The Cobalt Group Combines the Strengths of Online Markets and Traditional Media
4 January 2000
The Cobalt Group Combines the Strengths of Online Markets and Traditional Media through Partnership with BuySellBid.com
SEATTLE--Jan. 4, 2000--Leading Web Sites Boost Online Choice by Over a Half Million Cars
The Cobalt Group , a leading provider of Internet solutions for the automotive industry, today announced that it will dramatically expand consumer choice in online car shopping by providing its 515,000 new and used vehicle listings to BuySellBid.com, a leading developer of online multimedia classifieds.
In turn, BuySellBid.com will distribute the listings across its partner sites, and Cobalt's individual auto dealer customers will gain exposure to millions of motivated car buyers nationwide.
BuySellBid.com specializes in providing media companies with fully-integrated online classifieds, auctions, personals and e-commerce systems. Over a thousand media partners feature the BuySellBid classifieds system on their Web sites, including radio and television ownership groups and stations, cable companies, magazines and newspapers. Online car buyers can search the classifieds to find vehicles at local dealers. To receive more information on a specific vehicle, site visitors can link directly to dealer Web sites with only a few clicks.
"BuySellBid.com's strong ties to traditional media entities make it an ideal partner for The Cobalt Group and our dealer customers," said John Holt, co-chief executive officer of The Cobalt Group. "We are actively seeking partnerships of this nature to maximize the online distribution of our dealer customers' vehicle inventory. We provide this additional exposure for free to every Cobalt customer that purchases our Essentials Web Site Package(TM), gaining them extra advertising for their vehicle inventory at no additional cost."
Cobalt already provides car listings to leading car shopping destinations like DealerNet, Yahoo!, and AutoVantage. From these sites, users can search through listings and link directly to dealer Web sites with only a few clicks.
"This partnership unleashes a powerful flow of value for BuySellBid.com, its affiliates, car buyers and dealers," said Suzanne M. Sellers, senior business development manager at The Cobalt Group. "It leverages dealer resources to expand consumer choice and convenience, which in turn provides valuable content for BuySellBid.com affiliate Web sites. At the same time, it enables dealers to attract more car shoppers to their Web sites."
About The Cobalt Group
The Cobalt Group(TM) , based in Seattle, is a leading provider of Internet-based automotive products and services. Through Web development and hosting, data management and online car shopping services, Cobalt helps dealers, dealer groups and automobile manufacturers harness the power of the Internet to better serve their customers.
With over 5,000 dealer Web site clients, over 10,000 dealers using its parts locating system, and relationships with 16 automotive manufacturers and more than 50 of the 100 largest dealer groups in the United States, Cobalt is one of the leading technology companies serving the automotive industry. Cobalt operates DealerNet(R) (www.dealernet.com), one of the best-known automotive destination sites on the Web, and PartsVoice(R) (www.partsvoice.com), a leading OEM auto parts locating and data management service. For more information, please visit The Cobalt Group at www.cobaltgroup.com.
About BuySellBid.com
BuySellBid.com, Inc. (http://www.buysellbid.com/), founded in 1996 and headquartered in Longview, Wash., has fast become an industry leader in Internet commerce solutions by building both advanced proprietary e-commerce systems and an extensive network of Internet sites through exclusive partnerships with more than 1200 U.S. media Web sites including equity partner NBC plus TV, radio, cable and magazines. The Company, through its vast multimedia distribution network, targets specific consumer and commercial segments through its co-branded and flexible services including: BuySellBid.com Classifieds, the largest multimedia classifieds network on the Internet; BuySellBid.com Auctions, the localized auction system with live capabilities and chat; BuySellBid E-shopping including individual shops and e-malls; and Date Channel (http://www.datechannel.com/) an advanced singles system on the Web. Additionally, BuySellBid.com has partnered with Citicasters, a division of Clear Channel Communications , to create KIISFMi.Com (http://www.kiisfmi.com/), the new "Next 40" original content Internet radio network site.