Ciao (website)
Ciao.de is a consumer online community within the LeGuide Group. With more than 8.1 million individual visits to Germany in January 2013, it is one of the largest shopping portals in Germany. In the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands Ciao belongs to the respective largest shopping portals.
Company History
The shopping portal Ciao was founded by Frederick Paul, Max Cartellieri and Verena Mohaupt in Munich in the summer of 1999. In November 1999, went online the portal. In February 2000, merged with its competitor Ciao Amiro.de and the founding team of ciao.de was extended by Jens Dissmann, Gerrit Heine, Cyril Jaugey, Klaus Kolitz, Cornelius Rost, Rolf Schrömgens, Stephan Stubner and Peter Vinnemeier. The headquarters of the new company Ciao GmbH Munich. About three rounds Ciao capital was funded by venture capitalists Wellington Partners, Index Ventures, Apax and Burda Digital as well as various business angels with approximately EUR 28 million.
The company employs in the seven European offices in Munich, London, Paris, Wroclaw ( Poland) and Timisoara ( Romania) more than 220 employees.
In April 2005, the U.S. online panel company Greenfield Online, Inc. bought ( NASDAQ: SRVY ) Ciao AG for $ 154 million.
On May 1, 2007, the Company classified its two divisions, " Ciao Comparison Shopping " and " Ciao Surveys " into separate companies: one is the online shopping portal Ciao in seven countries and languages , which offers consumer opinions on diverse products and services, for the other Ciao Surveys GmbH, a provider of online surveys and service provider in the field of online market research.
Sales in 2007 amounted to $ 67 million.
In October 2008, Microsoft bought Ciao GmbH for approximately $ 486 million to expand the offer in the areas of search and e-commerce in Europe significantly.
In March 2012, Ciao has been taken over by the French group LeGuide Group, which had previously bought the competitor dooyoo.de. After departure of Corinne Lejbowicz took over the management of sickle Olivier Shopping Guide GmbH, which operates the shopping portal Ciao in seven languages and markets, in July 2012.
Offer
Ciao.de offers price comparisons of over six million different products and services, and a shopping guide that consists of over five million prepared by the Ciao community reports personal experience with products and services. Meanwhile, the vast majority of these reports with food and drug store products deals. This development shows that the entertainment value of the reports over the value as a buy recommendation occurs more and more into the foreground. For the providers of the products featured at Ciao Ciao advantage of this is that members of the community are potential customers, the increase within the community awareness of the products and with their reports (if they are positive) automatically make advertising.
As a registered user you can help other users with their own experience, gain notoriety in the community and receive small incentives. The members can share their opinions evaluate each other ( especially helpful, very helpful, etc.) and earn points as a result. For obtaining a high status within the community, not only the number and quality of advice plays a role, but also the systematic construction of the largest possible circle of friends, which can be achieved by generous assessment of as many foreign opinions easiest. Set in a community newsletter of Ciao.de now officially endorsed practice of " reading rounds " documents the end in itself degenerate Writing, Reading, Comment and Rate of experience reports: Not the disclosure of consumer experiences, but, a very high status within the community, coupled with highest possible remuneration, represents many registered users in the foreground.
Consumer advocates accuse the review portals that reviews of products through financial incentives are not always 100% objective. However, Ciao is the achieved total compensation even for a high-quality experience report usually in the order of 1 €, so that argument Ciao members applies only to a small extent.
Since May 2007, the valuation and price comparison portal Ciao.de acts independently of the online market research firm Toluna.
Online surveys
Since 2001, Ciao offers besides the price and product comparison to a service, for market research clients. To this end, the Ciao community members were invited to enroll in the research panel of the company and thus have the opportunity to participate in surveys commissioned by market research institutes. Also in this area is possible for users to make money. So Ciao invites its members, depending on its interests, at irregular intervals to surveys of partners a. For the complete filling of these online surveys usually obtained amounts between 25 cents and 10, - Euro. However, this presupposes that the participants fit into a specific profile that allows complete filling of the respective questionnaire only. Only partially completed questionnaires however, are not generally remunerated.