Google Base as threat to classifieds
Print newspapers are getting gutted.
No wonder their stocks are crumbling.
I recall Dave Webb telling me years about that Classifieds were the lifeblood of newspapers...
"Rupert Murdoch once described them as the ?rivers of gold??the lucrative classified-advertising revenues that flowed into big newspaper groups. But the golden rivers are being diverted online as the internet breaks the grip that local and regional newspapers once held over their advertising markets.
Typically, a local newspaper would expect to get some 80% of its revenue from advertising, of which around two-thirds would come from classifieds. But last year in the San Francisco Bay area, job ads worth some $60m were lost from newspapers to the web, reckons Classified Intelligence, a consultancy."
Online advertising | Classified calamity | Economist.com
"Perhaps the most significant development came on November 16th, when Google started up a prototype service called Google Base. It offers a searchable database of free listings, including small ads which can be narrowed down to postal regions. Among its first offerings were used cars. In time, Google could challenge eBay, whose own auction listings now work much like a giant classified website?especially with its ?buy-it-now? options. But eBay charges sellers. Even so, it sold more than 450m items in the three months to September 30th, for almost $11 billion."
No wonder their stocks are crumbling.
I recall Dave Webb telling me years about that Classifieds were the lifeblood of newspapers...
"Rupert Murdoch once described them as the ?rivers of gold??the lucrative classified-advertising revenues that flowed into big newspaper groups. But the golden rivers are being diverted online as the internet breaks the grip that local and regional newspapers once held over their advertising markets.
Typically, a local newspaper would expect to get some 80% of its revenue from advertising, of which around two-thirds would come from classifieds. But last year in the San Francisco Bay area, job ads worth some $60m were lost from newspapers to the web, reckons Classified Intelligence, a consultancy."
Online advertising | Classified calamity | Economist.com
"Perhaps the most significant development came on November 16th, when Google started up a prototype service called Google Base. It offers a searchable database of free listings, including small ads which can be narrowed down to postal regions. Among its first offerings were used cars. In time, Google could challenge eBay, whose own auction listings now work much like a giant classified website?especially with its ?buy-it-now? options. But eBay charges sellers. Even so, it sold more than 450m items in the three months to September 30th, for almost $11 billion."
posted by JTH at 8:07 PM
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