029 Group SE

Regulatory Filings • Sep 13, 2000

News Details

Ad-hoc | 13 September 2000 08:04

Ad hoc-Service: MatchNet PLC English

Ad hoc-announcement edited and sent by DGAP. The sender is responsible for the contents of this announcement. —————————————————————————— MatchNet plc: Top-class cooperations in the World Wide Web Dating service provider acquires new growth potentials / Extension of their market position in the USA / Strategic expansion to Central and South America Frankfurt, 13 September 2000 – MatchNet plc, a leading international dating service provider which is listed at the Neuer Markt of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, systematically consolidates its activities and pursues the international trend of cooperations between internet portals. As cooperation partner they have gained the two US-American internet service provider Innuity.com and Crosswinds.net as well as the leading Mexican content provider Mexico.com. On all three portals is MatchNet now the exclusive dating service partner. CEO Joe Shapira explained: “The cooperation practice is a reflex to the process of concentration of the service portals in the net. MatchNet is one of the first mover in this process and as a leading provider of worldwide dating services we are able to choose the best addresses, i.e. the most successful in commercial terms. We are looking for cooperation partners which are in the position to generate growth potentials to us. Our partners are benefiting from the quality of our services, the state-of-the-art databases and a thought-out marketing programm.” Innuity.com is one of the leading US-American web-design-providers for many thousands b2b and b2c platforms, among them 300 local radio stations and 250 internet radio homepages. Nearly 20 million e-commerce-transactions were concluded on these sites up to now. Innuity.com will AmericanSingles. link on the IMS radio station advertiser directory. At the same time appear there rotating file ads with a volume of 50,000 impressions. The promotion starts with nearly 300 websites and will be quickly expanded to 1,000 websites. Innuity.com will have a percentage share In the proceeds In future. Crosswinds.net offers free and unlimited e-mail and web space to their 1 million private users. Currently Crosswinds.net has on a monthly base 2.5 million unique users and 15 million page views, to whom now the MatchNet dating services are exclusively at their disposal. The aim of both cooperations is the increase of the membership number by AmericanSingles.com and other related sites to clearly more than 1.5 million registered members. The cooperation with Mexico.com concentrates on the conquest of the Central- and South American market with a new Spanish speaking dating service which will start in the fourth quarter of 2000. On the basis of the existing dating service platform MatchNet reckons with a rapid and especially economically adaptation, which will also be linked with the homepage of Mexico.com. From the future proceeds Mexico.com will receive a commission. About MatchNet plc: MatchNet is one of the important international dating service providers: American Singles.com in the USA, BritishSingles.co.uk in Great Britain, DeutscheSingles.de in Germany, OzeSingles.com.au in Australia and New Zealand and EuroSingles.com in Europe. Moreover there is Jdate.com, the leading Jewish dating service. The total membership of all MatchNet websites comes to 1.3 million registered users at the moment. MatchNet prosecutes consequently the extension of its websites into single portals. Growth is reaching through partnerships and acquisitions as well as the buying of other providers with similar contents. MatchNet achieves turnover with membership-fees, advertising and single trips. Revenues increased dynamically by 859 % to 1,49 million USD in the first six months of 2000 compared to 155.000 USD in the first six months of 1999. The market potential which focuses MatchNet on is a gigantic one: About 30 % of all internet users in the USA and in Europe are singles, that means altogether 65 million potential users of MatchNet dating services. The potential on these markets alone will increase to 90 million singles with internet connection up to the year 2002. WKN930129 Contact Elmar Bob Jörg Lüdecke Tel: 069/74749913 Tel: 069/170071-72 MatchNet plc Alexander Demuth Agentur Schumann Str. 1-3 Bockenheimer Anlage 37 60325 Frankfurt 60322 Frankfurt am Main End of Message