Let's make a dealFounded by two Israeli high-tech entrepreneurs in December 1997, DealTime went live with its online shopping comparison service in June 1999, backed by venture capital funding from firms like Israel Seed Partners and Odeon Capital Partners, as well as by strategic and financial partners including AOL, Time Warner, and Bank of America. Now based in New York, the site uses an automated shopping "bot" to comb hundreds of web sites - including online merchants, auctions, classifieds, and group buying sites - to find the lowest prices on thousands of items. DealTime also allows consumers to compare prices with offline sellers.
A wide range of products and services
Price-conscious shoppers can browse DealTime's categories, which include pet supplies, electronics, health & beauty, and video games, and then search by brand name, product model, or keyword within each category. Once a search is completed, consumers have the option of sorting results by merchant, merchant rating (from bizrate.com), product, deal type, or price. DealTime then provides a link to each merchant's web site. A partnership with epinions.com spawned dealtime.epinions.com, which provides access to reviews of consumer products. Other features of DealTime's main site include the Desktop Notifier, a software download that provides price updates; e-mail or pager notifications of lower prices; and DealAgent, a service for merchants that tracks shoppers' click-throughs and price requests in each category, and allows merchants to respond immediately by submitting a new price on the site.
The high-stakes battle for the top
As a number of new shopping comparison sites mounted a direct challenge to DealTime's service, the company launched a $25 million advertising campaign in fall 1999 intended to raise the company's profile prior to the crucial holiday shopping period. Since that time, Dealtime has enjoyed more than a million visitors per month to its site. With proprietary tools like the Desktop Notifier and DealAgent, as well as the partnership with epinions, DealTime has thus far been able to stay competitive with both upstarts in the online shopping comparison arena and with mySimon, the acknowledged leader.
In February 2000, the company announced that it had raised $50 million in private placement. Then in May, it came out with a mobile phone service, DealTime Mobile. That same month, it announced the acquisition of evenbetter.com, a German comparison-shopping service, as part of a Joint European Venture with German media giant Bertelsmann. A month later, the company formed a joint venture in Japan. In addition to its U.S., British, and German sites, and its Japanese expansion, Dealtime hopes to continue expanding in 2000 with new shopping sites for France and Latin America. Finally, the company has recently augmented the services that it offers by teaming with Sprint and with AOL.
