REDMOND, Wash., and TORONTO, May 16, 2001 — Carpoint™
.ca, the most visited car-buying site in Canada, today announced the launch of its Used Car Marketplace through an alliance with AutoTrader. Through this new relationship, which combines used car listings from Trader Media Corp. and Trader.com in Canada, Carpoint.ca is extending its existing New Car Buying Service to provide consumers with access to the largest national inventory of used cars available online.
As the exclusive auto channel for MSN® .CA, Canada’s No. 1 portal, Carpoint provides access to the broadest range of online research and car-buying services in the country to the more than 4.5 million unique monthly visitors of MSN.CA (Media Metrix, March 2001). The Used Car Marketplace will enable consumers to locate a specific vehicle by year, make and model through AutoTrader’s national inventory. Consumers can locate cars and contact the local dealers that have those vehicles on their lots.
“As the market leader in used vehicle classifieds, AutoTrader is pleased to offer consumers an additional way to access our online inventories through Carpoint.ca,”
said John Francis, president of Trader Media.
According to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, the Canadian used vehicle market exceeds 3 million vehicles per year.
“This new relationship with Carpoint.ca benefits both consumers and auto dealers that are looking to buy and sell used vehicles by leveraging the power of the Internet and enabling consumers to locate the exact used vehicle they are looking for,”
said Eugene Berenas, general manager vehicle Internet, at Trader.com.
“Our Canada Trader.com print publications in Western Canada and the Maritimes and the Hebdo.net publications in Quebec form the building blocks for our extensive Internet database of used vehicles that will be a part of the Carpoint.ca comprehensive service.”
“Working with AutoTrader enables Carpoint to build on our existing buying services to meet the needs of all car buyers,”
said Ruth D’Souza, general manager of Carpoint.ca.
“This strategic relationship further demonstrates our commitment to work with industry leaders to provide the most comprehensive online car-buying services available.”
Carpoint.ca, available in French and English, provides Canadian consumers with comprehensive new car-buying services, up-to-date news and reviews, and safety information, all tailored to the unique needs and interests of Canadians. The site, customized to the specific needs of Canadian consumers, is modeled after six years of award-winning U.S. site technology and design.
About AutoTrader
AutoTrader in Ontario, Canada, is the leading source of used vehicle photo classifieds with more than 25 automotive titles distributed in over 9,000 locations across the province. For over 25 years, AutoTrader has been bringing buyers and sellers together in what is today the largest used vehicle marketplace in Ontario. The Web site AutoTrader.ca is the largest and most frequently visited used vehicle site in the province with a total database of over 40,000 listings including cars, trucks, RVs, boats, motorcycles and heavy equipment. AutoTrader is a division of Trader Media Corp., a privately owned company headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
About Trader.com
Trader.com is a global leader in classified advertising. The group was founded in Canada under the name Hebdo Mag in 1987 as a private company. Today, Trader.com connects buyers and sellers through 282 publications (more than 7 million readers per week) and 52 Web sites in 20 countries (150 million page views per month as of March 2001). Trader.com has over 4,700 employees worldwide, of whom 1,900 are sales people. Trader.com is listed on the NASDAQ (TRDR) and Premier March
é
(First Market of the Paris Stock Exchange – SICOVAM code 5729 and Reuters code: TRD).
Trader.com is one of Canada’s leading online and offline marketplaces connecting buyers and sellers of vehicles, boats, RVs, motorcycles, heavy equipment, real estate and computers. Trader.com has offices across the country and owns more than 90 print publications coast to coast, including Quebec’s Hebdo, Auto Traders in Western and Eastern Canada, the Vancouver Buy and Sell, the Alberta Bargain Finder, and The Computer Paper in Toronto. The company’s Canadian Web sites include CanadaTrader.com, Hebdo.net, BuySell.com and CanadaComputes.com.
About Carpoint.ca
Launched in September 2000, Toronto-based MSN Carpoint Canada is the leading national online automotive marketplace based on consumer reach. The fully bilingual Carpoint.ca site is an independent, all makes, all models resource that provides consumers with the broadest range of services to find a car they love at a price they can afford. From product reviews and surround video, to new and used car buying services, visitors can research, compare cars, select or configure the car they want to purchase, and receive detailed information from the Carpoint network of Canadian dealers across the nation.
The technology and design of Carpoint.ca is modeled after Carpoint.com, the award-winning U.S. car buying and ownership site, visited by more than 7 million consumers each month.
About MSN.CA
On one Web page, MSN.CA makes compelling Internet services, information, entertainment and a variety of communication options, including the MSN Hotmail® Web-based e-mail service, the world’s leading globally accessible, free,* Web-based electronic mail service, available to Canadians. MSN.CA also provides such high-quality interactive services as Zone.com, MSN Web Communities, MSN Messenger Service and MSN Search for users of the Microsoft® Windows® operating system and Apple Macintosh. The Web site address is http://www.MSN.CA/ .
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
* Connect-time charges may apply.
Microsoft, Carpoint, MSN, Hotmail and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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