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Insights into the Australian search and directories market

Ross Dawson, April 16, 2008 12:56 AM US PT

Vishal Sharma of Startups Carnival fame has just released a nice review of the Australian search and directories market. It pulls together data from the recent BRW Digital Generation edition and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and perhaps most interestingly reviews 18 players in online search, looking to tap a market estimated at A$254 million currently, and A$532 million in 2010.

Google is even more dominant in online search than in the US (86% vs 60% for the US March 2008 figures from ComScore), while Sensis hs 98% of the local directories market.

In the local directories market, one of the interesting players is Hotfrog, which was established by Reed Business Australia in 2005 to diversify from its core print operations . Its local success has led to Hotfrog being replicated in 18 other countries.

2 Comments

Vishal said:

Ross what will be interesting to know and esp yr thoughts on the analysis for Sensis. What do you think how they can prepare for the future.
I have suggested some basic steps at this stage, but more in future.

April 16, 2008 2:11 AM

Ross Dawson said:

Hi Vishal, I'm far more interested in how new participants can take market share from Sensis than how the dominant player can continue to take the value (unless I'm offered a lucrative consulting contract! :)).

I think one particularly useful strategy is building communities in specific local search domains e.g. plumbing, dentistry, auto mechanics, natural health etc. Everybody wants good recommendations for these kinds of suppliers, and the best way to get this critical mass of participation is to be focused. For example I think raveaboutit.com.au is conceptually good in providing peer reviews for local suppliers, with lots of associated business models. However because it has hundreds of categories, it is likely that in fact none of them get traction. Multi-niche can be combined later into something bigger, but it's tough the other way around...

April 19, 2008 3:42 AM

Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of four companies: professional services and venture firm Advanced Human Technologies, future and strategy consulting group Future Exploration Network, leading events firm The Insight Exchange, and influence ratings start-up Repyoot.

Ross is author most recently of Implementing Enterprise 2.0, the prescient Living Networks, which anticipated the social network revolution, and the Amazon.com bestseller Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships (click on the links for free chapter downloads). He is based in Sydney and San Francisco with his wife jewellery designer Victoria Buckley and two beautiful young daughters.