Let's lift the curtain for FastenerExchange.com
10.03.2000, 15:21
Matchbid.com AG goes online with the company's first Internetbased b2b trading platform for fasteners / Trading volume forfasteners is estimated at 50 billion Euro worldwide Witten/Germany (PROTEXT) (Matchbid.com AG) - At theInternational Hardware Fair Show (DIY-TEC) in Cologne, March 12 -15, the German Company Matchbid.com AG will go online with thefirst product "FastenerExchange.com". For the product launch,they have chosen the motto "Let's lift the curtain".FastenerExchange is the worldwide first completely Internet basedmarket for standardized fasteners. The virtual Business-to-Business (b2b) trading platform enables real-time trading of morethan 100,000 types of standardized fasteners with the use ofspecially developed software. It is Matchbid.com's goal toestablish FastenerExchange.com as the leading b2b market portalfor fasteners - further market places are planned. With itsproduct, the company Matchbid.com AG will positioned itself inthe most rapidly expanding market of the world - the marketvolume of the internet based Business-to-Business-Segmentworldwide will rise 10 to 20-fold until the year 2002 accordingto a report by Forrester Research, USA. Trading Volume amounts to 50 billion Euro The unconsolidated trading volume in the fastener industryamounts to around 50 billion Euro worldwide. Matchbid.com AG willrealize revenues from commissions (one to two percent) formediated transactions. Further revenues will derive from memberfees and target group specific advertising. Until the end of theyear already more than 800 fastener manufacturers anddistributors will join the trading platform according toMatchbid.com's estimates. DVCG: A strong partner Matchbid.com was founded in December 1999 and has taken upbusiness at the University Witten-Herdecke's Research andDevelopment Center at the end of last year. Meanwhile, thecompany counts already 22 employees. One of the biggest VentureCapital Companies, Deutsche Venture Capital Gesellschaft, apartner of Deutsche Bank, financed the company. "There are a lotof ideas for so-called vertical markets. But the translation intoaction matters", says Frank Schuhardt, Investment Manager andPartner with DVCG. Especially the Management Team of Matchbid.comconvinced him. They do not just think visionary but also have theknowledge and domain expertise being necessary for the successfulimplementation of an industry specific Internet market portal.Werner Schauerte, Ph.D., Chief Executive of DVCG, will take upthe seat as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Matchbid.com AG. Software in Preview Phase Matchbid.com's first market willundergo a preview phase from March 12 to April 15, 2000. Duringthis period, distributors and manufacturers can already registerand trade their products; but they do not have to pay anycommissions or fees to the platform. The phase will serve as an'endurance test' to optimize the performance of the system. "Itis extremely important that the software's function is perfect",says Kristian Dicke, Ph.D., CEO and strategic head ofMatchbid.com AG. "A lot of other systems failed because theyshowed up on the market with incomplete and buggy software whichcaused lasting dissatisfaction among their potential customerbase." FastenerExchange simplifies trading FastenerExchange.com simplifies trading in a highly fragmentedmarket with non-transparent and complex supply chains: At themoment, more than 7,000 manufacturers, 3,000 wholesalers and20,000 retailers are participating in the market. So far,fastener distributors had to get an overview of prices andquantities by evaluating daily price lists per phone, fax andemail. A manufacturer, on the other hand, had to accept highsearch costs combined with the costs of a marketing/salesorganization and efficiency losses due to high dispersion inmarketing. All this will be made considerably easier by theMatchbid.com-Software. Demand orders will be matched againstcorresponding supply orders. In order to ensure global support,Matchbid.com has already established sales teams in Europe andAsia, a team in North America will follow shortly. TheInternational Hardware Fair Show in Cologne, whenFastenerExchange.com will officially go online, is seen as themost important fair within the industry. Last year, 3,718exhibitors from 54 countries were present and more than 96,000visitors came to Cologne from different 122 countries. otsOriginal Text Service: Matchbid.com AG Internet:http://recherche.newsaktuell.de Contact at InternationalHardware Fair: March 12-15, 2000, Hall 12.1., Stand C7 FurtherInformation: Matchbid.com AG Torsten Schwarz Director CorporateCommunications & marketing Alfred-Herrhausen-Strasse 44, 58455Witten, Germany Phone: +49-700-Matchbid (62 82 42 43) Fax: +49-700-Matchfax (62 82 43 29) Email: ts@matchbid.com
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