USAutoNews.com Launches New Automotive Internet Portal; New Venture is First E-commerce Business Community for Automotive Industry
16 August 1999
USAutoNews.com Launches New Automotive Internet Portal; New Venture is First E-commerce Business Community for Automotive Industry
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Aug. 16 -- USAutoNews.com has
announced the formation and initial launch of the first Internet portal
specifically designed for the automotive industry. The new portal will be
designed to facilitate information and research, communications and business-
to-business (B2B) commerce for automotive manufacturers, dealers, suppliers
and enthusiasts.
USAutoNews.com will centralize, organize and review all automotive web
sites; post daily news reports about the automotive industry; and offer email
news services, personalized according to subscriber preference. The Company
also plans to build an e-commerce hub for automotive manufacturers, suppliers
and retailers, as well as create and host web sites for automotive-related
companies that are not currently on the Internet.
"Until now, there was no practical way for automotive-related businesses
to stay informed or conduct business in a timely manner. Our research
revealed that the available Internet information about the industry, auto
financing, warranties, parts, after-market products and other automotive-
related services was just too voluminous and disorganized to use efficiently,"
said Robert Zwerling, chief executive officer of USAutoNews.com. "We
discovered at least 10,000 automotive-related web sites and millions of web
pages containing automotive material on the Internet."
USAutoNews.com will focus on providing communications and e-commerce B2B
services for companies in the auto trade. "It is our purpose to make it easy,
efficient and profitable for auto businesses to access more information, reach
more customers and sell and purchase more automotive products over the
Internet," added Zwerling.
USAutoNews.com (USAN) has received venture funding through Newport Beach,
CA-based Catalyst Capital, a firm that combines merchant banking with
management services. Catalyst Capital has raised nearly $1 million for USAN
and recently reached agreement for an additional $5 million. Catalyst Capital
has also provided the senior management team for USAN, including CEO Robert J.
Zwerling, Catalyst Capital's president and senior managing partner. During
Zwerling's tenure as CEO and president of Vision Solutions, revenues grew from
$2 to close to $20 million.
USAutoNews.com revenues will initially come from advertising sales,
subscriptions to its highly-filtered automotive news service (emailed directly
to the subscriber's work or home) and online and offline commerce activities.
To date, USAutoNews.com has 15 contracts to supply headline news to leading
online consumer sites, including National Appraisal Guides (NAG), National
Warranty, CarHQ, CarSmart, Consumer Car Club, LeaseSource and Drive-Off.com.
USAutoNews.com also has entered into service agreements with NAG, the
largest publisher of NADA appraisal guidebooks in the nation and Navidec Inc.,
a leading national provider of web-based business systems. NAG will provide
online pricing guides and anticipates jointly publishing with USAutoNews.com
an offline web guide that will review over 2,500 automotive web sites,
providing information on the most useful of those sites. NAG will also offer
access to extended warranty services to consumers through USAutoNews.com via a
joint marketing agreement with National Auto Warranty.
USAutoNews.com was founded in September 1998 by Dan Cweika and Tom Ciresa.
Ciresa, with 33 years of automotive-industry experience, most recently was a
founding member and executive of Autobytel.com, the independent online new and
used car buying service that helped shape vehicle distribution over the
Internet. Cwieka, whose automotive experience was primarily in specialized
sales and marketing to automotive dealerships, served as a senior regional
director at Autobytel.com prior to forming USAutoNews.com.
Cwieka is currently executive vice president for business development at
USAutoNews.com and Ciresa serves as a director on the company's board.