Autobytel Introduces the Next Generation of Automotive Internet with Upcoming Launch of MyRide.com
IRVINE, Calif. & LAS VEGAS--Autobytel Inc. , a leading automotive Internet marketing services company, today announced at the 2007 National Automobile Dealers Association Conference the upcoming launch of its next generation consumer website, MyRide.com, the world’s first fully-integrated automotive vertical search experience.
Set to officially launch to consumers during the second quarter of 2007, MyRide.com is a bold leap forward for the Automotive Internet, creating a much needed solution for consumers who want a single comprehensive gateway to the vast array of information available on the Internet related to all aspects of the automotive purchase and ownership lifecycle. The new site, which deeply integrates automotive content with categorized auto search results from across the web, will also provide significantly more marketing touch points for dealers, manufacturers and other service providers.
“MyRide.com makes it incredibly easy for consumers to quickly get to the most relevant automotive information they need from across the entire web,” said Jim Riesenbach, president and CEO, Autobytel. “We know that consumers tire of jumping from site to site or sifting through thousands of irrelevant search results to get to useful automotive information.
“MyRide.com is designed to provide the most comprehensive and easy-to-use experience imaginable through a unique combination of deep auto-related content and listings, ‘Automotive SmartSearch,’ and extensive multimedia resources. We believe MyRide.com will give frustrated consumers much-needed relief while providing unique marketing opportunities for the automotive industry.”
MyRide.com Addresses Consumers’ Search for Answers
MyRide.com seamlessly integrates focused content and search results for the purchase, ownership, enhancement and enthusiast behaviors that define today’s automotive experience, breaking through the “walled garden” of the current auto site model.
While other Automotive Internet sites provide a somewhat generic experience, focused on driving consumers through the purchase phase, MyRide.com will put the consumer squarely in charge of the research, shopping, buying and ownership process.
Using MyRide.com, consumers can easily find a new or used car, car parts, accessories, and even a local business for service and repair, based on a tightly-focused combination of relevant content and auto-related web search results and user-generated content.
The Best Technology and Third Party Providers
Using a state-of-the-art proprietary publishing platform, MyRide.com was designed from the ground up to bring together best-in-class technologies and content from a wide range of third party providers. The site is expected to offer the Internet’s most comprehensive used car product with an inventory of millions of vehicles and the most advanced vertical auto search product through strategic relationships with Vast and Kosmix, respectively. Additional upcoming relationships with auto accessories/parts providers and local directory products will offer users content covering nearly every aspect of the automotive experience cycle.
Consumer Behavior Drives the Experience
One of the most compelling elements of MyRide.com is the way the site has been designed to evolve, adapt, and interpret consumer behavior, which will enable MyRide.com to respond to user questions, create content based on them and, over time, adapt the system to address the interests and most pressing needs of its users. Consumer generated content will also play a key role in MyRide.com as the site evolves, informing future car buying and ownership decisions by allowing users to participate via surveys, blogs, polls, reviews and ratings.
Integrated Multimedia Content
MyRide.com takes automotive multimedia to the next level, going well beyond the typical postage stamp-sized photos and limited video that characterizes most automotive sites, and will include several innovative visual elements such as full-screen vehicle images from the largest online auto photo gallery, as well as extensive video assets and capabilities. Relevant multimedia content will be integrated throughout the MyRide.com search and navigational experience, not just segregated in “galleries” as on many other sites.
Finally -- Automotive Search That Works for Real World Users
Internet Search has become an increasingly important part of the online experience of American Internet users, with 70% of car buyers reporting that Internet search was the first place they turned to research, and the same percentage indicating that they used Internet search throughout the entire research and buying process (Yahoo!/Compete 2005). Despite this, however, consumers are often overwhelmed by the search results, and almost a third of all searches are abandoned without yielding satisfactory results.
“It’s clear we are about to enter the second phase of online automobile search,” said Neal Polachek, senior vice president of The Kelsey Group, an independent research firm. “While user behaviors, knowledge and expectations have evolved over the last 5 to 10 years, most sites in the auto category have not kept pace. Integrated vertical search products that marry the best aspects of web search with rich category content and address today’s broader spectrum of consumer interests are the next logical step in this and many other high value categories.”
“Vertical search is already providing tremendous value for consumers and businesses in industries like travel, real estate, and health,” added Riesenbach. “And yet the world’s largest industry -- involving one of the most expensive and complex consumer purchases -- has failed to move beyond third-party sites, which often wall-out important and useful information. Meanwhile, general search engines are not built to interpret and deliver the most relevant results within a specific category like automotive. We’re excited to take the lead on an idea whose time has definitely come in our industry.”
Automotive Marketers to have More Relevant Access to More Consumers Than Ever Before
Since MyRide.com is designed to gather consumer behavior throughout the automotive lifecycle and is designed to interpret users’ intent, automotive marketers should have more opportunities to market to a much larger and more targeted, population than ever before. In addition, Autobytel member dealers will have the opportunity to remain in front of potential buyers no matter where they are in the purchase cycle.
“As we reinvent the automotive Internet with MyRide.com we expect to become the foremost automotive destination for consumers and the place where auto makers and dealers connect, efficiently and effectively, with their customers,” concluded Riesenbach.
Since inventing the automotive Internet in 1995, Autobytel has been a leading innovator in the industry, introducing some of the most advanced products and services to help automotive marketers. In 2007, the company is once again poised to reinvent the Automotive Internet.
About Autobytel Inc.
Autobytel Inc. is one of the largest online automotive marketplaces, empowering consumers to make smart vehicle choices using objective automotive data and insightful interactive editorial content. The result is a convenient car-buying process backed by a nationwide network of dealers who are committed to providing a positive consumer experience. Every day consumers choose Autobytel-owned and operated websites -- Autobytel.com, Autoweb.com, CarSmart.com, Car.com, and CarTV.com -- to facilitate their car-shopping decisions. Autobytel’s ability to attract millions of highly qualified, in-market car buyers and connect them with retailers has made it a leader in facilitating the entire customer car-buying lifecycle.
The Company’s innovative marketing, advertising and CRM products, including its Web Control® customer management system, Retention Performance Marketing (RPM®) service reminder program, and Special Finance LeadsSM, are designed to enable dealers to offer a premium consumer experience. Since pioneering pro-consumer online automotive content and purchasing in 1995, Autobytel has helped more than twenty-seven million car buyers, generating billions of dollars in car sales for dealers.