Excite U.K. to Start Counting ‘Beenz’

beenz.com, which has developed a new e-commerce rewards system, announced an exclusive marketing alliance today with Excite U.K.. The joint venture between British Telecommunications and Excite@Home (Nasdaq: ATHM) will begin by offering bonus beenz to its first 100,000 registrants.

Shoppers at Excite’s online stores can earn ‘Beenz’ as they purchase products and can then use their ‘Beenz’ as currency at a variety of e-commerce sites. Participating businesses fall into categories such as auctions, books, home and garden, kids and teens, music and movies, sports, and travel. Some of the more well-known sites that are part of the beenz.com program include job recruiting site HotJobs.com and iCanBuy.com, which allows teenagers to make purchases with their own online bank account.

The six month-old beenz.com sees its currency as a way for sites to reward loyal visitors, as well as a marketing tool for e-commerce retailers. The company’s technology partners include Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Exodus. In addition, beenz.com has a strategic marketing agreement with Doubleclick.

“Beenz is an exciting young company with a compelling loyalty model,” said Evan Rudowski, general manager of Excite U.K..

Excite U.K. Also Receives Promotion

Meanwhile, Excite U.K. will be the preferred search engine of beenz.com. All searches done on beenz.com will include an option that will allow users to include search results from Excite UL. All beenz.com users who have registered through Excite U.K. will receive co-branded transaction statements when they check their account information at beenz.com.

In addition, beenz.com has developed an Excite branded “beenz counter” that links to Excite U.K. and its shopping channels. Beenz.com will also run advertising campaigns on the Excite U.K. Network.

About Beenz.com

Beenz.com launched its site in March 1999. The company was founded by current chief technology officer Charles Cohen, who worked in new-media marketing at Band & Brown Communications. Beenz.com employs approximately 40 people at its headquarters in New York and in its operational centers in San Francisco and London.

On August 16th, beenz.com announced that the millionth beenz transaction took place.