VALUE COMMERCE

ValueCommerce Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Stock Code: 2491, Chairman & CEO: Brian Nelson, ValueCommerce) is pleased to announce the launch on February 26, 2008 of the upgraded ValueCommerce Web Service 3.0, with newly added support for mobile affiliates and positional data registration. ValueCommerce has begun offering product information on Yahoo! Japan Shopping and other online malls to the free mobile site creation service offered by Rockwave Inc. (Headquarters: Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, Representative Director: Hiroyuki Iwanami, Rockwave) under the brand name aimew.

A service for mobile phones, aimew boasts 100,000 registered sites and 50 million page views per month as of January 2008. It enables mobile websites to be produced and browsed using either a mobile handset or a personal computer, and attracts a large number of users from among women in their teens and in the 20-34 age group. It provides a personal profile, bulletin board and other functions that facilitate the creation of mobile community sites, as well as a feature for publishing mobile novels- currently enjoying great popularity. It also offers a mobile blog platform and supports handset standby screen downloads to enable users to develop content websites. The aimew service can therefore respond to a broad range of user needs, and will now offer a simple affiliate function based on ValueCommerce Web Service 3.0 to make it easy for users to introduce affiliate ads.

* ValueCommerce Web Service 3.0

The ValueCommerce Web Service works as an interface allowing e-commerce sites and their affiliate partners to exchange product information. It consists of a product database, in which e-commerce sites register products, and a product search application programming interface (API). Upgraded on February 6, 2008, ValueCommerce Web Service 3.0 has the following enhanced features.

» Support for mobile affiliates
On the mobile version of Yahoo! Japan Shopping and other mobile shopping malls, an increasing number of consumers are using their services while new shopping sites are also being launched. ValueCommerce encourages them to adopt an affiliate program as a means of attracting customers and encourages application service providers (ASPs) offering mobile site creation services to use the ValueCommerce Web Service in a bid to expand the affiliate network.

» Support for positional information that shows the location of a building in latitude and longitude
Combining a map information API and the ValueCommerce Web Service paves the way for affiliate ads that show the locations of accommodation facilities, golf courses and other recreational facilities and that guide users to their appropriate booking websites. In collaboration with GPS-supported handsets, it supports affiliate ads that propose the nearest facilities on the basis of users’ positional information and that lead them to those websites where they can obtain discount vouchers or make reservations. ValueCommerce invites these e-commerce websites to be part of the product database system and encourages affiliate partners providing local information and accommodation facility information to use the ValueCommerce Web Service.

[ Rockwave Inc. ]

Rockwave Inc. (Headquarters: Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, Date of Foundation: October 14, 2005, Representative Director: Hiroyuki Iwanami) develops and delivers e-commerce platforms for mobile phones and mobile phone-based consumer generated media (CGM) services and creates mechanisms that allow anyone to conduct marketing activities that meet current needs. In so doing, it offers services that bring excitement and value to service providers and consumers alike and that serve the growth of the mobile e-commerce market.

[ aimew ]

aimew is a brand of the free mobile site creation service offered by Rockwave. It enables mobile websites to be produced and browsed with a mobile handset or personal computer and is attracts a large number of users from among women in their teens and in the 20-34 age group. aimew meets a wide range of user needs by providing a personal profile, bulletin board and other functions that facilitate the creation of mobile community sites, as well as a feature for publishing popular mobile novels, by offering a mobile blog platform and supporting handset standby screen downloads to enable users to develop content websites. As of January 2008, aimew had more than 100,000 registered sites and 50 million page views per month.

[ ValueCommerce ]

ValueCommerce Co., Ltd. (Listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market, Code No: 2491, Headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Founded on March 12th, 1996. Chairman & CEO: Brian Nelson), is distributing online advertisements and providing consulting services for companies conducting e-business.

[ ValueCommerce Affiliate Program ]

ValueCommerce provides a powerful performance-based affiliate marketing platform with over 1,600 screened EC sites (advertisers) and 550,000 screened media sites (affiliate partners) (As of January 31, 2008)

[ ValueCommerce Web Service ]

The ValueCommerce Web Service works as an interface allowing e-commerce sites and their affiliate partners to exchange product information with each other. It consists of a product database, in which e-commerce sites register products, and a product search application programming interface (API). In the product database system, ValueCommerce adds advertisement codes to product information provided by e-commerce sites and then retains the information as a database. As of February 21, 2008, the database held information on 18.606 million products offered by 109 e-commerce sites. Affiliate partners can either receive product information collectively in a predetermined procedure or directly search the product database using the search API. Search results are provided in extensible markup language (XML) format.