ATLANTA – April 15, 2010 – AutoTrader.com, the ultimate automotive marketplace, aims to become the ultimate mobile automotive marketplace too with an exciting, streamlined mobile shopping experience that delivers to car shoppers the exact functions and services they want when shopping for a car via a mobile device.

The new mobile platform will provide access to AutoTrader.com’s popular “Find a Car” and “Find a Dealer” shopping features and to AutoTrader.com’s “My AutoTrader” function, which allows users to store and quickly retrieve and reference past vehicle searches. Offering the proprietary “My AutoTrader” function will allow car shopper to build a list of cars they want to look at from their home or work computers during the week and quickly access those searches while out looking at and test driving vehicles during the weekend.

“By studying the behavior and needs of our site visitors accessing AutoTrader.com via mobile devices and carefully reviewing the mobile shopping environment, we believe this is the solution that best meets our consumers’ needs,” said AutoTrader.com President and CEO Chip Perry. “This expansion builds on the success we’ve had with our iPhone optimized site, launched in 2008, and our AutoTrader Latino mobile offering, launched in 2009.”

Key learnings that went into expanding AutoTrader.com’s mobile-device shopping offering included:

• A surge in visitors to AutoTrader.com via mobile devices other than the iPhone. Like other companies, AutoTrader.com has had hits from mobile devices for some time. Only recently had those hits started to grow to a point that indicated real and growing interest in mobile on-line auto shopping among a large consumer audience. Currently, AutoTrader.com is generating about half-a-million unique monthly visitors via mobile devices, representing two percent to three percent of the site’s 15 million unique monthly visitors.
• A review of site traffic patterns coming to AutoTrader.com from mobile devices and other industry research indicates that mobile users were most interested in finding vehicles for sale and locating a dealer, vs. some of the more in-depth auto reviews, research and compare functionality, auto show coverage and other auto-related content AutoTrader.com offers.
• Traffic from mobile devices to AutoTrader.com was by far the strongest on weekends. Coupled with consumer research, this indicated auto shoppers were using mobile devices to locate vehicles and dealerships while out shopping and to quickly check and compare prices of similar cars at other area dealerships while actually on a dealer lot.

The traffic patterns to AutoTrader.com coming from mobile devices were a key factor in the decision to include access to the company’s proprietary “My AutoTrader” functionality on the mobile platform.

“What we see with our site traffic is that car shoppers research and compare vehicles, review inventory and specials and build their consideration set during the week from their home or work computer,” said Perry. “Then, they use their mobile devices for quick checks and comparisons while they’re out actually looking for cars on the weekend – sometimes right there on a dealer lot. By making access to the ‘My AutoTrader’ functionality a key component of our mobile environment, we give shoppers the ability to easily store the information on the cars they researched on a home or work computer for easy access via their mobile device while on the ground shopping.”

The “Find a Dealer” feature will allow users to locate a dealership via the mobile site and provide users with maps to the dealerships as well as address, phone and email contact information. Email leads to dealers generated from the mobile site will be marked as such when they are delivered to a dealership so a dealer representative can quickly call or email back and engage a customer while they are very likely out searching for vehicles and likely in the area.

The actual address for AutoTrader.com’s mobile shopping experience is m.autotrader.com, although shoppers accessing AutoTrader.com from a mobile device will automatically be redirected to the mobile platform. The platform also recognizes the mobile device accessing it and optimizes for each device. If shoppers are visiting the mobile site from a smart phone and wish to access AutoTrader.com’s other features, they will have the option to select “View Full Version of Site” from the home screen and be redirected to AutoTrader.com’s full site experience.

“Customers are starting to really call out for this functionality and AutoTrader.com worked to provide a solution that meets customers’ specific mobile car shopping needs and desires,” said Perry. “As the leader in auto shopping, we’re excited about bringing this fun, easy and streamlined car shopping experience to our site visitors.”

About AutoTrader.com

AutoTrader.com, created in 1997 and headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is the Internet's leading auto classifieds marketplace and consumer information website. AutoTrader.com aggregates in a single location millions of new cars, used cars and certified pre-owned cars from thousands of auto dealers and private owners. The site attracts about 15 million unique monthly visitors. Through innovative merchandising functionality such as multiple photos, videos, detailed descriptions and comprehensive research and compare tools, AutoTrader.com unites new and used car buyers and sellers online to improving the way people research, locate and advertise vehicles. AutoTrader.com is a majority-owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. The venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is also an investor. For more information, please visit www.autotrader.com.

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