Trade Me Extends Auctions To Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are now a part of the on-line auction experience, with Trade Me launching its Trade Me To Go service today. The service allows mobile phone users to participate in Trade Me’s interactive auctions and is a cornerstone feature of a major upgrade to the website’s look.

“Now people can bid in online auctions without having to be online. You can be walking down Queen St in Auckland and be outbid by someone sitting in a Café in Christchurch.” says Morgan. “We’re extending the immediacy of auctions into the wireless space. There is fantastic potential for accelerating our growth curve as it is truly interactive and has mass-market appeal.”

Trade Me To-Go is based on text-messaging, meaning it is available to all users on Vodafone’s network and those on Telecom’s Digital network. “There are hundreds of thousands of phones out there with text-messaging capability today. We wanted to allow this existing population of users to use our service without having to buy a WAP phone.” Managing Director Sam Morgan says.

“So far as I know, this is the first real consumer m-commerce application in New Zealand. We’ve gained huge practical experience about integrating web and mobile and making it work in a commercial business.”

Morgan says that Trade Me continues to be New Zealand’s quiet achiever in e-commerce, growing to over 20,000 registered and active traders in the last 18 months. According to Hitwise last Monday, it is ranked as New Zealander’s second most visited shopping destination, behind Amazon.com.

The Trade Me To-Go service is available on the Trade Me web-site at www.trademe.co.nz.

About Trade Me Ltd Trade Me Ltd was founded in August 1999 and is part of eCentric Ltd, a Wellington-based e-commerce development company.

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Media contact: Sam Morgan Day: (04) 473 9258 Mob: (021) 735 673 Email: sam@trademe.co.nz Web: http://www.trademe.co.nz

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