Switchboard Launches E-Commerce Program
Switchboard is the Internet directory subsidiary of Banyan Systems. The company said it will team with large organizations that have established local merchant relationships to provide a wide array of Internet services to their merchant bases, including the construction, hosting and distribution of Web sites and advertisements in the Switchboard directory and other Switchboard co-branded partner directories.
Switchboard said it will provide a turnkey set of services which will enable a new class of partners to become the source of support for local merchants.
Switchboard already signed a partnership deal with Discover Financial Services, a business unit of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which offers the Discover Card brands, including Discover Platinum and Private Issue by Discover. Under the terms of the agreement, Discover/NOVUS Network merchants will be offered an opportunity to establish Internet visibility through a variety of Switchboard service and product offerings.
"We are looking forward to aggressively expanding our local merchant base in the coming months, and to providing unique ways for the 4 million users who visit our site each month to find and do business with them," said Dean Polnerow, president of Switchboard. ". . .we plan to become the preferred choice for promoting local businesses on the Internet."
Switchboard.com was one of the first directory services to launch and said it recorded $6.5 million in revenue in 1998, up from just $0.7 million in the previous year, primarily driven by national advertising. To date, Switchboard has attracted over 2.5 million registered users, and represents nearly 65,000 local merchants with a page or more describing their businesses.
November 22nd, 2008, posted by cfz
