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Here is your next IPO<G>
"INTERVIEW-Sweden firm starts mobile phone Web auction
By Paul de Bendern
STOCKHOLM, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Auctions companies have taken
the Internet by storm, but a Swedish Web firm said on Tuesday it
has created a new niche by adding the service to mobile phones.
Sweden's Bidlet AB, one of the Nordic region's few Internet
auction firms, will launch a mobile phone service in late
October in Sweden, and in other European countries before the
end of the year.
"We plan to expand our Internet auction concept into the
whole of Europe," Bidlet business development head Tor
Jorgensborg told Reuters in an interview. "Mobile phone users
will also be able to bid on the Web and it will be a success."
Bidlet was currently testing the mobile phone auction
service using WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) technology,
which shrinks Internet pages to fit small mobile phone screens.
The launch of Bidlet's service coincides with the arrival of
the first WAP-based handsets in stores this month, with Finnish
telecoms giant Nokia <NOK1V.HE> leading the way.
To fund Bidlet's European expansion, the privately owned
firm will raise 200-500 million crowns ($24.60-61.50 million) in
2000, privately or publically.
"We plan to list within two years," Jorgensborg said. "We're
eyeing a UK, German, Stockholm or a Nasdaq listing."
Several Swedish online firms, gearing up for European
expansion, are eyeing foreign listings to gain a higher market
value than in Sweden.
Bidlet, which is not profitable, said it expected monthly
sales to reach nine million crowns in December, totalling 100
million for the 12 months ending next July.
"We plan to grow 100 percent in sales each quarter,"
Jorgensborg said.
Bidlet (www.bidlet.se) was signing strategic deals with
Internet companies, TV networks and newspapers in Europe as part
of its branding strategy, Jorgensborg said.
BIDLET'S UNIQUE AUCTION SITES
The firm will launch auction sites in France and Germany and
other European sites to cater for WAP mobile phone services.
Bidlet said that unlike big competitors such as Yahoo!
<YHOO.O>, eBay Inc <EBAY.O> and Amazon.com <AMZN.> it was
focused more on auctioning new products bought from suppliers
and manufacturers rather than sales where consumers could
auction second-hand goods.
"If you look at eBay's concept it's a consumer-to-consumer
concept," Jorgensborg said. "Bidlet's is business-to-consumer."
He said all the goods auctioned by Bidlet had a starting bid
price of one Swedish crown, so if only one person placed a bid
for the product it would be sold for one crown, even if it was
an expensive TV.
Bidlet, which also conducts traditional Internet
consumer-to-consumer auctions of electronics and household
goods, art and travel, as well as toys, sport equipment and
jewellery on the Web, would continue to expand this service too.
Jorgensborg said almost 30,000 people visited the Swedish
site each day, with 250-300 products sold each day.
($1=8.130 Swedish Crown)
REUTERS
Rtr 12:51 10-05-99
" |
