WCollect.com to Expand E-commerce Business into Japanese Marketplace
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 1999--Stewart Irvine, President and CEO of WCollect.com, Inc. (OTC BB:WCLT), announced today that following discussions with Justsystem Corporation's (A Nikki listed company: Symbol 4686-JP) founder, President and CEO, Kazunori Ukigawa, an agreement has been reached.
The announcement follows a series of meetings with several Japanese Internet service providers and subscriber based online services in Japan last month.
With the implementation of this agreement, WCollect.com will expand its reach to an untapped market of 15 million collectors, a number that is rising with rapidly increasing number of new Japanese Internet users (Japan's current Internet users account for only 5-10% of the population). Revenue projections are estimated at $10-15 million in sales over the first six months of the rollout.
The agreement will also permit WCollect.com to utilize Justsystem's revolutionary ''Concept Base'' search engine that utilizes intuitive ''fuzzy logic'' searches rather than the rigid ''keyword'' searches currently being used. The search engine will allow users to browse through and seek out specific items within WCollect's inventory of 100,000 authenticated collectibles (expected to rise to 400,000 by 2000) quickly and easily. Concept Base is expected to be available to US shoppers as early as Q4 1999.
Justsystem's (Web site: www.justsystem.co.jp) leading position in the market as one of Japan's top-selling software developers. Along with its base of subscribers to its Internet service (www.justnet.ne.jp), Justsystem brings with it an immediate base of 15 million potential customers to WCollect.com's unique and extensive inventory of authenticated collectibles.
According to spokespeople for both companies, this unprecedented relationship will, for the first time, satisfy the huge Japanese consumer market for American collectibles. Joshua Arai, Justsystem's head of Strategic Development, stated, ''The long-term goal of the joint venture is to position WCollect.com as Japan's leading e-commerce site.'' According to Stewart Irvine, President and CEO of WCollect.com, Andrew Zucker, General Counsel for WCollect.com, has been instrumental in negotiations with Justsystem and several other Japanese companies. Mr. Zucker, who has spent nearly ten years formulating strategic joint venture relationships between computer software companies in the U.S. and Japan, has challenged the status quo by establishing proprietary online and Internet businesses. He too has actively facilitated multiple deals with companies such as The New York Times on the Web, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Dow Jones, CNN.com, UCLA Bookzone, EarthWeb and BigBook.
The relationship with Justsystem, a Java technology leader, has greatly leveraged WCollect.com's position in the online auction marketplace. It being the only company to present authentic collectible products to Japanese's multi-billion dollar/yen marketplace, and setting it apart from other online auction houses such as eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY - news) and Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN - news).
WCollect.com, an online marketplace specializing in authenticated fine art, entertainment collectibles and sports memorabilia, is publicly trading under the symbol WCLT on the NASDAQ OTC BB.
Included in this release are ''forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable; it can give no assurance that such expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements will prove to have been correct. The company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors including sales levels, distribution and competition trends and other market factors.
(c) 1999 WCollect.com Inc. All brand names and trademarks are the properties of their respective holders.
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Contact:
WCollect.com
Arne Carlson Entertainment Media Contact
877/608-1611 Harry Freedman
Investor Relations 888/761-8887
acarlson@direct.ca Freedstar@aol.com
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