DEALTIME® REACHES PROFITABILITY ON RECORD THIRD QUARTER RESULTS
Top Shopping Search Company Leads Industry in Browser-to-Buyer Conversion
October 22, 2002 - New York, NY - DealTime Ltd., the leading shopping search
engine, today reported that it achieved profitability in the quarter ending
September 30, 2002 on record revenues. The Company expects to be profitable
and cash-flow positive for the year and to record more than $27 million in
revenues, doubling revenues for the second year in a row.
Online retailers will spend $2.5 billion in 2002 to acquire customers,
according to a calculation based on data from a Shop.org study by The Boston
Consulting Group in association with Forrester Research. DealTime is
expanding its share of this market with a scalable business model based on
sending ready-to-buy shoppers to its merchant partners while helping its
search and portal affiliates monetize their traffic.
"Our financial results demonstrate the value that DealTime delivers to
consumers, merchants and traffic aggregators," said Dan Ciporin, DealTime’s
Chairman and CEO. "We have solidified the cornerstones of our business:
distribution agreements with leading search engines and portals, a strong
base of high-quality merchants, and a technologically superior shopping
search engine."
Separately, DealTime announced that it recently raised nearly $3 million in
a private equity placement from its existing shareholders. The Company will
invest the funds to build on its technology and distribution leadership in
the shopping search sector.
The number of unique visitors to DealTime has tripled over the past 12
months, making the Company the Internet’s fastest growing shopping
directory, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. DealTime is now a top 10
Internet shopping destination, with more monthly unique visitors than most
online stores. The Company’s rapid growth rate demonstrates that consumers
are choosing shopping search engines to shop the whole Web at once and avoid
the hassle of clicking on numerous links to find the information they need
to make smart purchases.
Leading merchants, including Office Depot, Kodak, IBM and Eddie Bauer have
made DealTime a key component of their online marketing strategy.
"Custom-generated analysis shows that visitor to buyer conversion on
DealTime referrals is significantly higher than that on referrals from
well-known pay-for-performance general search engines and portal shopping
channels," said Lisa Strand, Nielsen//NetRatings Director and Chief Analyst,
e-Commerce. "DealTime gives shoppers the tools to do their research before
clicking through to merchants. This allows DealTime to deliver highly
qualified leads to its merchant partners that convert better to sales."
This proven ability to drive sales has helped DealTime grow its U.S.
merchant base from some 300 merchants in October 2001 to more than 900
merchants today, including most of the leading online merchants. "DealTime
is a top performing distribution partner for our clients, including numerous
well known consumer brands," said Stuart Larkins, Vice President of Partner
Services of Performics Inc, a leading performance-based online marketing
services company. "DealTime has been instrumental in our ongoing effort to
drive faster sales growth for our clients while lower their customer
acquisition cost."
DealTime has long-term contracts to provide outsourced shopping search
services to leading portals including Lycos and AltaVista. The Company also
has deep marketing alliances with leading companies in the search and
pay-for-performance sector including Google, Overture and LookSmart. These
relationships make it more convenient for shoppers to access DealTime when
researching purchases, increasing the site’s value to merchants.
"In difficult economic times consumers are even more likely to look for the
most efficient and rewarding shopping experience. Merchants are also highly
motivated to find a source of high-quality leads - leads that are most
likely to convert into sales," added Mr. Ciporin.
About DealTime®
DealTime is the world`s leading online shopping search engine, reaching
millions of shoppers worldwide every month. The Company was recently named
the third largest shopping directory and guide on the Internet, according to
Nielsen//NetRatings. Through its Web sites, dealtime.com®, shopping.com,
dealtime.co.uk and other affiliate sites (including AltaVista, Lycos and
Excite Network), shoppers compare products, prices and stores across the
Web. For merchants and manufacturers, DealTime delivers qualified, in-market
buyers and lower customer-acquisition costs. For traffic aggregators,
portals and other affiliate sites, DealTime provides a powerful search
engine and superior shopping tools that enable them to monetize their
traffic more easily. For consumers, DealTime provides an easy way to find
the right product and choose the right merchant. DealTime Ltd. is a
multi-national private company, venture-backed by key strategic and
financial partners including Bertelsmann, AOL Time Warner, Bank of America,
Bain Capital, Singapore Telecom, and others.
DealTime, DealTime.com, the DealTime logo, and "Shop the Whole Web at Once"
are registered trademarks of DealTime Ltd.
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