Idealo
Encyclopedia
The company Idealo Internet GmbH is a price comparison service
launched in Germany
in 2000, and since bought by the Axel Springer AG
publishing company. The headquarters are in Berlin
, Germany
. The Idealo website allows users to compare prices on a range of products from many shops.
In July 2006 Idealo was taken over by the majority from the media company Axel Springer which purchased 74.9% of Idealo Internet GmbH for an undisclosed sum.
automated matching system as well as large teams of people also acting as a quality control filter.
and Shopping.com
, which feature only paying retailers and allow them to bid for position in the rankings.
Each Idealo website also features a place for product reviews and shows a trend graph of each product costs over time.
Price comparison service
On the internet, a price comparison service allows individuals to see different lists of prices for specific products. Most price comparison services do not sell products themselves, but source prices from retailers from whom users can buy...
launched in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 2000, and since bought by the Axel Springer AG
Axel Springer AG
Axel Springer AG is one of the largest multimedia companies in Europe, with more than 11,500 employees and with annual revenues of about €2.9 billion. The Company is active in a total of 36 countries, including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland...
publishing company. The headquarters are in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The Idealo website allows users to compare prices on a range of products from many shops.
History
The company was founded by Martin Sinner, Dr. Albrecht von Sonntag, Christian Habermehl and others in 2000.In July 2006 Idealo was taken over by the majority from the media company Axel Springer which purchased 74.9% of Idealo Internet GmbH for an undisclosed sum.
Technology
The Idealo sites use a combination of screen scraping retailers' websites and CSV files supplied by the retailers themselves to create a unique database of product offers that is filtered by real people. These prices are matched against a bespoke backend database of products and this matching process is carried out by using a fuzzy logicFuzzy logic
Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic; it deals with reasoning that is approximate rather than fixed and exact. In contrast with traditional logic theory, where binary sets have two-valued logic: true or false, fuzzy logic variables may have a truth value that ranges in degree between 0 and 1...
automated matching system as well as large teams of people also acting as a quality control filter.
Business model
Idealo is a consumer review and price comparison website that is similar to other price comparison services in that it is financed by advertisers on traffic quantities as well as quality.Main Differentiators from competition
Product offers displayed on the Idealo website are normally ordered by price where the lowest is shown at the top of any listing, however on product listing pages the products are ordered by price, popularity, user rating or test results. This is in contrast to alternative price comparison services such as KelkooKelkoo
The website Kelkoo is a European price comparison service founded in France in 1999, allowing customers to find information on products they want to purchase, including price and seller information. It was bought by Yahoo! in 2004...
and Shopping.com
Shopping.com
Shopping.com is a price comparison service owned by eBay and operates websites in USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. Shopping.com started out with the name DealTime.com which still operates as a related, but otherwise separate website....
, which feature only paying retailers and allow them to bid for position in the rankings.
Each Idealo website also features a place for product reviews and shows a trend graph of each product costs over time.