Sell, bid and buy with your phone:
eBay goes mobile with Opera Mini
Oslo, Norway – June 7, 2006 – eBay and Opera Software today announced a
joint pilot project to bring eBay’s Online Marketplace(R) to mobile phones
in Germany. By offering a customized version of the popular Opera Mini
mobile Web browser, eBay and Opera will enable people to sell, bid and buy
using their mobile phones, anywhere, anytime. Because Opera Mini is a full
HTML Web browser, eBay.de can now offer its users the same feature-rich
experience on mobile phones as on PCs.
eBay Germany has 20 million customers, making it the largest eBay community
outside of the USA. In total, eBay has more than 193 million registered
users worldwide.
The fully customized Opera Mini eBay edition offers direct, mobile access
to eBay’s content and functions through an eBay search field and bookmarks
displayed on the browser’s start page. An integrated eBay menu page lets
users browse, bid, buy and sell using their mobile phones, just like they
do on their PCs. Because the Opera Mini eBay edition is a Web browser, they
can also surf the full Web with the speed and ease-of-use for which Opera
Mini is renowned.
“With this pilot project our users will get a new eBay browsing experience
on their mobile phones,” says Bj=F6rn Behrendt, Senior Manager Platform
Solutions, eBay Germany. “We are excited to provide our users with full
access to all of eBay’s auctions on their mobile phones – whenever and
wherever they are.”
Using Opera’s unique Small-Screen Rendering (SSR) technology, Opera Mini
reformats regular Web pages to fit the width of mobile screens. This
enables Web sites and content providers, such as eBay, to reach mobile
users with their existing Web sites, without having to invest heavily in
mobile specific solutions. This allows for instant access to the mobile
mass market.
“The Web is rapidly expanding from the PC realm to mobile phones, and our
partnership with eBay is a terrific example of how a Web based service can
reach the mobile mass market with their existing solutions through Opera
Mini,” says Rolf Assev, CCO, Opera Software. “We are very pleased to work
with eBay to offer their users full access to eBay’s Online Marketplace and
the full Web on their phones.”
Availability
The Opera Mini eBay edition is available as a free WAP download by
directing the phone’s WAP browser to http://mini.opera.com/ebay or by
sending an SMS with OPERA to 88881 (*0.49) (SMS only available in Germany).
– The original Opera Mini mobile browser is available as a free WAP
download from http://mini.opera.com or via SMS. List of SMS numbers for
your country: http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/operamini/sms/
– Screenshots of the Opera Mini eBay edition:
www.opera.com/press/images/mini/ebay
– Screenshots of the regular Opera Mini browser:
www.opera.com/press/images/mini
About eBay
=46ounded in 1995, eBay created a powerful platform for the sale of goods an=
d
services by a passionate community of individuals and businesses. On any
given day, there are millions of items across thousands of categories for
sale on eBay. eBay enables trade on a local, national and international
basis with customized sites in markets around the world. Through an array
of services, such as its payment solution provider PayPal, eBay is enabling
global e-commerce for an ever-growing online community. You can find all of
eBay Germany’s wireless offerings here: http://unterwegs.ebay.de.
About Opera Software
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and
other networked devices. Opera’s cross- platform Web browser technology is
renowned for its small size, performance and standards-compliance, while
giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience.
Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the
world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker
symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.
