DESOTO, Texas, July 26, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- eTelcharge.com (Pink Sheets:ETLC), www.etelcharge.com a financial diversified merchant service company, today announced that it will launch a Spanish version of its website on August 4, 2005, thus expanding its online presence in order to reach out to the millions of Spanish speaking Internet users.
Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the U.S. Many businesses are discovering that this segment of the population is an important part of the customer base; moreover, financial institutions, like banks now tie their profit growth to the rapidly expanding Hispanic population. A huge share, estimates range from 25 percent to 58 percent of this population is "unbanked," simply put, as many as half of Latinos have no bank accounts. This group's control of more than $450 billion in purchasing power sends a clear signal to the financial sector of the growth potential within this market. "By launching this website, eTelcharge will make a solid advance toward serving the needs of the Spanish speaking market. We believe the U.S. Latino and Hispanic online consumer base is underserved with the traditional banking tools; such as credit cards, which require a banking account," stated Carl O. Sherman, President and CEO.
"The impetus for offering a Spanish translation of the website is market demand. Language is one of the most obvious, but effectiveness in entering this market is strategic to the future success of eTelcharge's online phone billing payment option," acknowledged Sherman. According to research, Spanish is likely to remain the language of preference among U.S. Latinos. The data indicates that, when asked about advertising effectiveness, 38% of Hispanics surveyed found English language ads less effective than Spanish ads in terms of recall and 70% less effective than Spanish ads in terms of persuasion. Furthermore, the data reflects that when it comes to selling, 56 percent of Latino adults respond to advertising when it is presented in Spanish.
Online shoppers may access the Spanish version by simply picking their language of choice from the home page at http://www.etelcharge.com by using the language bar located in the lower right corner of the webpage. Spanish speaking online visitors may view the website and browse all through the new Spanish version beginning August 4, 2005.
About eTelcharge.com
eTelcharge.com (Pink Sheets:ETLC) offers the traditional credit card merchant services, checks and other existing financial infrastructure offered by banks, as well as the proprietary new online currency that provides online shoppers the exclusive choice to charge items to their telephone bill. Designed to reduce the risk of identity fraud and identity theft by providing an Internet credit option for online shoppers to charge a number of items sold over the Internet. This payment option is a perfect match for the 70 million Americans who do not own a credit card. eTelcharge.com started as the only company with the ability to charge a variety of products to the home phone bill. Clearly, past electronic commerce solutions have not employed effective security and privacy techniques that adequately address consumer concerns about privacy and security on the Internet today. The release of the latest version of the proprietary phone billing option is scheduled to be launched summer 2005. For more information, go to http://www.eTelcharge.com.
This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause eTelcharge.com, Inc. and actual results or outcomes to be materially different from those anticipated and discussed herein. These include its historical lack of profitability, limited working capital, the need for additional capital, end-use customers' acceptance of new products and actual demand, the need for eTelcharge.com, Inc. to manage its growth, and other risks associated.