Martingale Internet Technologies rebrands as HobbyTalk

AMERSHAM, UK, August 12, 2012 (Press-News.org) Launched in 2008 with the aim of bringing social media-powered ecommerce to the hobbyist community, Martingale's portfolio of sites has grown to include specialist sites for diecast enthusiasts, slot car racers and model train enthusiasts - as well as HobbyTalk.com, one of the internet's longest-established communities, catering to all of the above as well as modelers and radio control enthusiasts.

The name change came about as part of a desire to take the overall brand closer to its core operations. Having explored a variety of technologies and site setups while monitoring users' reactions and take-up, it became apparent that the response was best when users were in a contained online environment which didn't require them to visit multiple different site sections to carry out different activities, but which directly facilitated group conversation and media-sharing.

In combination with the company's desire to make clear that its platforms are intended for all hobbyists - not just the sectors already catered for - and the fact that HobbyTalk.com has been a thriving online home for hobbyists for some 20 years, this meant that an overall rebranding as HobbyTalk was a natural fit.
"HobbyTalk is our biggest and most successful site, one which has brought together millions of hobbyists worldwide," said CEO Christian Braun. "As that neatly sums up our mission statement and gives an immediate sense of what we're all about, we really couldn't ask for a more fitting name."

Reflecting on the news, HobbyTalk founder Hank Hagquist said "When I started building online communities for hobby fans over 20 years ago, little did I know where it would go. HobbyTalk now brings together people from all over the world to share their enthusiasm for their favourite hobby. I'm proud to have been a part of that and am excited to be part of its exciting new future."

About HobbyTalk

HobbyTalk believes that the dominance eBay has enjoyed in recent years is giving way to web 2.0 specialist auction sites with strong community elements. Over the last three years, its team has built category killer software to specifically target large communities of collectors allowing it to compete with eBay in a number of their markets. Martingale has launched its first community, Toy Collector, with the following features:

-Niche specific blogs, clubs, directories, competitions, events, forums, friending system, galleries and videos
-A Wiki-based catalogue to include every toy ever produced
-Context engine allowing all content to be filtered according to personal preference
-A Collection Management capability that links press releases and buy/sell events to track the current value of individual collectables together with a collector's entire portfolio.

For more information please go to http://www.HobbyTalkCorp.com or contact Christian Braun on christian.braun@hobbytalk.com or call +44 (1494) 727 947.

Launched in 2008, Toy Collector is a web portal for collectable toy and model enthusiasts designed to allow collectors to share their passions via blogging, discussion forums, picture and video galleries. The site currently hosts over 15,000 toy-related articles and over 50,000 images.

It also offers resources like want ads and a yellow pages suppliers directory and boasts the largest toy-and-model-related event calendar on the internet. In addition to all this, the site also features ToyPedia - a Wikipedia-style online encyclopedia of collectable toys which currently covers over 20,000 items and is growing constantly.