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C-ME.com ANNOUNCES C-ME.com/Taiwan JOINT VENTURE PASADENA, CA - December 22, 1999 - Cyber Merchants Exchange, d.b.a. C-ME.com (OTC-BB: CMEE), a business-to-business service provider to the retail industry and Abest Technology Company, Ltd, owner of a leading Taiwanese Internet portal, today announced the establishment of a joint venture corporation to expand C-ME.com's Internet Sourcing Networks into Taiwan. The agreement establishes a joint venture corporation in Taiwan under the name C-ME.com/Taiwan. C-ME.com/Taiwan will open merchandise sourcing offices in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. These cities were chosen for their proximity to major manufacturing centers. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. "Our goal with this joint venture is to begin aggregating manufacturers to create efficiencies for both foreign manufacturers and U.S. retailers," said Yuan. "With increasing pressure from consumers to lower prices and from shareholders to increase earnings, U.S. retailers are focused on increasing their profit margins by reducing their sourcing and buying costs." "C-ME.com/Taiwan will allow our retail partners to source merchandise directly from Taiwanese manufacturers, increasing retailer efficiencies by reducing costs associated with many middlemen," continued Yuan. "This joint venture will also substantially increase the pool of manufacturers from which a retailer can buy merchandise, fostering price and quality competition, which in turn will benefit consumers with better merchandise at lower prices." "Taiwanese manufacturers are eager to sell directly to U.S. retailers," said Hsiao-Pai Chen, chairman of Abest Technology Company, Ltd. "However, establishing relationships on an individual basis with the right buyer at a U.S. retailer becomes next to impossible when faced with such barriers as time differences, language barriers, and the cost of shipping samples." "Although the Internet can help to break down these barriers," continued Chen, "Internet access in many countries -including Taiwan- is still very expensive. Most manufacturers who wish to sell to U.S. retailers do not have the technology necessary to implement global e-commerce. C-ME.com/Taiwan, by establishing three regional merchandise sourcing offices, will make international commerce convenient and feasible for many manufacturers. "We believe that business-to-business e-commerce represents a major opportunity for Taiwanese manufacturers," said Chen. "Because Abest has access to information on every manufacturer in Taiwan through tw-online, C-ME.com/Taiwan will be able to quickly aggregate Taiwanese manufacturers and complete the merchandise sourcing pipeline through C-ME.com's Internet Sourcing Networks directly to U.S. retailers." Formed in 1997, Abest Technology Company Limited is based in Taichung, Taiwan. Its subsidiary http://www.ab.net.tw, established in May, 1999, is a major Taiwanese Internet portal and directory. Ab.net.tw provides a search engine, chat, news, e-greeting cards, and business-to-consumer shopping services through Penny Buy (http://www.shop.ab.net.tw). Ab.net.tw gets more than 1.5 million page views a month, and its web community has more than 100,000 members. Among other subsidiaries, Abest also owns a portion of http://www.tw-online.com.tw, a subsidiary of Taiwan Yellow Pages' online services. Cyber Merchants Exchange, Inc. d.b.a C-ME.com's (www.c-me.com) mission is to create the retail industry's solution for global merchandise sourcing activities. The company builds and maintains Internet Sourcing Networks, private extranets that enable retail buyers to streamline front-end merchandise sourcing activities from their desktops. C-ME.com's current retail partners include Factory 2-U Stores (NASDAQ: FTUS) and Burlington Coat Factory (NYSE: BCF). The Company also provides its subscribing vendors custom web design and hosting and the Virtual Trade Show ™ ("VTS"), a vertical marketplace for vendors to display their product in an open environment. Certain of the statements made herein constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. In such instances, actual results could differ materially as a result of a variety of factors including the risks associated with the effect of changing economic conditions at home and abroad, variations in cash flow, reliance on collaborative retail customers, reliance on intellectual property legislation, use of proprietary un-patented technology, dependence on the Internet and on new product development, variations in new product and service development, risks associated with rapid technological change, and potential of introduced or undetected flaws and defects in products and services and other risk factors detailed in forms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. |
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