AuctionCities adds Social Networking features to private-label auction program

[mandy]

AUCTIONCITIES.COM UNVEILS MYSPACE-TYPE FEATURE INTO ONLINE AUCTIONS

Plans Announced for "MePage" -- Who Else Wants to Be Among the Very First to Take Part in This Innovative Online Viral Marketing Community?

AuctionCities.com, Inc.  today, announced the integration of the "MePage" feature with their new Private Label Auction-site Program. Prompted by recent reports of social networking sites continued meteoric rises; AuctionCities has accelerated the development and activiation of the much anticipated MePages.

One example of the trend was reported in the June 15, 2006, edition of Information Week which reported that in May YouTube doubled its traffic from the month before, and that all the other top five sites are continuing their strong growth as well.

The top five sites were No. 1 MySpace.com, followed in order by Classmates.com sites, FaceBook.com, YouTube.com and MSN Spaces.

The social-networking phenomenon MySpace.com surpassed 51 million unique visitors in May, a Web metrics firm said.

YouTube.com, which focuses on people sharing video, doubled its traffic from April to 12.6 million visitors in May, ComScore Networks said. MySpace.com, a favorite of teens and young adults, had 51.4 million unique visitors last month, compared with 48 million in April.

The popularity of social networking wasn't expected to wane in the near future in the United States or the rest of the world according to ComScore.

Michael S. Berman, AuctionCities.com, Inc. President, stated, "We surveyed the online industry in search of compatible concepts that were successful. During recent member conference calls, we determined a high level of interest in MySpace-type programs. We've taken aspects of things that are working elsewhere on the Internet and brought them into the online auction market."

"And so...the Company is changing the entire infrastructure from a simple buy-sell and trade auction website, evolving now, to host hundreds then thousands of private label auction websites with access to limitless inventory. The 'MePage' will be a free service of our Private Label Auction-site Program. Each private label auction site is a social networking interface that facilitates online communication with like-individuals through an interactive network of photos, weblogs, user profiles, email, web-forums and groups. One feature we believe will be most helpful to the online e-commerce community will be the ability to form Mastermind groups; groups of people who have similar interests but varied talents who combine forces to help improve each other's businesses."

"The difference between the AuctionCities.com Chat Room and the 'MePage' on a private-label auction site is that communication on the Chat Room is simple one-on-one dialog, whereas, browsing the 'MePage' profiles promotes communication on a wide variety of subjects while giving access to a member's 'auction-buddies' inventory of items for auction or sale. It will allow for learning by example and idea exchanges among like-minded people."

"Members who browse the AuctionCities 'MePage' will find that, as they browse the 'MePages' of acquired fellow-auctioneers, they will see the inventory that their friends have listed. That inter-member dialog and the visible array of their listings will promote more sales and build the power of an AuctionCities.com trading community toward the next generation on the Internet...member-driven websites."

Berman concluded, "We are currently 'beta-testing' our 'MePage' and should be fully operational within days. There will be additional publicity releases, member email notification and advertisements to roll out the program. We want to build this community of private label members as quickly as possible. So, as announced earlier, AuctionCities is offering to set up a private label auction site...FOR FREE... for anyone who goes to ( www.auctioncities.com) and clicks on the Private Label icon and registers. We want everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to be a Founding Member of the MePage phenomenom. Get them while their still free -- "Free Forever" means for founding members and it means it may not last forever -- so ACT TODAY!"

full press release: http://www.auctioncities.com/index.php?p...om/news28/