FINALLY, e-DIFFERENT KIND OF STORE AT TUROTURO.COM

SAN JOSE, Calif.— December 6, 1999 —Today's Christmas list means a list of e-commerce stores. So how will you get people to come to your store? "By selling something different," according to Georgina Lee-Chua, co-founder of turoturo.com. turoturo.com features coffee table books, foreign films, art prints and other export quality products made in the Philippines.

Almost every e-commerce store sells the same pool of products from computers to toys, offering few unique products. There are no major sites catering to a specific country's culture or products. "People nowadays are well-traveled and have personal interaction with different cultures. You probably know someone from the Philippines or have purchased a product made in the Philippines. However, turoturo.com is not just for Filipinos, as most of our products are found at home furnishing stores in the U.S. and Europe at "designer" prices," adds Lee-Chua.

Turo is a Filipino verb meaning "point" and turoturo is slang for affordable fast food restaurants where customers just point to the dish they want to order. "We stayed away from using eNames since there are so many of them, getting us eConfused. We thought if people could say bora bora, they could remember turoturo," according to Lee-Chua.

Most of turoturo.com's manufacturers are small business owners who do not have the capital to open a physical storefront. turoturo.com helps them compete in the global market by providing a branded venue to showcase world-class, quality products that are manufactured in the Philippines.

turoturo.com launched its site in November in time for the usually frenzied Christmas shopping season. Presently, the site ships to the U.S. and sells Filipiniana books, lithographs of 19th century Philippines, deftly crafted baskets for the kitchen, unique wedding favors and corporate gifts, such as novelty boxes textured by Boracay's white sands and picture frames made of lahar (volcanic ash).

"turoturo.com helped me find the perfect wedding favors for my guests," said Elaine Roch, an early customer. "The favors were an instant hit, and they became a great conversation piece."

turoturo.com offers secure, encrypted credit card transactions that make the shopping direct and convenient. turoturo.com's commerce is powered by Escalate, the first E-commerce Service Provider . "turoturo.com is an example of an e-business that can quickly and easily add robust e-commerce using the Escalate Merchant Service. We are confident we can provide a superior shopping experience on turoturo.com with the highest levels of reliability, scalability, and customer service," said Keng Lim, president and chief executive officer of Escalate, Inc. (http://www.escalate.com).

There is more to turoturo.com than just shopping. For every purchase made, the company will donate one percent to Marillac Hills, a temporary shelter for women and children in crisis in the Philippines. This is in line with the management's faith in "doing well by doing good."

About turoturo.com

Founded in 1999, turoturo.com makes Philippine-manufactured products accessible to buyers around the world. turoturo.com donates 1% of its sales to charity. For more information, visit http://www.turoturo.com.

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turoturo.com™ is a trademark of turoturo.com. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Lance Mercereau
Burson-Marsteller
415.591.4000
lance_mercereau@sfo.bm.com

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