eLance.com and Lycos Asia form partnership

SINGAPORE - Lycos Asia, one of the region's fastest growing Internet companies with a pan-Asian presence across Southeast Asia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and India, and eLance.com, the world's first global services marketplace announced a unique partnership.

The partnership will create a special community within which buyers and sellers of services can trade virtually, enabling members to have individual relationships in a global medium. Launching today, the Lycos Asia Services Marketplace will be available to users through the services channel on the Lycos Asia homepage at http://sg.elance.lycosasia.com

V. Eric Roach, Chief Executive Officer of eLance.com said: "We are delighted to have this partnership in place with Lycos Asia, the premier portal for the region. Working together, we will be able to bring real benefits to users in urgent need of web development, marketing, research, translation, creative design or other assistance at their fingertips."

Said Lycos Asia's Chief Technical Officer, Tan Yew Seng, "Our partnership with eLance allows us to provide our users in Asia with a powerful new service. This is in line with our vision of creating vibrant on line communities whom we believe are at the core of the hub because they personalise the Web. With eLance, users who have complimenting business needs and interests are now able to meet and trade with each other on our portal."

The partnership will offer buyers of services the opportunity to place project descriptions called Requests for Proposals (RFPs), which are opened up to competitive bidding to sellers of the various services, available around the world. Once bids have been posted, the buyer can choose from the range of suppliers who respond to RFPs and get the best price and/or service possible.

The Lycos Asia Services Marketplace enables the growing small business or corporation to access a large range of high quality professionals and grow their business at lower cost in today's digital economy, resourcing projects only as and when they need them.

Sellers or 'eLancers' can post personal profiles and portfolios on the site, allowing the buyer to view work of the various service provider before selecting. Once the project has been completed, detailed feedback is posted on the site, allowing the 'eLancer' to build a professional reputation for future buyers of their services.

They can offer any service that can be delivered remotely, from computer software programming to drawing cartoons or caricatures, to the worldwide community of buyers.

Such is the flexibility of the site that buyers also have the facility to select fixed price services from the registered providers, should they choose not to open up the project to competitive bidding.

Mr Tan said, "When combined with one of our community tools, Tripod Asia, a user-friendly website building tool, the eLance partnership will enable any entrepreneur in Asia to set up their own business on line and access a range of professional services through eLance needed to run the business in a cost efficient and convenient manner."
Singapore-based entrepreneur Darren Chew has already used the elance.com marketplace to help build from planning to operations, his accounting portal, TheAccountsOffice.com.

"I have been amazed by the functionality of the eLance marketplace and the responses I get. I know I have saved more than $10,000 using eLance services. Because eLance provides an avenue of resource that could save me at least 70% of the cost compared to traditional quotes, I am already bringing forward new product developments which I had planned to do in the next year," comments Mr Chew.

eLance allows hundreds of thousands of individuals and businesses to buy and sell project-based services that can be performed and exchanged electronically anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. eLance buyers and sellers list projects and
services in dozens of categories including: graphic design, data entry, software development, technical and office support, translation, web design, word processing, writing, architecture, career counselling, business consultation and much more.




About Lycos Asia
Lycos Asia, a joint venture between Lycos Inc and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd was formed in September 1999 to jointly deliver localised versions of Lycos.com, Tripod, Mailcity and other services to more than 10 markets. Lycos Asia provides Web search and navigation, communication and personalisation tools, homepage building and Web community services. Each portal site contains local content and is presented in the principal language of the local market. The current sites in operation include Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and India. More localised sites will be launched later this year.

About eLance
eLance.com is a global marketplace for both buyers and sellers of services that can be delivered remotely. According to McKinsey Consulting, the remote services marketplace is estimated to reach $700 billion globally. eLance.com offers businesses a range of services including web design, computer services, marketing services, online tutoring, and translation services amongst others.

eLance has financial backing from a number of Silicon Valley investors, including the founder of Hotmail, ex-VP of Business Development from Amazon.com, senior executives from Microsoft and Singapore Telecom, and Venture Capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers(KCPB), with partners, John Doerr and Joe Lacob of KPCB sitting on its board of directors.

For the business, eLance.com offers access to a diverse pool of talent at competitive pricing anywhere in the world. Service providers can adopt more flexible working practices by working from home and take advantage of today's networked environment.