MEDIA RELEASE
Auckland, New Zealand, 10 October 2007
The world’s most used wine search engine launched in Auckland
Journalists, wine merchants, wine judges and connoisseurs attended the official New Zealand launch of the world’s most
used wine search engine www.wine-searcher.com in Auckland, New Zealand today (October 10).
Wine-Searcher.com was founded in 1999 by Martin Brown, a Kiwi, while working in London. The company was based in London,
and moved to Auckland last year.
The wine market consists of over 80,000 labels world-wide, most with additional vintage variation, and no one wine
merchant is able to stock all wines, not even just the wines that are available within a single country. For wine
drinkers who sampled a wonderful bottle at a restaurant or on holiday, locating that wine again has been very difficult.
To alleviate this problem, the founder designed and developed a wine search engine that is simple to use, locates the
wine with staggering speed and returns quality information and price from anywhere in the world.
Wine-Searcher’s database of over 8500 wine stores’ price lists and 2.6 million offers allows instant access to the
picture now, and the history of preceding four years.
Using software, Wine-Searcher collects most price lists automatically so the entire database is updated twice a week and
a mystery shopper is used to ensure that the wine merchants’ lists are accurate. The site also provides other useful
wine information and services, and a directory of all the wine regions and appellations of the world.
Although founded with the immediate goal of being useful for all countries, it has proved to be the US market that has
taken to the site with greatest effect. Wine-Searcher attracts half a million visitors each month; over 55 million
pageviews per year! The site has been reported or reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart’s “Living”, The
Observer, Forbes.com, Financial Times, The New York Sun, New York Time etc.
The site can be used by anyone for free, and also lists wine merchants for no charge. Income is gained from people
paying a small yearly subscription for more in depth search results, and from wine stores choosing to highlight their
listings to gain increased sales. Income is also generated from banner advertising on the site. The company has 10,000
subscribers and around 300 sponsors. Turnover has been increasing 50% every year and this year (2007) is expected to
reach $NZD 2 million.
Wine-Searcher Limited is a NZ registered company and employs 10 staff including a qualified wine maker and a sommelier.
The company does not itself sell any wine.
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