Regional online car yard Autocosmos (www.autocosmos.com) is looking to reach profitability by 2001, CEO Guillermo Dietrich told BNamericas.com. Unwilling to disclose last year"s results, "because in a competitive market a lot of this information is strategic", Dietrich nevertheless revealed that the company sold US$200,000 worth of cars in Argentina in 2000. "I don"t think anyone has surpassed expectations as far as Internet sales are concerned. Revenues have not grown at the expected rate and we are at present working with different figures," he said, adding that the company has toned down its marketing spending in almost all the countries in which it operates. Regarding expansion plans, Dietrich said there is no intention to expand into other countries in 1H01, but there is always the possibility of an association with a Brazilian site. "Today, it wouldn"t be worthwhile wasting a lot of money going to a country of this size. The logical move would be a merger with a Brazilian site, but at the moment we are not in talks with anybody." Dietrich believes one of the strengths of the site is that all the partners are real world players, which gives it access to a range of support that other sites lack, such as used cars and value added products. One area that Autocosmos is working on is used car services. At present Autocosmos operates in Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Ecuador. Shareholders include the Dietrich group, one of the largest concessionary groups in Argentina; Federico Agardy, president of the investment fund Antartic Ventures; regional Internet holding Puntocom Holdings and executives from the car industries in Mexico and Venezuela. Business News Americas (BNamericas.com)