Amazon.co.uk announces Internet shopping partnership with MSN
Under an initial six-month agreement, visitors to MSN.co.uk will see prominent Amazon.co.uk links displayed on the homepage and throughout the Web site. This will allow visitors to click directly through to the Amazon.co.uk Web site, and access the in-depth content, reviews and wide selection of titles available to order at savings of up to 40%.
A book search facility will also be placed on each of the different MSN.co.uk channel areas giving quick and easy access to the latest recommended books and relevant book reviews for the following categories: News, Computing, Business, Entertainment, Football, Chat, Shopping, Travel and Communicate.
Dr Simon Murdoch, Managing Director of Amazon.co.uk said: "This arrangement will make it much easier for those interested in MSN's mix of news and information to find and discover books related to their interests. With a click of the mouse, MSN visitors can explore Amazon.co.uk's world of books."
Tom Bowman, Northern European Director of MSN Sales, added: "The great thing about this is not just the significance of the deal, but the way it came about. Amazon.co.uk has been able to track the quality and quantity of responses generated by advertising on MSN to date. The decision to move to a more formal, extensive partnership with us is a logical and accountable business decision. This isn't suck it and see, this is intelligent online marketing. We can demonstrate that our customer base and the subject-orientated design of our portal site is a tight fit with Amazon.co.uk's brand and comprehensive range of goods."
For more information about Amazon.co.uk contact Fiona Murphy or Rebecca Woods at Joe Public Relations on 0181 237 4000, or email rebeccaw@joepublicrelations.co.uk
For further press information, please contact:
MSN
Nickie Smith, MSN Product Manager
MSN
Tel: 0870 60 10 100
or
Microsoft Press Office
Text 100 Ltd
Tel: 0181 242 4242
mspressoffice@text100.co.uk
About Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), the Internet's No. 1 music, No. 1 video, and No. 1 book retailer, opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995. Today, the Amazon.com store has expanded to offer free electronic greeting cards, online auctions and more than 4.7 million book, music-CD, video, DVD, computer-game, and other titles, plus secure credit-card payment, personalized recommendations, and streamlined ordering through 1-ClickSM technology and hassle-free auction bidding with Bid-ClickSM.
Amazon.com operates two international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom and www.amazon.de in Germany. Amazon.com also operates PlanetAll (www.planetall.com), a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 150,000 movies and entertainment programs and 500,000 cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1892 to the present.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, consumer trends, competition, risks of system interruption, management of potential growth, risks related to auction services, and risks of new business areas, international expansion, business combinations, and strategic alliances. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998.
Amazon.com, Amazon.com Auctions, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Internet Movie Database, PlanetAll, 1-Click, and Bid-Click are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
About MSN.co.uk
MSN brings consumers Internet services from Microsoft, the world's leading software company. Five key services in the MSN family include:
MSN.co.uk: MSN's portal site MSN.co.uk is designed to bring the best of the web to consumers. To provide the most useful information and services offered together in one place, helping Internet users do what they want, fast. The site is freely available to all Internet users and currently attracts over 2 million unique visitors every month. This represents 50 million page views per month and in excess of 200,000 visitors each day.
MSN Hotmail: The web-based service that provides customers with free email for life, is accessible from anywhere in the world and now has over 1.5 million registered members in the UK.
MSN LinkExchange: MSN LinkExchange also offers small Web site owners the on-line prominence and marketing force of larger companies through a range of powerful online marketing tools. These can be accessed via MSN.co.uk's Business Channel and currently attracts over 10,000 UK businesses.
MSN Expedia UK: The on-line travel service from MSN lets customers book flights, package holidays, hotel accommodation and car hire on the Internet. With over 270,000 registrations since it's November launch, MSN Expedia UK is the best way to plan and book your travel on the Internet. MSN Expedia has recorded sales of #1milllion per month since November MSN Expedia can be found on the Travel channel on MSN.co.uk.
MSN FreeWeb: MSN is to offer new and existing customers free access to the Internet. The company has joined forces with BT to introduce a free Internet access service, called MSN FreeWeb, which will go live on Tuesday 8th June 1999. The primary objective of MSN FreeWeb is to provide an excellent and reliable Internet service for customers.
Global presence: MSN has a portal web site presence in 32 countries around the world, including UK, Australia, Canada, USA, Austria, Brazil, China, Finland, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, and Taiwan.
