Zip2 was a company that provided and licensed online

city guide A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

software to newspapers. The company was founded in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

as Global Link Information Network in 1995, by Greg Kouri and brothers Elon and Kimbal Musk. Initially, Global Link provided local businesses with an Internet presence, but later began to assist newspapers in designing online city guides before being purchased by Compaq Computer in 1999.

History

Global Link Information Network was founded in 1995 by brothers Elon and Kimbal Musk and

Greg Kouri Greg is a masculine given name, and often a shortened form of the given name Gregory (given name), Gregory. Greg (more commonly spelled "Gregg (surname), Gregg") is also a surname. People with the name *Greg Abbott (disambiguation), multiple peopl ...

with money raised from a small group of

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...

s, plus US$8,000 from Kouri. In

Ashlee Vance Ashlee Vance (born 1977) is an American business columnist and author. His biography of Elon Musk, titled ''Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future'', was released on May 19, 2015. He lives with his wife Melinda and their t ...

's biography of Elon Musk, it is claimed that the Musks' father,

Errol Musk Errol Musk (born 1946) is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer who was once a co-owner of a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika. He is the father of business magnate and billionaire ...

, provided them with US$28,000 during this time, but Elon Musk later denied this. He later clarified that his dad provided around 10% of US$200,000 as part of a later funding round. Initially, Global Link provided local businesses with an Internet presence by linking their services to searchers and providing directions. Elon Musk combined a free Navteq database with a Palo Alto business database to create the first system. In 1996, Global Link received US$3 million in investments from Mohr Davidow Ventures and officially changed its name to Zip2. Davidow Ventures changed the fundamental strategy of Zip2 from localised direct to business sales to instead selling national back end software packages to newspapers to build their own directories. Elon Musk was appointed the Chief Technology Officer and Rich Sorkin became the chief executive officer. Zip2 trademarked "We Power the Press" as its official

slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political slogan, political, Advertising slogan, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the publi ...

and continued to grow. Zip2 struck deals with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brand ...

, and

Hearst Corporation Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...

, and its collaboration with newspapers made it a major component of "the U.S. newspaper industry's response to the online city guide industry", according to the ''

Editor & Publisher ''Editor & Publisher'' (''E&P'') is an American monthly trade news magazine covering the newspaper industry. Published since 1901, ''Editor & Publisher'' is the self-described "bible of the newspaper industry." Originally based in New York City, ...

''. By 1998, the company had partnered with about 160 newspapers to develop guides to cities, either locally or at full scale. According to chairman and co-founder Elon Musk, twenty of those newspapers led to full-scale city guides. ''

'' reported that Zip2 also provided newspapers with an online directory, calendar, and email alongside their core offering.

Product

Zip2 allowed for two-way communication between users and advertisers. Users could message advertisers and have that message forwarded to their fax machine. Likewise, advertisers could fax users and users could view that fax using specific URLs. One Zip2 product was called "Auto Guide". AutoGuide connected online newspaper users with local dealership or private party car sellers.

Merger and acquisition attempts

In April 1998, Zip2 attempted to merge with

CitySearch Citysearch is an online city guide that provides information about businesses in the categories of dining, entertainment, retail, travel, and professional services in cities throughout the United States. Visitors to each of Citysearch's local city ...

, its main competitor. While Musk initially supported the merger, he persuaded the board of directors not to proceed with it. According to ''The New York Times'', the two companies "cited incompatibilities in cultures and technology" as the reason for the merger's failure. In February 1999, Compaq Computer paid US$305 million to acquire Zip2. Elon and Kimbal Musk, the original founders, netted US$22 million and US$15 million respectively. The company was purchased to enhance Compaq's

AltaVista AltaVista was a Web search engine established in 1995. It became one of the most-used early search engines, but lost ground to Google and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, which retained the brand, but based all AltaVista searches on its own sear ...

web search engine.

References

{{Elon Musk 1995 establishments in California 1999 disestablishments in California 1999 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1995 City guides Companies based in Palo Alto, California Elon Musk Software companies based in California Software companies disestablished in 1999 Software companies established in 1995 Software companies of the United States