ORLANDO, FL -- 02/20/08 --
India's leading social networking site & search
engine is up for sale. ByIndia.com, founded in 2005 and acquired by Web2
Corp (OTCBB: WBTO) in August 2006, grew from an anonymous simple
Indian-centric search engine to one of India's 100 most visited sites,
according to third-party traffic ranking site Alexa.com. With complete
social networking features, blogs, free e-mail, video and photo sharing,
news feeds and more, ByIndia became a top destination for Indians looking
to keep in touch with fellow countrymen and women.
"ByIndia has remained a strong property in the Web2 Corp lineup," said
William Mobley, CEO of Web2 Corp. "However, Web2 Corp is moving away from
developing large branded portals with ad supported revenue models to direct
sales of its commercial applications, and holding on to ByIndia.com doesn't
make sense for us. While we hate to see a strong site such as ByIndia.com
go, our recent business restructuring has made it necessary, and an
advertiser or investor who sees the opportunities developing in the India
marketplace over the next few years can see the clear value in ByIndia.com.
This is a complete turnkey package, with every database, every line of
code, and even every physical server platform that the site runs on, all
for sale. The transition will be simple, yet Web2 Corp is also willing to
entertain continued hosting and bandwidth of the site from our
high-bandwidth fiber optic Internet hub in Orlando until it can be
physically relocated in India."
ByIndia has some of the most targeted Indian audience statistics on the
web, drawing in young twenty- and thirty-somethings in India (and displaced
Indians living abroad) who have disposable income and who are tech savvy.
"This is an incredibly attractive market for advertisers to reach out to,"
Mobley continued. "Young and upwardly mobile Indians who are just getting
ready to start their own families. India's going to be the world's largest
Internet market by 2015, and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for
any of the larger India media companies and advertising agencies which can
take full advantage of Web2 Corp's effort to secure a foothold in this
soon-to-be largest global internet marketplace.
"With the quest of becoming India's version of Baidu.com, Web2 Corp had
arranged for $5M in funding for ByIndia in October 2006. About the same
time, Sequoia Capital invested $7M in Guruji.com, another Indian search
engine. After 6 months the funding commitment was never delivered, yet
ByIndia.com went on to greatly surpass Guruji.com, MSN.in, AOL.in in daily
visits to the site, and trailed only Sify.com and Rediff.com (India's
strongest portals) before lack of financial support eliminated all
in-country marketing efforts. We are not from India and always knew
ByIndia.com would need to be transitioned back to India for growth and
maintenance, but the crucial funding never came. We would love to see
ByIndia.com succeed fully, but we are no longer the right company to make
that happen. Selling ByIndia was a hard decision for us, but we know that
its value and growing user base will make it a great property for the right
party."
ByIndia.com is for sale at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120224354877, and direct
inquiries may be made by calling 011 +(0)01 407.540.0452.
About Web2 Corp:
Web2 Corp is a Web 2.0 Internet technology development firm dedicated to
rapid creation and adaptation of technologies. Web2 Corp addresses new
markets of users by creating and simplifying useful products, reducing the
level of user technical skills required, and lowering prices for consumers.
Web2 Corp (OTCBB: WBTO) is a publicly traded company.
For more information on Web2 Corp or to see Web2 Corp's Safe Harbor Act
Disclaimer Notice, go to http://www.Web2Corp.com.
Contact:
Trevor Longino
Director of Communications & Marketing
Web2 Corp
407.540.0452
