbaugh have quoted us favorably, which is pretty hard to achieve. The questions keep coming: who are we and what is our agenda? So long as no one can figure that out, we're dong our job: unbiased analysis deriving its authority from its track record rather than credentials. So, we declare the Kosovo site a success. That means that we think we can (a) do this on a broader scale and (b) make money doing it. We are going to broaden our offerings by a quantum leap. We are going global. By the end of this summer, we will have created the following Intelligence Centers: Asia, CIS, Middle East/Africa, Latin America, and Europe, in that sequence. In October, we will open our U.S. Elections Intelligence Center, bringing our focus to domestic American issues for the first time. Whenever a crisis occurs, be it military, financial or political, Stratfor will open its Crisis Center for the kind of extremely intense, highly focused coverage you've seen on our Kosovo site. As our first step, we are officially opening the Asia Intelligence Center. It is modeled on the Kosovo site, containing what we hope is useful information as well as news and analysis. We would like all of you to visit the Asia site by coming to http://www.stratfor.com/ and clicking on the Asia Intelligence Center on the home page. The AIC is already running with news, commentary, special reports, and a growing base of information. Please come visit, use, and advise us. ___________________________________________________ To receive free daily Global Intelligence Updates, sign up on the web at: http://www.stratfor.com/services/giu/subscribe.asp or send your name, organization, position, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________ STRATFOR, Inc. 504 Lavaca, Suite 1100 Austin, TX 78701 Phone: 512-583-5000 Fax: 512-583-5025 Internet: http://www.stratfor.com/ Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
