Showstar featured in the Bull and Bear Financial Report
The following excerpt is just being published by the Bull and Bear Financial Report
Showstar - powerful art site, Internet portal developer
Showstar Online. Com (OTC BB: ABID) has launched the Internet's first mega - site for the worldwide art community and is focused on becoming a premier developer of Internet vertical portal - or "Vortal" - Web sites and e-commerce solutions.
Showstar's unique and scalable e-commerce infrastructure is ideal for creating powerful information-rich Vortal Web sites and supporting lucrative, multiple revenue streams.
"We are positioning Showstar Online.com as the premier provider of niche content Vortals and are building a strong base of on and off-line technology partners," says Showstar President and CEO John Punzo. "We have a robust and scalable e-commerce platform which is accessible to all businesses and consumers alike."
Showstar's experienced management team committed early to the highest-performance Internet technologies, including Linux and Oracle software, to create powerful yet unobtrusive e-commerce tools that ease online transactions while capturing valuable demographic data from site visitors.
Artstar.com, the company's flagship Vortal launched in October 1999, epitomizes this Showstar business model of extremely sophisticated hardware and software solutions that meet the interests and needs of high-end target markets. Artstar.com is now positioned as the premier Internet art site, and the nexus for global art transactions on the Internet.
The Vortal art site makes the world of art, antiques, and collectibles available to everyone on the Internet, offering content to the seasoned art collector as well as the amateur art enthusiast. The site, powered by proprietary art resource search engine, features frequent exhibitions of rare art and seldom-seen collections, exclusive auctions, art appraisal and restoration services, a shopping area filled with original art works and related gift items, an art event director, a daily art new and feature magazine, art-oriented chat rooms, free E-mail, and special travel tours guided by art experts.
Artstar.com revenues are generated by commissions from online auctions: merchandise sales from artists, galleries, museums and art fairs; service fees for appraisals and restorations; transaction fees; content licensing; corporate sponsorships/advertising; and luxury art-focused travel tours.
The Company
Showstar, founded in 1995, became a public company in 1998 and focused exclusively on e-commerce in 1999.
The company's management team includes: John Punzo, an established entrepreneur and business builder; John Barson, founder and president of Savingsplus Internet Inc. and Shoptek e-Commerce Solutions; Kenneth Jay Linsner, a world-renown appraiser of fine and decorative arts for such clients as Mrs. Aristotle Onassis, the Forbes Family, the Rockefeller Family, Pepsico, Nomura Securities, and Polygram Records; Abraham Joel, a New York-based conservation and restoration expert; Connie Vick, a corporate and private art consultant (MasterCard, American Express, Merck, Deloitte & Touche); and Nagib Jamal who has developed systems for Hughes Aircraft and Raytheon Systems.
Showstar has filed a Form 10-SB registration statement with the SEC. During the past year, Showstar completed financings totaling $ 4.5 million to begin a $5+ million national advertising campaign to build brand awareness for Artstar.com.
Neale-May & Partners, a leading strategic communications firm for IBM, E-Trade, and others, is overseeing the launching of an aggressive public relations program for Artstar.com. Bozell Worldwide Silicon Valley, known for its technology advertising campaigns (Amazon.com, ebay, and Lycos), is targeting art collectors and enthusiasts.
Technical sophistication, breadth and depth of content - including art - related products, services, information from key proprietary sources, education and community - and an experienced, industry- savvy management team produce a unique opportunity for Artstar.com to become the art world's Internet portal of choice.
Outlook
Showstar's first Internet launch of Artstar.com represents a potentially lucrative model for the company's future Internet Vortals - a profitable synergy between massive upscale markets and exploding interest in Internet e-commerce, expected to leap from 1999's $67 billion to $426 billion in sales by 2002.
The worldwide art market, the focus of Artstar.com is a case in point. Each year, over 40 million people visit American museums, 8 million visit antique shows, and 14 million people watch PBS's Antiques Roadshow. The global art market is highly fragmented, yet, according to Forbes Magazine, sale of fine art alone generates $15 billion annually. When sales of retail art, collectibles and memorabilia are added to the mix, the total art market reaches more than $30 billion. So far, the estimated $1 billion in online art sales represents only a fraction of the marker, but will increase dramatically with the growth of Internet e-commerce.
Showstar is collaborating with major Internet software developers to co-design exclusive integrated e-business solutions. Real-time "eChecking" - soon to be available on the Artstar.com site - is just one innovative tool that will make Showstar Internet Vortals flexible and secure e-commerce transaction site, and generators of significant business-to-business (B-to-B) and business-to consumer (B-to-C) transaction fees.
Showstar projects $2.2 million in Artstar.com product sales and $7 million in auction revenues this year, total revenues of over $15 million by 2002, and profitability within four years, Artstar.com's primary online competition includes Artnet.com (raising over $45 million in a recent IPO), icollector.com, and Sothebys.com.
"No Internet art site has the breadth and depth of Artstar.com", says Barry Forward, Showstar's vice president of communications.
Through a strategic alliance with Reed Elsevier Inc., the world's leading publisher, Artstar.com has the rights to publish online - for the first time - detailed historical information from the respected and definitive Who's Who in American Art, as well as data from the American Art Directory.
The company is well into a major launch of a China - based version of Artstar.com that will feature exclusive collections of images, histories, and publications from major Chinese art institutions and collections. Showstar's offices in Hong Kong and Beijing - and its established relationships with Chinese institutions - bode well for the company's future as a significant Asian e-commerce provider.
Showstar's strategy of combining unmatched content, numerous revenue opportunities, strong e-commerce technology, and aggressive marketing is uniquely designed to attract traffic, generate sales, and build cash flow. The Internet art community already has noticed Artstar.com, where 2.3 million " hits" in its first six weeks are now hovering at a 4.2 million monthly.
This strategy directly appeals to the investor's penchant for evaluating Internet companies on scarcity value relative to demand, rather than on traditional fundaments. Public Analysis and Review (PAR), noting Showstar's economic future is inextricably tied to the growth of electronic commerce, recently rated showstar Onlin.com stock as "undervalued" and "exceptional" investment opportunity.
Shelia Estrada; the Bull and Bear Financial Report, February 15, 2000
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