MSN and eBay announced plans to expand their relationship and further integrate the consumer services offered by the two companies.
The new alliance will make online shopping a more convenient and inclusive part of the daily online activities of consumers by pairing popular offerings from MSN, the world’s most visited onlinenetwork, with eBay, the world’s online marketplace.
The deeper integration will allow customers of MSN to receive direct links to eBay for items related to their search queries from the MSN home page, MSN Search, MSN Shopping and MSN Auctions. The integration will make it easier for customers to find eBay listings and expand the potential market for eBay sellers. The companies plan further integration later this year and will continue providing “outbid” and “auction ending” alert notifications to eBay users over the Microsoft® .NET Alerts platform.
In addition to the integrated placements, MSN will showcase eBay’s advertising across its network in contextually relevant places, increasing daily awareness of eBay as a place for online consumers to buy and sell their favorite merchandise.
“Shopping is an incredibly popular online activity, and eBay is consistently one of the top five search queries on MSN Search,” said Richard Bray, vice president of the MSN U.S. Region. “By integrating the eBay marketplace more deeply throughout the MSN network, we will provide consumers with an even more useful, complete and convenient online experience.”
“We’re very excited to expand our relationship with the world’s leading online network,” said Jeffrey Housenbold, vice president of Business Development and Internet Marketing for eBay. “The integration of our services presents an untapped opportunity to attract new buyers and sellers to the eBay marketplace while enhancing the shopping experience on MSN.”
Microsoft and eBay announced a strategic alliance in March 2001 designed to expand their global online presence and improve the e-commerce experience for consumers. Today’s announcement builds on the successful relationship forged by the two companies and signals the beginning of an expanded relationship whereby MSN will promote eBay’s online Marketplace to its more than 300 million unique users.
