Folks, I have been thinking about this for sometime: All of us know, classifieds is big business. Both online and offline. In the offline world traditional media like newspapers are the big gorillas – they basically built the classifieds industry. In the online world we of have craigslist, networks such as google adwords, vertical classifieds such as magicbricks, trulia etc. Though newspapers have gone online and online classifieds are proving to be successful businesses, I feel that there a distinct disconnect between the offline and online worlds. Why aren’t newspapers (or any other traditional media) integrating their offline classifieds with their websites? Online classifieds of all newspapers (thehindu, timesofindia, local papers like deccan chronicle, eenaadu) suck big time – they have minimal/obsolete content, search/usability features are non-existent. What could be the reason for this?
I feel newspapers have everything going for them 1. They have a captive customer set (who give them offline classifieds). So content (and revenues) is not an issue. Pricing could be different for online. 2. They have a decent online reader base. So integrating the online and offline worlds should be the most obvious thing to do. But this definitely is not happening. Even newspapers in US (NY Times etc) dont seem have integrated their online and offline worlds. Only google (who buys a lot of print ad slots) seems to be bridging this.
I would like to understand the reasons for this disconnect. Are they purely cultural – sticking to the existing cash cow and under estimating the online effect? Or is it more than that?
Are there any traditional media which have successfully embraced the online classifieds model – can anyone point some examples? It would be great if someone can throw some numbers – typical revenues made through offline classifieds. How much can online classifieds effect the overall revenues for the business etc.
I strongly feel there is a business opportunity here – enabling traditional media to broaden their pie. If you want to collaborate on this pls comment or directly contact me.
regards,
Vamsi vvkrishna1@gmail.com
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Sulekha.com is another online channel that is focussed on classifieds.
I have a similar question, why is the government/public sector industries wasting so much money in putting tender advts in these newspapers. None of the general public is their target segment.
Vamsi
The challenge to online classified business is like I mentioned in my post – lack of channels to post classifieds.
Matrimony and Job sites are moving from online to offline model, but real estate is not even moving online.
Unless, the channel problem isn’t addressed, the online classifieds industries will not be broker independent.
And again, newspapers aren’t the right target- people prefer niche/vertical sites and not just the regular ads:: the no. of ads in “free ads” is significantly higher than ToI+ other newspapers combined.
Another vertical classified site which I used is for rentals http://www.bharathrentals.com/browse/all/all/all is a good add-on to the real estate area
Hi Ashish, thanks for the link. It answers some of the questions. I feel in India, online classifieds have only scratched the surface. As its been pointed out, only matrimony and jobs are the classifieds that have succeeded. Real estate is just picking up. But the remaining verticals are still evolving. So it perhaps makes sense for newspapers to invest in now evolving verticals – that way they will be a force to reckon with when the vertical (say cars) takes off.
Rohit, ads2book.com is an interesting concept bridging from online to offline. Curious to know if anyone is doing the other way around.
Vamsi.