Instant Messaging Meets Instant Commerce, Starting With Apple Users

Instant Messaging Meets Instant Commerce, Starting With Apple Users

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- FaceBridge Research introduces the beta version of its patent-pending FaceBridge AVIM Commerce Server for Apple's iChat instant-messaging system. The FaceBridge Server allows Apple instant- messaging users to bill for their time while communicating via iChat audio and video IM ("AVIM"). According to FaceBridge, "This is a huge step forward in allowing Apple users to easily bill for their time online."

The FaceBridge Server proxies conversations between IM users and allows users to present themselves under any number of aliases. For example, an attorney can offer his advice as "real_estate_attorney" for $3 per minute. If he's also an expert stock picker, he can offer stock tips as "the_stock_oracle" for $5 per minute. When he goes online with his real IM account, the FaceBridge Server automatically makes his aliases available, too. His clients communicate with him just like any other IM buddy, except that they know him only by his aliases and any time spent communicating is billed to the client's credit card.

This presents a huge opportunity for instant messaging to become a platform for instant commerce. Many professionals bill for time, but billing is cumbersome and often does not cover quick conversations via email or telephone. With services powered by FaceBridge, professionals can easily be reached by clients and billing is literally automatic.

Immediacy is an important component of services offered through this new mechanism. As soon as our example attorney is available online, all of his clients are aware of this fact, since he shows up in their respective buddy lists. Instead of clients seeking him, he seeks all of his clients simultaneously. This results in more business. Whenever one of his clients has a question, the client simply initiates an IM session and gets the answers he needs... five minutes pass, the conversation is over, and the client has already paid... all with no extra effort on either party's side.

Apple made high-quality audio/video instant-messaging easy for everyone with the introduction of iChat AV in 2003. With the U.S. recently passing the 50% mark for household adoption of broadband, audio/video IM is a viable alternative to in-person meetings and telephone conversations. The FaceBridge AVIM Commerce Server completes the puzzle, adding the missing piece for iChat users with broadband to generate revenue while serving clients over a high- quality audio/video connection.

FaceBridge Research has been developing its AVIM Commerce Server since the Summer of 2003 and has patents pending on various components of the system. Several FaceBridge-powered services are planned for consumer introduction in March, 2005, and the FaceBridge Server will be expanded to support non-Apple AVIM standards in the future. Interested parties are encouraged to contact FaceBridge Research for beta demonstrations at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco or at the company's offices in Sacramento, CA and Washington, DC.

About FaceBridge Research:

FaceBridge Research is a privately-held company with offices in Sacramento, CA and Washington, DC. They are focused on the development of new technologies that enable commerce via person-to-person communications.

For more information, contact:
Riki Crusha
Quality Humans, Inc. (representative for FaceBridge Research)
2325 H Street, #11-B
Sacramento, CA 95816
(800) 880-4040



Source: FaceBridge Research

CONTACT: Riki Crusha of Quality Humans, Inc., +1-800-880-4040, for
FaceBridge Research


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