Terra Lycos (Nasdaq: TRLY) was up 7/16 at 11 early Tuesday after the company said its Lycos portal saw traffic this holiday shopping season that was more than double that of last year's "very successful" holiday period.
Referrals from the Lycos network 
generated more than 250 percent more
revenue than the 1999 holiday season, while unique visitors to Lycos Shop
totaled 580 percent of the level seen in the week before Christmas in 1999,
the company said.
"The 2000 holiday shopping season was a tremendous success for Lycos Shop," said Kim Boucher, vice president of e-commerce for Terra Lycos. "The season started approximately a week later than last year, but also ran a week later, right up into the last week before Christmas."
Added Boucher: "Lycos Shop enjoyed consistently strong consumer traffic and correspondingly strong revenue to merchants through the third week of December."
Jeffrey Blue, director of e-commerce and auctions for Lycos Shop, said the portal "extended the online shopping season by focusing the front-door merchandising on stores that were best able to satisfy the needs of last-minute shoppers."
Noted Blue, "Last year we saw traffic drop off as we got closer to Christmas, and this year we were able to actually grow traffic in that last week by focusing on customer service."
The Lycos network was acquired by Spain's Terra Networks last October. Terra Lycos operates in 41 countries and 19 languages.
Two days after Christmas, Lycos
rival Yahoo!
saw
its shares soar after issuing a similar announcement about strong
holiday sales. Order volume for shopping properties outside the United
States was more than six times last year's level, while U.S. holiday sales
nearly doubled from the 1999 holiday season, Yahoo! said.
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