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Internet Luminary Masahiro Ueno Joins Become Japan As CEO

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 August 2006, 12:00 CDT

Become.com, the only vertical search engine combining comparison shopping with Web-wide product research, today announced that Masahiro Ueno, one of the leading figures in Japan's Internet industry, has joined Become Japan Corp. (www.become.co.jp). Launched in April, Become Japan is a joint venture between U.S.-based Become.com and transcosmos inc. of Japan, a pioneer of information-processing outsourcing business. The Japanese language site is the first international expansion of Become.com's popular product research and comparison shopping service.

"We are thrilled and honored that Masahiro Ueno has joined Become Japan as CEO," said Become.com Founder, Chairman and CTO Yeogirl Yun. "His deep knowledge and experience in building media and Internet companies will help drive our success in delivering Japan's most advanced shopping search service."

"As online shopping becomes an increasingly bigger part of daily life and commerce, Become Japan has the potential to be the most trusted source that Japanese consumers use for product research and comparison shopping. Its powerful technology is specifically designed to give relevant shopping searches and help people make more confident buying decisions. This is essential to continuing the rapid growth of e-Commerce in Japan," said Mr. Ueno. "I am excited by the opportunity to lead Become Japan and replicate the success they have achieved in the U.S."

"Having worked with Mr. Ueno at transcosmos and seeing how he continues to innovate and grow great companies, we are confident that Mr. Ueno will make Become Japan the leading shopping search service in the country," said Masataka Okuda, president and COO of transcosmos Inc.

Under Mr. Ueno's presidency, Overture. K.K., a subsidiary of Yahoo!, established Overture Japan's paid search service as the clear market leader. Prior to Overture, Mr. Ueno was the managing director of Digital Marketing at transcosmos during which time he established and built a department from scratch. Mr. Ueno also served as the president of Doubleclick Japan, the regional office of one of the world's leading Internet advertising corporations.

With more than 70 million Internet users, Japan is the world's second largest market for online shopping and advertising. The Japan Marketing Association estimated the market size at 340 billion yen in 2004 (about $2.9 billion U.S.). Become Japan will focus initially on product research and reviews using the company's patent pending AIR(TM) (Affinity Index Ranking) search technology. This technology produces highly relevant product information and reviews, eliminating extraneous and spam results that often frustrate consumers trying to make buying decisions. AIR delivers better results by combining sophisticated computer algorithms with human intelligence.

The company plans to follow up by adding its successful comparative shopping feature in the coming months.

About Become.com

Become.com is a powerful product search engine and comparison shopping service. Founded by industry pioneers Michael Yang and Yeogirl Yun, creators of MySimon, Become.com helps people make better buying decisions and purchases online. Become.com searches over 3.2 billion web pages and uses its patent-pending AIR(TM) (Affinity Index Ranking) search technology to provide the Internet's most useful product reviews and guides, and then makes it easy find and buy products from brand name retailers at the best prices. With over 20 million products from 5000 merchants, Become.com provides the Web's most robust and easy to use combination of relevant product research and product availability. Please visit us at www.become.com.

About transcosmos

Shibuya-ku, Tokyo-based transcosmos inc. has been pioneering Japan's information processing outsourcing services field since 1966. Led by President and COO Masataka Okuda and traded on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TOKYO:9715), it has 7,604 employees and annual sales of Yen 91.9 billion (consolidated FY ending March 2005). Since its founding, transcosmos has continually striven to enhance client-corporations' competitiveness through innovations combining the strengths of human resources and technology to offer outsourced services with higher value-added. Foreseeing how the quickening spread of valuable information between companies and consumers -- and the implications this has for corporate marketing -- in June 2002 transcosmos moved to transform itself into The Marketing Chain Management Company. With a new communications channel now taking shape through the integration of telephone, web, email, and even live video using Internet protocols; transcosmos realizes that Internet expertise will be indispensable in the running of contact and call centers. Continuing in its tradition of developing more advanced outsourcing services while adapting the latest Internet technologies, transcosmos is committed to continue maximizing its unique strengths to help clients speed up business processes, expand sales, cut costs, and enhance customer satisfaction. To find out how transcosmos can help your company with its cutting-edge interactive solutions, you are invited to visit its web site at http://www.transcosmos.co.jp.

Source: Business Wire

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