By Keith Regan E-Commerce Times
08/14/01 9:19 PM PT
eBay president Meg Whitman said the expanded AOL deal 'will allow us to bring eBay to
more consumers than ever before.'
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Internet powerhouse eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and
media giant AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL)
struck an expanded marketing agreement that more closely links two of
the most powerful brands on the Web, and stretches into television and print media.
Under the deal, San Jose, California-based eBay will advertise
across AOL Time Warner's sprawling media empire, including
the TNT and TBS television networks, magazines such as
Time, Fortune and People, and Web properties such as CNN.com and People.com.
The deal comes two weeks after AOL announced
it would invest US$100 million
in and strengthen its ties to leading e-tailer Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN).
The expanded agreement between AOL and eBay extends a relationship
that dates back to 1997. The deal maintains AOL's position
as eBay's "exclusive third-party
advertising sales force, representing a significant portion of
eBay's standard online advertising inventory," the companies said.
Financial terms for the expanded agreement were not
disclosed. In 1999, eBay agreed to pay AOL $75 million
for promotion across
the Internet service's online properties.
Must Be Giants
At least online, AOL and eBay have grown to comparable strength
since that time, with AOL now boasting 33 million members
worldwide and eBay's community about 34 million strong.
"Our relationship over the years with America Online has
been a huge success," said eBay president and chief
executive officer Meg Whitman. "Working across AOL Time Warner's tremendous
assortment of media properties will allow us to bring eBay to
more consumers than ever before."
According to Whitman, the increased brand awareness
and traffic that the AOL deal will generate for eBay
will give the entire eBay community a boost.
AOL chairman and chief executive officer Barry Schuler said that
the deal adds eBay to the "growing list of top companies" that
have expanded alliances with AOL. Schuler also called
eBay "one of the great innovators in online commerce."
Crossing the Channels
In signing the eBay deal, AOL is taking another step to leverage the massive media
empire created when Time Warner and AOL merged. As with the Amazon agreement,
the eBay deal is a nod to AOL's roots as an Internet service provider and Web
portal.
Other portals, facing an advertising crunch, clearly hope to follow suit. For example,
alhough Internet-only at its core, Yahoo! has stepped into the multichannel arena, inking
a marketing and Web development deal
with Sony last month.
Yahoo! has also joined with NBC to develop a television-and-Internet shopping channel.
sales force, representing a significant portion of
eBay's standard online advertising inventory," the companies said.
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