September 30, 1999 Web posted at: 10:08 a.m. EDT (1408 GMT) by Douglas F. Gray

From...

(IDG) -- U.K.-based Wcities.com Ltd. has announced its first Web portals on the European continent. The new sites in Milan, Paris, Madrid and Munich are the first in a series of regional portals the company plans to launch outside of the U.K. and Ireland.

First launched in May, Wcities.com already has local portals in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester and Dublin.

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Wcities.com next plans to launch portals for Milan and Rome on Oct. 13, Paris on Oct. 19, Munich and Berlin on Nov. 2, and Madrid on Nov. 11.

Each portal contains a guide to the city including information about restaurants and shopping written by locals, as well as offering free Web-based email, free Web page space and local-oriented chat rooms. Wcities also has live sports and world news from Reuters.

Wcities.com also plans to take its offerings to Canada, as well as 18 cities in the U.S. in November.

As well as announcing the European sites last night, Wcities.com also introduced new features for its existing U.K. sites, ranging from online ticketing and hotel reservations to entertainment listings and online mapping.

What makes Wcities.com different from competitors such as Sidewalk.com is the fact that all information on its sites is written by local people, both in English and the native language of each region, officials said.

When users register for the site, they are encouraged to contribute their favorite places and tips for the city as part of the registration process, adding to the site's content.