Keynote and Venturebeat to publish a monthly ‘three screen’ performance benchmark, measuring performance of the leading pre-IPO startups in six categories

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Mateo, California, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) February 22, 2012 -- SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 21, 2012-- Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote® Systems (NASDAQ: KEYN), today announced its partnership with leading technology publication VentureBeat, to publish the Keynote Startup Shootout Index™, Keynote’s first ‘three screen’ performance index, putting the most popular pre-IPO startups in a head to head comparison of website performance from desktops, smartphones and tablets. To see the latest results of Keynote’s inaugural Startup Shootout Index, view: http://venturebeat.com/shootout.

Keynote identified and benchmarked hot startups in the following categories; Collaboration, Digital Entertainment, Mobile & Social Gaming, Social Networking, Social Retail and Travel. Three key performance measurements were collected for all companies to determine the leaders in online performance, measured through Keynote Transaction PerspectiveTM (for performance on a desktop) and Keynote Mobile Web Perspective™ (for performance on an iPhone and iPad).

"Website performance is more important than most companies think," says Dylan Tweney, executive editor at VentureBeat. "For startups, how fast your site responds to user requests is the first chance you have to demonstrate competence, responsiveness and user experience -- all key aspects of your fledgling brand. Everyone knows the frustration of waiting for a mobile site to render. We look forward to shining a three screen spotlight on the best and worst performing sites of hot startups."

“Whether you’re a blue chip or a startup, not giving customers a blazing fast online experience is as good as redirecting them to your competitors,” says Anshu Agarwal, vice president of marketing at Keynote. “Given what we’re seeing in our index, many companies are walking, not running, to improve their online performance. It’s quite eye-opening to see how slowly some sites are loading on tablets and smartphones.”

Methodology

Keynote’s Startup Shootout Index is the first ‘three screen’ competitive performance index of its kind. The Index measures the responsiveness and availability of the hot startup companies’ websites on desktops (using a real IE browser), smartphones (iPhone 4) and tablets (iPad 2).

Desktop measurements are taken from the ten largest U.S. metropolitan areas (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.) on high-speed links attached to key points on the largest U.S. Internet Service Provider (ISP) backbones.

Smartphone and tablet measurements are taken from the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and New York on both the AT&T and Verizon mobile networks. Measurements are taken every hour on each operator in both locations. All locations download the same list of websites for the index. For every smartphone or tablet on the index there are 24 measurements a day, times two operators, times two locations.

For the first week of each month measurements are aggregated across each location and screen to come up with the average speed and reliability of the hot startup on the desktop, smartphone and tablet.

About Keynote’s Desktop Web Performance Monitoring Technology

Keynote Transaction Perspective provides full visibility into the performance and availability of Web transactions and uses actual Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers to generate real transactions from cities all over the world. Transaction Perspective leverages Keynote’s global test and measurement network, providing the most comprehensive and accurate performance data 24x7—from the end-user’s perspective.

About Keynote’s Mobile Web Performance Monitoring Technology

Keynote Mobile Web Perspective (MWP) allows users to monitor the availability, response time and quality of any mobile website from the Keynote global monitoring network. Complex use cases that combine navigating websites on a desktop and mobile device and sending/receiving SMS messages can be monitored using MWP. Companies can set instant alerts to quickly inform key members of the operations team who can then address issues and minimize their impact.

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