E-mail community provider ONElist
announced Wednesday that the company is on its way to realizing its goal of pan-European expansion.
ONElist is currently establishing sites in Germany, France and
the UK and will launch local language versions in all major European
markets this year.
ONElist says it is also establishing a subsidiary with offices in Europe.
The new company, ONElist Europe GmbH, will have its headquarters in Hamburg,
Germany, and other offices in Paris and London. Marcus Riecke, formerly
VP New Business at AOL Germany, has been appointed managing director.
“ONElist has already written a phenomenal Internet success story in the
shortest amount of time – 8 million users within little more than a year
without a single dollar spent on marketing,” said Riecke.
“Now we will strive to help email communities achieve a breakthrough in
Europe and to establish ONElist as the category leader.”
The statistics relating to ONElist’s success are certainly striking.
ONElist.com has enabled the creation of 250,000 communities on topics
ranging from cars and stamp collecting to travel and stock tips.
Every day, it distributes 27 million pieces of email among its users.
According to Bertelsmann Ventures,
which owns a minority share in ONElist, e-mail communities represent one
of the fastest growing Internet categories. The VC company points to user-generated content combined with ease of use and word-of-mouth
recommendation as the means of e-mail communities’ success.
