Media Resources

Ruhr Area Business GuteRente.de is First to Win "World's Most Valuable" Pixel

Essen (Germany), May 20, 2006

It is 2:37 in the afternoon. On eBay the countdown for what some call "the world's most valuable pixel" is on: 3… 2… 1… we have a winner! Essen's GuteRente.de pipped a competitor at the post and wins the pixel on you-cant-resist.com!

You-cant-resist.com: That's exactly what happens when you visit this site. There is only one pixel to click, but it has been placed so prominently that visitors cannot resist hitting the button. The pixel is auctioned on eBay from 1 Euro (= $1.27). For seven days, the winner of the auction can configure where a click on the pixel is forwarded to. The owner of the pixel receives hundreds, maybe even thousands of visitors to his or her website. The pixel has been online for only a week and already received over 1,400 visitors, while ordinary websites would typically receive just 90 visitors during the same period.

As the news about the pixel spreads, more and more visitors become hypnotized by it - and generate hundreds, if not thousands of visits to the secret website beyond the pixel's hyperlink. The auction winner's business is quite literally in the focus of interest.

Images

Screenshot of the pixel homepage, TIFF image, 828 x 665

Screenshot of the eBay auction page, TIFF image, 957 x 753

Portrait of "pixel inventor" Peter Debik, TIFF image, 348 x 482

Publication royalty-free.