Ciao (website)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ciao is a European based online-shopping portal with websites in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. The main goal of the site is to provide a forum where registered users can write reviews and give their opinions on a wide variety of products to help others make decisions. These reviews are available to the general public to help consumers, but are also rated by other Ciao users on their usefulness on a scale ranging from exceptional to off-topic. Although non-registered users cannot see which users rated the opinion and the ranking they gave, they can view the comments that other users have left on the review.
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[edit] About
The first business area comprehends Ciao as an independent price comparison service. The Ciao community critically reviews and rates millions of products and services for the benefits of other consumers. Thanks to the combination of unbiased consumer reviews and up-to-date price information from hundreds of online merchants, Ciao is one of the most comprehensive source of shopping intelligence on the Web. German Ciao members, for example, write 8,000 consumer reviews about up-to-date products per month on average. In the Ciao Café members have the possibility to discuss current topics or to exchange information like recipes, for example.
Although Ciao offers money in exchange for reviews, the revenue generated is in reality rather small, and as a result Ciao has become more of an online writing community than a way for users to make money. However, as a consumer research company, Ciao now offers members the chance to earn through participating in consumer surveys undertaken on behalf of other firms. There is also a website, opinionators.co.uk, run and moderated by dooyoo and ciao members, which provides forums for a lively exchange of opinions and discussion on both sites.
[edit] History
In the summer of 1999, the consumer community Ciao was founded by Frederick Paul and Max Cartellieri in Munich. The company has approximately 170 employees across six European offices in Munich, London, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Timişoara (Romania), as well as 5 employees in the United States. Ciao GmbH consists of two business areas: One is the Ciao online-shopping portal where consumers can give their opinions on various products and services. The second business area concentrates on consumer access. As a supplier to the market research industry, it would like to facilitate online access to specific target groups.
In April 2005, Greenfield Online acquired Ciao for $154 million USD. The second area of business has reported a strong increase since then. The American-based Greenfield Online is a leading provider of Internet survey solutions to marketing research and consulting companies. With the acquisition of Ciao, Greenfield hopes to increase its reach across Germany, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland. Furthermore, Greenfield plans to integrate the Ciao platform in the United States.
[edit] Ciao Cafe
As well as the main body of the site, which is centred around reviews for electronics, music and other products, Ciao also features a members-only area called the Ciao 'Cafe' where members can write pieces which are more often general in nature. For example, there are areas where members can submit poetry or short stories, as well as compile top ten lists or discuss current events. Pieces submitted to the Ciao Cafe generate no money for the writers, and the emphasis is on building the online community rather than financial reward.
