Three German students develop world's biggest search engine for used domains

(Cologne, Germany) The scarcity of domains on the internet (domains are the first part of web addresses like yahoo.com, spray.se or sedo.de) has inspired three students from Cologne (Germany), Freiburg (Germany) and Linköping (Sweden) to develop the world's biggest search engine for used domains together.

Tim Schumacher, CFO, - still a student of business administration - explains the idea: with the quick development of the internet and the dropping prices to reserve domain names, the world is running short of domain names. In Germany, for example - probably the country in the world with the cheapest domain names - internet domain sellers like ultimadomain.de sell domains for only 1 German Mark (about $0.50) per month. Therefore, many companies and private persons buy loads of domains names without using them - just for safety reasons or simply to speculate. The start into the Internet gets tough for new ventures and existing companies, who would like to start a web presence. Here comes the idea to "sedo" (which stands for "search engine for domain offers"): it is a marketplace for buying and selling domains, but not only that: it also integrates several other domain marketplaces on the internet by a worldwide unique metasearch concept.

CTO Ulrich Priesner, who did the technical programming, strongly believes that the database is the fastest and best way for any potential domain buyer to buy a domain which already seemed lost on the first hand markets. And Marius Würzner, Marketing Director, adds: "well, it's still usually a bit more expensive if you buy the domain on the second hand market" - but all the speculators, who have bought all the domains in hope for big wins, will be very happy.

(Cologne, March 23, 2000)

More information: www.sedo.de, info@sedo.de or by phone (+49) 170-9783264