Open catalog ICEcat objectives for 2010

2009 has brought almost 70% growth to ICEcat in terms of revenues. It is a signal that - despite the worldwide financial crisis - internet is continuing to grow as a channel. It is also a signal that ICEcat is accepted by more and more channel partners (close to 9000 now) and more and more brands, in more and more countries.

Looking back is nice, planning forward is better. So what are our ambitions -to serve users better- in 2010?

1) We increase our own editor capacity to 250,000 datasheets/yr. We expect to reach this level in February. Probably, we decide during the year to further increase the editor capacity. Further, we'll make it easier for 3rd party users to add product content.

2) Quality control. We are introducing a more rigid system of quality control in our expanding editor team. We expect it to be effective from February on.

3) Number of sponsoring brands. We expect it to grow to 300 (from 200 now) before the end of this year. It also means more automated xml connections to import localized data-sheet versions.

4) 750 million data-sheet downloads by 15000 channel partners. In 2009 the level was half a billion data-sheet downloads by an average of 6500 channel partners. We expect 50% growth in data-sheet usage in 2010.

5) Price comparison visibility. We prepare a standard offer for generating more visibility on our price comparison site. The site is now an Alexa top 25,000 (WW) site. We expect it to become a top 20,000 site in 2010, generating more leads for connected partners. If you want to make use of this, pls contact us via http://openicecat.com/en/menu/contacts/index.htm or by replying to this email.

6) Open source PIM (product information management system). Our development team works on launching a beta version of our ICEcat PIM, based on our own editor system. There is more and more interest, and we have performend a number of successful installations with older versions. It is time to professionalize.

7) We add support for five more languages, bringing the total of supported languages past 30.