The Cobalt Group Goes Live with MotorPlace.com
20 January 2000
The Cobalt Group Goes Live with MotorPlace.com Business-to-Business Vertical Portal for the Automotive Industry
SEATTLE--Jan. 20, 2000--Largest Parts and New Vehicle Inventories
The Cobalt Group, Inc. today went live with MotorPlace.com(TM), a business-to-business vertical portal for the automotive industry. Announced earlier this month, the site aggregates vehicle and parts data from Cobalt's more than 12,000 auto dealer clients to create a dealer-to-dealer e-commerce trading community.
MotorPlace.com creates a Web-based exchange that is available to every auto dealer in the country. More than half of all U.S. new vehicle dealers use one or more Cobalt services. By leveraging current customers of Cobalt's WebEdge(TM) Web site management system and PartsVoice(R) parts locator system, MotorPlace.com is expected to generate significant dealer traffic from day one.
Dealers and other industry participants will be able to use MotorPlace.com to buy, sell and trade new and used vehicles and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts with other dealers. At launch, the site provides access to inventories of 35 million parts and more than 550,000 new and used vehicles. The site also provides dealers easy access to a broad range of powerful Cobalt-built Internet-based business management tools, as well as information services such as daily automotive and national news, sports scores, stock quotes and weather.
"When Cobalt announced a few weeks ago that we would be launching MotorPlace.com, the automotive industry took notice because it recognizes the tremendous potential of business-to-business e-commerce in this vertical market," said John Holt, co-chief executive officer of The Cobalt Group. "The site's on-time arrival demonstrates that Cobalt has both the vision to shape the future of automotive e-commerce and the commitment to deliver it."
MotorPlace.com is available to the one million plus people employed in U.S. new car dealerships and all other participants in the automotive industry. Certain members-only areas are password protected for dealer customers of Cobalt's Web site and parts locator services. Dealers who use Cobalt's WebEdge management tools can now use MotorPlace.com as their homepage suitable for most business and personal information needs.
"This is only the beginning. As a major initiative for Cobalt, MotorPlace.com will be upgraded and enhanced continually going forward," said David Potts, vice president of business development and product management for The Cobalt Group. "We see a tremendous opportunity for Cobalt and its partners to position their products and services in the MotorPlace.com universe giving dealers a one-stop online business center."
MotorPlace.com features:
| -- | A new and used vehicle locator, with over 550,000 new and used vehicles; |
| -- | An OEM parts locator, with over 35 million parts from 10,000-plus participating dealers; |
| -- | Login access to Cobalt's WebEdge Internet marketing and Web site management extranet; |
| -- | Automotive industry-related headlines and news; |
| -- | National news, as well as stock quotes, sports scores, and weather information; |
| -- | A directory of automotive equipment and service vendors; |
| -- | An automotive industry events calendar; and |
| -- | A directory of Web links to automotive trade-related sites. |
Additional features planned for the future include:
| -- | An automotive career section, with automatic inclusion of dealership job openings posted on participating Cobalt dealers' Web sites; |
| -- | A wholesale-vehicle listing and notification system, which will greatly facilitate in-market dealer-to-dealer wholesale vehicle transactions; |
| -- | Auctions for parts and new and used cars; |
| -- | A used equipment exchange, where dealers can buy and sell used shop equipment; |
| -- | Discussion forums led by industry experts for each of the major dealership profit centers; |
| -- | Access to Cobalt training and consulting materials and forums; |
| -- | Special product and service offers from vendors who are interested in reaching the one million plus employees of America's new car dealerships; and |
| -- | Other tools to help dealers manage their businesses more efficiently. |
"With tremendous momentum in place from our current lines of business, MotorPlace.com won't need a lot of ramp-up time to build dealer awareness and demonstrate value," said Holt. "It's a natural extension of our business to aggregate Cobalt's dealer services and make them readily accessible to all of the nation's dealers and other industry participants in one convenient location on the Web."
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 referral services, Cobalt helps dealers, dealer groups and automobile manufacturers harness the power of the Internet to better serve their customers.
With approximately 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), PartsVoice(R) and MotorPlace(TM).