Combines NASDAQ-Style Trading with a Community-Driven Marketplace to Transform Buying and Selling Online
 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / PRURGENT
OAKLAND, CA – April 29, 2008 – Former Charles Schwab executives today announced the public beta service of Wigix (www.wigix.com), the world’s first online stock market for all non-financial goods. Wigix transforms online auctions by combining NASDAQ-style trading with a community-driven marketplace to dramatically improve the cost, security and efficiency of online auctions, and to create a new community in which its members can profit from the overall success of the site.
NASDAQ-Style Trading
The Wigix platform is based on the bid/ask model employed by NASDAQ and most other modern markets around the world. Sellers can list their item for any price, and buyers have the option to pay the listed price or offer an alternative price – both parties can accept or reject the bid. Bid/Ask markets give power to both buyers and sellers, while providing complete transparency throughout the process and reducing or eliminating common problems currently plaguing online auctions, such as shilling and sniping.
Specific features of Wigix’s advanced marketplace include:
• No listing fees: Wigix never charges sellers or buyers listing fees.
• Real time trading: Buyers and sellers do not have to wait days or weeks to determine the outcome of a sale as all trades occur immediately.
• One low fee: Unlike current auction sites which charge a myriad of listing, reserve, and final value fees, Wigix will charge one low fee per trade.
• Greatly improved user experiences: Wigix tracks time and sales data for each item in its marketplace enabling buyers and sellers to easily get detailed data on market prices. Wigix also eliminates “shilling” and “sniping”, two practices that are widespread in online auctions today.
A Community Driven Marketplace
Of equal importance to its bid/ask trading is Wigix’s advanced community and social networking technologies. By weaving these technologies directly into the marketplace, Wigix has created a series of groundbreaking features that enable communities of collectors, traders, owners and friends to not only discover and interact with each other but to contribute to the growth of Wigix… and directly share in the success of the site.
Some of the specific community-focused innovations that Wigix has developed include:
• Inventory tracking: Members can register and persistently track the value of their belongings/inventory for free. Any change in price of an item is instantly communicated to everyone who owns that item.
• Category Experts: Wigix empowers members of its community to become “category experts”. Category experts use their knowledge and passion to help administer specific categories of items, such as video games, hand bags, or watches. For their efforts, category managers receive a share of the revenues generated by their category.
• SKU Owners: Any member can upload data on a specific item (which Wigix calls a “SKU”), such as a new cell phone or recently released car, and claim “ownership” of that item on Wigix. This ownership entitles them to receive a share of the future revenues generated by that item.
• Item Browsing: Users can browse Wigix’s catalog of unique items, currently over 500,000, to research future potential purchases and discover similar products.
• “Ask the Owners”: Users can easily ask all owners of a specific item questions about their experience with the item.
“The Internet has changed greatly in the past 15 years and yet the online auction industry is still firmly stuck in the 1990s. It’s time for online auctions to enter the 21st century”, said James Chong, Wigix’s CEO. “Wigix applies lessons from modern financial markets and integrates them with community and social networking technologies to bring greatly enhanced features and functions to buyers, sellers and owners at a dramatically lower cost. It also provides a unique platform for passionate collectors and owners to gain recognition for their expertise, and to share in the rewards that their participation in the community helps to create. Finally, rather than fight progress, Wigix’s business has been architected to symbiotically co-exist with the many web-based innovations and services that have been developed in the past 15 years.”
Beta Test Goals
Wigix has several key goals for its public-beta test including:
1. Recruiting category experts and SKU owners to help build out the breadth and depth of Wigix’s trading platform and community.
2. Engaging with current online auction power-sellers to ensure that the marketplace meets all their requirements.
3. Incorporating feedback from the user community on potential enhancements.
Trading will be limited to a sub-set of categories to start-with, but this universe will expand as the public beta progresses. Formal launch of the site is planned for late summer/early fall 2008.
About Wigix
Wigix is the world’s first online stock market for goods. Wigix uses NASDAQ-style trading along with community and social networking technologies to create a community-driven marketplace that not only delivers dramatically lower costs and improved user experiences, but a vibrant community of passionate and informed collectors, owners, and traders who are all able to share in the success of the site.
Wigix, Inc. was founded in 2007 by James Chong, a successful entrepreneur who also architected the online trading systems at Charles Schwab. In addition to Chong, Wigix’s team includes co-founders and former Charles Schwab colleagues Bob Lee and Albert Loh, as well Internet and software veterans. The company has raised significant venture funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and high-profile angel investors. Wigix is based in Oakland, CA.
Media Inquiries
Kathy Johnson, Consort Partners
wigix[@]consortpartners.com
Tel: +1 415 823 9566
Website Link: http://www.wigix.com | 
Digg it
