Category: Classifieds
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GoodBye Pennysaver: Is There Life Left in Shopper Publications?
Is there life left in local, broadsheet “shopper” publications that highlight home and trade businesses and things for sale? Not according to OpenGate, a $3 Billion LBO firm that abruptly laid off workers for Pennysaver USA, the industry’s largest company, which it purchased in 2013 from Harte Hanks for $22.5 Million. At that time, the…
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Facebook Goes Up Against Craigslist and eBay (Sort of)
Craigslist has outlasted its challengers, and remains the platform to beat for classifieds, or “things to sell” marketplaces. eBay, similarly, remains a leader for the sale of goods – although most are not geographically oriented. Amazon is also active in that space. Can Facebook, with its huge volume and trust networks, cut into their business?…
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Craigslist’s Revenue Up 101%; Measuring Its Impact
There have been several game changers in local. One is Google search. Another is Yelp reviews. Another has got to be Craigslist. Craigslist started out as a totally free community site focused on recruitment. In recent years, it has incrementally added paid sections – partly to make them more manageable and it is beginning to…
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Craigslist's Revenue Up 101%; Measuring Its Impact
There have been several game changers in local. One is Google search. Another is Yelp reviews. Another has got to be Craigslist. Craigslist started out as a totally free community site focused on recruitment. In recent years, it has incrementally added paid sections – partly to make them more manageable and it is beginning to…
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Antengo Pushes on Mobile Classifieds: ‘Websites Mean Nothing to Us’
Vertical sites such as AutoTrader, Cars.com, Zillow and Trulia that provide listings, services and features are seeing a large share of their user base move to mobile. But all-in-one classifieds sites in the mode of Craig’s List, Pennysaver, Recycler.com, newspapers and alt weeklies haven’t moved as fast to mobile. Can a mobile all-in-one approach (i.e.…
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New Era for Local Shopping Portals; Travidia’s ‘FindnSave’ Launches
Shopping portals have moved beyond “federated search,” and now combine the best of daily deals, coupons, weekly ads and other promotional information in ways that are more efficient — and drive more shopping. At the national level, Gannett’s ShopLocal.com has been moving in this direction for some time. At the local level, we’ve recently seen…
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Reflections on ICMA 2010 and a Fast Changing Classifieds Industry
Last week I spoke at the annual gathering of the International Classifieds Media Association (ICMA) in Vienna, Austria. My colleague Peter Krasilovsky and I have had the pleasure of attending and speaking at this function in past years. What I noticed this year is a definite reawakening in the classifieds business, which now sees itself…
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Axel Springer, India Today Team Up on Auto Classifieds in India
India’s auto classifieds marketplace is heating up, as the country’s burgeoning middle class becomes more auto dependent. In August 2009, MotorExchange acquired CarTradeIndia.com, apparently leading to investment in MotorExchange by Canaan Partners. Now, Axel Springer, the German media company, and the India Today group have acquired 70.4 percent in Carwale.com, a company that previously teamed…
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AutoTrader.com Buys Kelley Blue Book
AutoTrader.com is paying a reported $500 million to acquire the assets of Kelley Blue Book. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2010. On the surface, the acquisition of KBB is fairly straightforward. While AutoTrader provides its own research for consumers to value cars and check out reviews, Kelley Blue Book is…
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Oodle’s iPhone App: Mostly About the Camera
Classifieds haven’t been especially enhanced by mobile apps — although it is nice to have them on the go when shopping for a car or a house. But Oodle keeps pushing the envelope with its effort to bring the world of social media to classifieds. The classified site, which also acts as a platform for…
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Vertical Customer Acquisition, Retention Is Focus of July 27 Webinar
We’re taking part in a good webinar next Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific dedicated to the acquisition and retention of vertical classified advertisers. The webinar is hosted by ATG, which provides a wide range of commerce tools for SMBs. I will provide the lay of the land in classified trends followed by a case study…
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Craig Newmark at Inman: Craigslist in 70 Cities
Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark made another of his regular visits to Brad Inman’s stage at Real Estate Connect today, which is taking place in San Francisco. Newmark, who humbly refers to himself as working in customer service, noted that Craigslist is now in 70 cities and receives more than 50 million unique visitors a month.…
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EBay Classifieds Seeks to Leverage the Mothership
EBay’s newly branded “eBay Classifieds” — formerly known as Kijiji — is being repositioned to better leverage eBay’s capabilities, according to U.S. GM Martin Herbst, who spoke to us for a new report that we’ve just issued in BIA/Kelsey’s Marketplaces program. EBay potentially brings its vaunted user feedback system to the table, as well as…
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AIM Group Projects Craigslist Revenues at $122 Million
Craigslist has always been murky about revenues, and remains a free site for most categories. It only charges a commercial rate for recruitment, with listings costing just $25 in 17 markets and $75 in San Francisco. Fees for apartment listings (in New York) and “adult and therapeutic services” ads fit into the nominal fee category,…