Eshop gains global partners

Eshop, the developer of the online shopping venue Eshop Plaza today announced licensing agreements with NEC Japan, Axime France, and Asia Connect Malaysia. Under the agreement, the licensees will use Eshop's online shopping technology to set up services in their own countries.

Later this year, Eshop will roll out a new version of its service that offers direct shopping access. "Currently, our site forces people to download a helper application that is Windows-only," said Jonathan Weinstein, director of product marketing for the San Mateo, California, company.

The new version of Eshop will support "all Web platforms" and allow users to shop directly through the browser interface, Weinstein added. The software will also support Java and extensions to HTML.

Eshop's licensing its technology to global partners will be significant to end users in the long run, said Brian Craig, director of strategic partnerships, simply because there will be more online products to choose from.