Internet infrastructure company InfoSpace signed a partner deal with
reverse auction service netgenShopper.com and will integrate
the latter’s wireless technology, allowing consumers to request bids and
prices from both online and off-line merchants.
The enhanced mobile commerce capability will be offered to InfoSpace’s
partners that include wireless carriers worldwide, and to its merchant
partners “to facilitate the adoption and use by consumers worldwide to turn
every device into a transaction device,” InfoSpace said.
Buyers will be able to submit a single request for a product or service, and
in return will receive custom offers from interested merchants.
Financial
arrangements with netgenShopper.com were not disclosed.
The mobile commerce technology will be integrated with InfoSpace’s platform
for
data and transaction services that includes a variety of wireless carriers,
more than 400,000 merchants and more than 3,000 Web sites.
“The key to enabling mobile commerce is to deliver integrated, actionable and
personalized information to wireless devices that drives consumers to
traditional brick and mortar retailers and service companies and facilitating
that transaction between the merchant and the consumer,” said Naveen Jain,
chairman and chief strategist of InfoSpace. “Integrating netgenShopper.com’s
technology into the InfoSpace platform is a natural fit for us ”
netgenShopper.com said its reverse auction service matches buyers to local
merchants and drives new customers to local businesses that are often
overlooked in the traditional e-commerce marketplace.
As an integrated part of InfoSpace’s commerce and merchant service offerings,
it will be part of a combined offering that InfoSpace provides to its
merchant partners, including all five regional Bell operating companies
(RBOC’s), merchant acquiring banks and local media networks.
InfoSpace’s affiliates include a network of wireless and other non-PC devices
including PCs, cellular phones, pagers, screen telephones, television set-top
boxes, online kiosks, and personal digital assistants. Partner companies
include Intel, Ericsson, Nokia, NeoPoint, Mitsui and Acer America.
