Online classifieds site LiveDeal announced it reached $1 billion in the merchandise value of items listed in March 2005. The site has more than 200,000 items, up 100 percent in two months. Gross merchandise and transaction values have also more than doubled over the same period.

The company said more than half a million users visited LiveDeal in March, with consumers conducting transactions on more than $155 million in items for sale, up from $80 million in January 2005.

Key listings categories such as autos, furniture, real estate and pets are growing at a rate of 35 to 50 percent month over month, demonstrating high demand for an efficient and cost-effective local marketplace for heavy, hard-to-ship items or items consumers like to see or "try before they buy." The top searches for March conducted on LiveDeal reveal particularly strong interest in "cars", including Honda, Toyota and Ford models, as well as "puppies", "boats", "motorcycles", "iPods" and "furniture."

LiveDeal is a local online marketplace that combines the next-generation classifieds, yellow pages and ecommerce into one solution.

http://www.livedeal.com