The world’s most used wine search engine launched

MEDIA RELEASE

Auckland, New Zealand, 10 October 2007

The world’s most used wine search engine launched in Auckland

Journalists, wine merchants, wine judges and connoisseurs attended the official New Zealand launch of the world’s most used wine search engine www.wine-searcher.com  in Auckland, New Zealand today (October 10).

Wine-Searcher.com was founded in 1999 by Martin Brown, a Kiwi, while working in London. The company was based in London, and moved to Auckland last year.

The wine market consists of over 80,000 labels world-wide, most with additional vintage variation, and no one wine merchant is able to stock all wines, not even just the wines that are available within a single country. For wine drinkers who sampled a wonderful bottle at a restaurant or on holiday, locating that wine again has been very difficult. To alleviate this problem, the founder designed and developed a wine search engine that is simple to use, locates the wine with staggering speed and returns quality information and price from anywhere in the world.

Wine-Searcher’s database of over 8500 wine stores’ price lists and 2.6 million offers allows instant access to the picture now, and the history of preceding four years.

Using software, Wine-Searcher collects most price lists automatically so the entire database is updated twice a week and a mystery shopper is used to ensure that the wine merchants’ lists are accurate. The site also provides other useful wine information and services, and a directory of all the wine regions and appellations of the world.

Although founded with the immediate goal of being useful for all countries, it has proved to be the US market that has taken to the site with greatest effect. Wine-Searcher attracts half a million visitors each month; over 55 million pageviews per year! The site has been reported or reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart’s “Living”, The Observer, Forbes.com, Financial Times, The New York Sun, New York Time etc.

The site can be used by anyone for free, and also lists wine merchants for no charge. Income is gained from people paying a small yearly subscription for more in depth search results, and from wine stores choosing to highlight their listings to gain increased sales. Income is also generated from banner advertising on the site. The company has 10,000 subscribers and around 300 sponsors. Turnover has been increasing 50% every year and this year (2007) is expected to reach $NZD 2 million.

Wine-Searcher Limited is a NZ registered company and employs 10 staff including a qualified wine maker and a sommelier. The company does not itself sell any wine.

Ends -

© Scoop Media