User:Jeans be/CarsOnTheWeb

CarsOnTheWeb online used car auction
CarsOnTheWeb is a European online car auction that sells second hand vehicles. In contrast with most of its big competitors, the auction website works exclusively with registered car dealers and traders. This used car auction website is therefore not open to consumers.

Currently the company has around 17,000 registered users from over 40 countries on its online auction platform. With 28,000 used vehicles auctioned in 2012, CarsOnTheWeb is becoming an important competitor on the European market.

The auction website offers vehicles from large international leasing companies, car rental companies and car manufacturers in Europe. For example ING Car Lease. Professional car traders can bid online on a many types of used vehicles of all major car makes: demonstrators, ex-lease cars, overstocked cars, damaged and salvage cars, vans and light trucks. The cars mostly originate from Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

History
CarsOnTheWeb was founded in Haasrode (Belgium) in 2004 and later moved to its current location in Tienen. After the creation of a user-friendly online auction platform was complete, the first used vehicles were auctioned in 2005. The company then experienced a rapid growth. As a result, CarsOnTheWeb Germany was founded in 2006.

In 2007 the auction company expanded further: French, Spanish and Italian branches were launched. After the successful expansion that CarsOnTheWeb experienced in the first few years, 2008 came as a shock.

Financial crisis hits
In 2008 the financial crisis hit the company hard. The auction website got a major knock. Sales were down as a result of low demand on the consumer market.

Furthermore, the company was experiencing problems with its Spanish sellers. Due to problems with administration and with the availability of correct car detail information, all Spanish auctions were closed in 2009.

To pull through the crisis, the online car trading platform took the time to evaluate itself and worked hard on improving its services. This analysis encouraged the decision to launch the first Dutch car auction in 2009. A decision that paid off as CarsOnTheWeb managed to break-even at the end of 2009.

Injection of capital
The company's recovery was helped along by a powerful capital injection. 2010 inspired new and existing investors to inject over 1.7 million euros in the online auction enterprise. In the same year, the ING activator Fund, the Ark Angels Fund - which was founded by the Flemish Business Angels Network- and private investor Guido Beazar became new shareholders of CarsOnTheWeb.

The capital will mainly serve for business development and IT scaling of the auction platform.

Relaunch of Spanish auction and future plans
After the auction website closed all Spanish auctions in 2009, the company worked to build relationships with trustworthy local sellers. By June of 2011 the company announced the relaunch of Spanish car auctions on CarsOnTheWeb.com through a press release. The firm stated that all previous administrative problems had been solved and new partnerships with trustworthy vehicle sellers had been established.

In 2011 CarsOnTheWeb also reported that it is selling important volumes of Dutch cars. This lead to the launch of a new branch in the Netherlands. The company now has offices in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

Fleet Exclusive days
The company also took part in the 8th edition of the Fleet exclusive days. This is an event were companies in the Fleet and automotive sector in Belgium get together to discuss industry trends. Participants discussed total cost of ownership issues of fleets, taking up electric vehicles in fleets and the consequences of the international new accounting regulations. CarsOnTheWeb sales manager Peter Steeno also spoke at the event.