Shopping.com (SHOP) to expand into hotels, Asia

Shopping.com (ticker: SHOP) CEO Dan Ciporin gave a press conference in Israel (where the company has its R&D operation) which was written up by The Jerusalem Post. According to the article, he discussed Shopping.com's expansion plans, and added some new, and potentially significant details:

The on-line comparative shopping company, which was founded in Israel and has its 160 employee R&D facility in Netanya, has plans to add 40 people to its global work force during the year.

However, it is increasingly looking towards low cost countries such as India and China for its technical expansion, Ciporin said.

Simply knowing where to turn within the government to inform the company what to do and how to go about it would help encourage investment here, explained Ciporin.

Shopping.com said it expects this year to be one of high growth for its global operations and for the comparative shopping market.

With its core business in the United States and the United Kingdom, Shopping.com is planning to launch in France during the second quarter and Germany in the third, and eventually move into Asia. It is also expanding its product base in the next three months to include financial services (mortgages) and hotel price listings.

Quick comments:

• Shopping.com already announced its plans to expand into France and Germany later this year. But Asia? That's new.
• Likewise, it also announced that it would move into financial services. But hotel listings hasn't been mentioned specifically before. Take note, investors in IACI, TZOO, PCLN, and TWX.
• Shopping.com's smaller competitor Nextag
• Dan Ciporin was asked about the (abysmal) performance of his stock. According to the Jerusalem Post, "Dismissing the negative market reaction, Ciporin said that the company is focused on building a long term global company and is more concerned about strengthening its position against potential competition which a market with such high growth potential attracts."
• Full Jerusalem Post article available here (requires free subscription), via Sean O'Rourke's Organized Shopping.

SHOP chart below.

Full disclosure: at the time of writing I'm long SHOP.

Books related to this topic:

• 2005 Online Shopping Directory For Dummies by Barbara Kasser.
• thepurplebook 2005: The Definitive Guide to Exceptional Online Shopping by Hillary Mendelsohn.