Christian Website iBelieve.com to Return

Posted on July 26, 2002

iBelieve.com, a popular Christian website, is returning under new ownership. Jabez Networks, Inc. announced it acquired the assets of iBelieve.com from national Christian retailer Family Christian Stores (FCS) for undisclosed terms. FCS will remain affiliated with iBelieve.com as an ecommerce and marketing partner.

When the site was shut down a year and a half ago, iBelieve.com had 60 ministry partners and 550,000 registered users. Jabez Networks plans to rebuild iBelieve.com into a network of subscription-based Christian websites and expects initial partners to span a number of leading Christian organizations and service providers. Jabez has relaunched the iBelieve.com site as a free website with limited content and plans to offer subscription-based services in the next several months, in addition to a large offering of free content and community features. Jabez Networks has a background in subscription-based Internet content, including success with its Rivals.com sports network.

"Like Rivals, iBelieve.com was the epitome of the dot-com craze with major venture capital investment and a huge marketing budget. Both sites filled a clear consumer need and grew rapidly to brand leadership in their respective categories, but their business models were not sustainable," said Jerry Cover, chief executive officer of Jabez Networks. "By simply offering the most enticing portions of Rivals' content under a subscription model, while continuing to provide a good quantity of free content and community features, we quickly turned that network around and became cash-flow positive in just seven months. We expect to do the same with iBelieve.com."

The new iBelieve.com's revenue model will be driven by partner and network-wide subscriptions, unlike its predecessor site, which generated revenues principally from advertising and product sales. All areas of the iBelieve.com Network are currently free for registered users. Subscriptions for some of the content will be phased in this fall and range from individual partner site subscriptions for $5.95 per month to run-of-the-network subscriptions for $9.95 per month.

iBelieve.com is currently online with community areas such as chat rooms and a prayer request bulletin board, as well as some limited content from the original iBelieve.com site. The site's channels -- Family, Community, Entertainment, Inspiration and Resources -- will be filled with content as new publishing partners, ministries and product and service suppliers join the iBelieve.com Network. Jabez Networks said it expects initial partners to include national men's ministry Promise Keepers; Audible.com; nationally syndicated radio talk show host Dave Ramsey; Fancy Monkey Studios and their family entertainment series Jungle Jam and publisher Nav Press. iBelieve also said it is in discussions with Focus on the Family's new Young Family Outreach initiative to provide premium content to the network.

"A void exists online for the Christian community, and we intend to fill it with a network of relevant partners and with services and features that people desire," said Greg Gough, co-founder of Jabez Networks and president of iBelieve.com. "We have a tremendous asset in the iBelieve.com name and think that by applying our proven business model, we can create a compelling and viable Christian network on the Internet."

Jabez Networks, Inc., an Internet company based in Brentwood, TN, specializes in subscription-based websites and content-management systems for businesses, churches, schools and other organizations. Jabez Networks' partners also own and manage the sports network Rivals.com and FaithSite.com, which provides church content and hosting services for ministries and churches, as well as other properties.