America Online, Inc. and online
auctioneer eBay Inc. Thursday said they
have expanded their previous alliance under a new four-year, $75 million
pact aiming to further e-commerce opportunities.
Several of the AOL’s sites will sites promote eBay
features, listings, message boards and content to AOL’s 16 million members
across AOL brands including, including AOL, AOL.COM, CompuServe, Netscape’s Netcenter, ICQ and Digital
City.
eBay
will pay AOL $75 million over the course of the agreement and AOL
will receive all advertising revenues generated by the co-branded sites. In addition, AOL will also act as the exclusive third-party advertising sales force for advertising sold on eBay’s Web site.
eBay will also enable its users to download ICQ, an instant messaging program AOL recently acquired, on its own site. AOL’s “My News”
feature will also be incorporated into the “My eBay” area.
AOL said it also plans to expand eBay into regional markets via promotion
through AOL’s Digital City.
“This agreement is great
for AOL members and users of our family of brands because it further
expands their already dynamic
online community, giving them easier access to the largest person-to-person
trading community in
cyberspace,” said Bob Pittman, America Online’s president and chief operating officer.
“Not only does this make AOL even more valuable to their everyday lives, it
makes AOL’s
many brands even more accessible to eBay’s more than 2.1 million registered
users, one of the most
active communities anywhere in cyberspace,” Pittman said.
“AOL is a leader in creating and managing online communities, and eBay is
in a key position to reach a
much broader network of Internet users through AOL. By providing AOL users
with quicker and more
convenient ways to conduct person-to-person trading on eBay, we are
continuing to set the standard as
the leading personal e-commerce destination,” said Meg Whitman, eBay’s president
and chief executive officer.
“This alliance not only provides us significant customer acquisition opportunities, it serves as an important brand investment.”
