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f2 TAKES STRATEGIC STAKE IN TOYSPOT.COM.AU
"Over the past six months we have focused on building Australia’s most successful pure online retail business," said Alison Harrington, co-CEO, TheSpot. "The resources and funding from f2 will enable us to cement this leadership position and accelerate the rollout of new verticals. It also taps us into f2’s substantial web traffic and offers great marketing and cross promotional opportunities." The deal also includes an alliance with SOLD.com.au for online toy auctions. "This makes ToySpot.com.au the definitive online toy marketplace in Australia. It provides customers with more products, the choice of new or pre-loved, and more ways of finding and buying them," said Justin Punch, co-CEO of TheSpot. "Online retailing is a dramatically different business model to traditional retailing. It involves a lot more than simply creating a web site for an existing store. We have to be constantly looking for new and better ways to do business in order to meet our customers needs and stay in front." "E-commerce is one way we are generating revenue from our leading traffic position and it is a big part of our future," said Nigel Dews, Chief Executive, f2, Fairfax Interactive Network. "We have already demonstrated a strong e-commerce focus with SOLD.com.au, CitySearch.com.au and shoptoday.com.au. Our stake in ToySpot.com.au puts us in a good position in e-tailing and further builds our e-commerce assets. "We know e-tailing is going to be extremely competitive and there will only be a few big winners. ToySpot.com.au has a great management team, a leading position, and the right resourcing from f2 and other investors to ensure it stays among the leaders," said Mr Dews.
ToySpot is the first venture of theSpot, and was launched in October 1999. It has over 2000 products across five categories including toys, children's books and videos, children’s software, and video games. ToySpot has quickly established itself as the leading e-retailer in this country - for the month of November independent research company IMR Worldwide reported that ToySpot.com.au was the most trafficked Australian e-retailer with 98,000 unique visitors.
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For further information, please contact: Lindy
Yarnold
Gary Saunders Mob: 0407 483 194 Mob: 0411 322 493
Note to editors John Fairfax Holdings Limited [ASX:FXJ] is Australia’s leading publishing group. Its newspapers and magazines include The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sun-Herald, and BRW. In addition, the company publishes financial and consumer magazines, and provides online services. In 1999, the company had revenues of over $1.1 billion. Fairfax corporate and financial announcements are posted on our Web site: www.fxj.com.au. f2, the Fairfax Interactive Network, is a wholly owned subsidiary of John Fairfax Holdings Limited [ASX:FXJ]. It is Australia’s leading content provider on the Internet with more than 1.4 million page views per day across a network of sites which include: news (smh.com.au, theage.com.au, sunherald.com.au and it.fairfax.com.au); business (afr.com.au and brw.com.au); personal finance (tradingroom.com.au, moneymanager.com.au, shares.aust.com and personalinvestor.com.au); automotive (drive.com.au); search (melbournetoday.com.au); employment (mycareer.com.au and itjobs.fairfax.com.au); online auctions (SOLD.com.au); real estate (domain.com.au and apn.brw.com.au); shopping (shoptoday.com.au); sports (sportstoday.com.au, rugbyheaven.com.au, footy99.com.au, thepavilion.com.au and smh.com.au/league); travel (walkabout.com.au); city guides for Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra (citysearch.com.au); Big Colour Pages, the only complete national Internet and print business directory; and free email (today.com.au). About theSpot TheSpot is an Australian Internet company started in mid 1999 with the vision of establishing a leading presence in many high volume e-retailing sectors. It was seed funded in July this year with $1.6 million raised from a range of investors, including RMB Ventures. The first venture of theSpot is ToySpot (www.ToySpot.com.au) which was launched in October 1999 and has fast become a leader in the total online retail sector - for the month of November 1999 independent research company IMR Worldwide reported that ToySpot was the most trafficked Australian e-retailer with 98,000 unique visitors.
Note to editors John Fairfax Holdings [ASX:FXJ] is Australia’s leading publishing group. Its mastheads include The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sun-Herald, and BRW. In addition, the Company publishes financial and consumer magazines, and provides online and interactive services. In 1999, the company had revenues of over $1.1 billion. Fairfax, through F2 Limited, its wholly owned subsidiary for its online and interactive businesses, is Australia’s leading content provider on the Internet, with more than 1.4 million page views, per day across a network of sites including news, business and finance, sport, auctions, real estate, employment, IT, career, and city guides and directories. |
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Fairfax > Corporate Affairs & Media Releases > Announcements > TOYSPOT
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