Past Press Releases：2004
ValueCommerce launches A-1 Affiliate Awards
TOKYO -- November 11, 2004 -
ValueCommerce Co. Ltd., Japan's leading Affiliate Network Service Provider,
today announced that it has launched its first yearly Affiliate competition.
Awards for the A-1 Grand Prix are targeted towards the complete spectrum
of affiliate marketers in Japan and feature prizes from 22 sponsors, part
of the wide network of e-commerce sites and advertisers who partner with
ValueCommerce to generate sales online.
ValueCommerce's Marketing manager, Shinobu Ohyama, stated that the A-1 Affiliate
competition was designed so that affiliates of all levels could participate.
"We wanted to create a competition that provided recognition to affiliates of
all levels, regardless of size: from beginners to the more experienced websites
(known as super affiliates) that typically participate in affiliate competitions,"
Ohyama said.
The A-1 Grand Prix, which runs until the end of January 2005, consists of 30
different awards in four main categories - creative, contents, performance and
"MyLink" (a ValueCommerce specific affiliate solution). The categories include
not only the more traditional click-through rated affiliate performance metrics,
such as best web, email and mobile affiliate, but also innovative new groupings
like "best Website design", "best affiliate story" and "entrepreneurial activity".
While some super affiliates regularly make in excess of 1 Million yen per month
with ValueCommerce, most affiliates are individuals trying to supplement their
income as affiliate marketing hobbyists. "Affiliate Marketing is for anyone looking
to make additional income from their website", Ohyama said. "Affiliate marketing
is as easy as placing advertising on your website to promote another company's
product. If someone clicks on that advertisement and buys the product, you can
get a commission on the sale.
Our affiliate network is made up of all types of people: from Housewives and
students to website designers and internet marketing professionals. Therefore
we wanted to hold a competition that was open enough so that site owners or individuals
who are new to the affiliate marketing space could easily get involved and compete."
The A-1 grand prix runs until the end of January and awards will be presented
at a major event conducted by ValueCommerce during Q1 next year.
About ValueCommerce Co Ltd
Founded in 1996 as one of the first hosting and domain resellers
in Japan under the name Transpacific, ValueCommerce has always been
focused on introducing innovative technologies to the Japanese market.
Headquartered in Tokyo Japan, ValueCommerce operates three main business
divisions, Affiliate Marketing, A directory Search business (Looksmart
Japan) and also provides Hosting Solutions. ValueCommerce operates
a sales, marketing and operations office in Tokyo Japan, employing
approximately 150 people.
To learn more about ValueCommerce, please visit www.valuecommerce.co.jp (Japanese)
or www.valuecommerce.com (English)
About Affiliate Marketing
ValueCommerce is the pioneer of affiliate marketing in Japan and runs the largest
affiliate network in the country, with over 1000 advertisers, 82,000 media
partners (affiliates), equating to 48%** reach of the Internet user base in
Japan on a weekly basis. During 2003, this network accounted for 77 billion
yen in sales in Japan. The ValueCommerce network is Japan's only manually managed
affiliate network, where registered affiliates are classified by media type
(web, email or mobile) and networks, then further ranked for quality and content
type. The result of this granular classification system is a managed affiliate
network where advertisers can select and reward media of different type and
quality using the ValueCommerce technology.
** Nielsen Netratings August 2004
About LookSmart Japan
Looksmart first began compiling its Japanese directory in 1998 before setting
up operations in Japan in 2000. LookSmart Japan has been operating Japan's
leading fully managed OEM directory with 318,000 listings, categorized under
23,000 categories compiled by professional editors over a collective work period
that equates to 25 years in man hours. The directory provides media partners
with high quality content as well as search advertising revenues generated
from a diverse base of 25,000 commercial listings in the directory.
Some of Looksmart Japan's current media partners include: Nifty, Fresh Eye,
and Excite
To learn more about Looksmart Japan, visit www.Looksmart.co.jp (Japanese)