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Entertainment Shopping Portal Swoopo Launches US-Site

Since mid-2005 Swoopo, with headquarters inMunich, Germany, auctions off high-value brand name products at bargain prices. The auction procedure is unique in the world: With each bid the price of the product rises by 15 US-cent. In doing so, the auction time extends automatically by up to 20 seconds. Each bid costs one Dollar. If the time runs out before a new bid is received, the last participant to bid wins the bid. "Anyone who thinks of a strategy and submits his bid wisely has a good chance of purchasing his favorite product through the auction at a great price," says Gunnar Piening. Usually the customer will pay much less than retail price for the product bought at the auction - on average only 35 percent of the suggested manufacturer's retail price.

The auction portal was founded by SoFina GmbH inMunich, at first under the name TeleBid. A little over two years after its launch inGermany, the British TeleBid site was launched, and in May 2008 the portal opened in Spain. Shortly before the US-launch, TeleBid was renamed Swoopo. "We decided on a name change because we need a name that is universally applicable and recognizable in all countries," explains Piening. Swoopo records 5,000 new registrations daily, and the trend is upwards. In 2007, sales volume reached 11 million Euro, and for this fiscal year the expectations lie at 20 million Euro.

About Swoopo

High-end brand name products are exclusively auctioned at low prices at http://www.swoopo.com, in a unique auction process.

This is how Swoopo works: Each bid increases the price of the product by 15 US-cent and the auction time extends automatically by up to 20 seconds. Each bid costs one US-Dollar Cent. The last person to bid wins the bid when time runs out. On average the winner saves 65 percent compared to the suggested manufacturer's retail price, including his used bids. The bids are entered via Internet click. Every month, Swoopo auctions off about 7,500 items and has 1,000,000 customers. Since December 2007 Swoopo has been running successfully inGreat Britain, since May 2008 inSpain, and since September 2008 also in the US. The Internet auction house employs 40 people and is led by CEO Gunnar Piening, who previously was an executive at the consumer portal Ciao.

    Links:

    Swoopo Germany: http://www.swoopo.de
    Swoopo Great Britain: http://www.swoopo.co.uk
    Swoopo Spain: http://www.swoopo.es
    Swoopo USA: http://www.swoopo.com

    Further Information:

    Ann-Kristin Jost,
    HOSCHKE & CONSORTEN,
    Public Relations GmbH,
    Heimhuder Strasse 56,
    20148 Hamburg.
    Tel.: +49-40-36-90-50-32,
    Fax: +49-40-36-90-50-32,
    E-Mail: a.jost@hoschke.de.

    http://www.hoschke.de

SOURCE SoFinA GmbH