Local Search & Directories Market Heating Up

We published an extensive report on Australia's local search market in April 2008. At that time we found there are 18 local players in this space. Now within 3 months, this list has grown from 18 to 25. All these players are competing in this market worth $235 million as reported last year (2007). It is expected to reach to $532 million by 2010.

We have now further updated this list and the following are the players competing in this space:

1. AussieWeb Local Search
2. Brownbook
   
3. ClickFind
4. dLook
5. Docoloco
6. FreeConnect
7. HotFrog
8. Google Maps
9. Local Search Solutions
10. Local.com.au
    
11. Nook
12. NineMSN - My Local
13. OurPatch
14. Phone Book
    
15. Rave About It
    
16. RAYV
17. Start Local
    
18. Street Directory
    
19. True Local
    
20. VirtualMap
    
21. Yellow (Sensis, formerly YellowPages)
    
22. Vouchorgrouch
    
23. Womow
    
24. WhitePages (Sensis)
    
25. Yahoo!7
26. ReachLocal

As far as the top players are concerned, this hasn't changed much since we reported last time. So, the top 5 players in this market according to their market share/business listings are.

• 1. Yellow, MyLocal (NineMsn)
• 2. dLook
• 3. TrueLocal, Google Maps, Yahoo7!
• 4. AussieWeb Local Search
• 5. HotFrog

In addition to this 2 interesting aspects which has been brought to our attention concerning Sensis is this

• For Whereis, Sensis is using an emerging local startup company in mobile space from Brisbane, Locatrix. It provides mobile social networking solutions for deployment by network operators and location-based services to corporate customers and application solution providers. It uses location to create and shape mobile content experiences that engage subscribers and generate ARPU. This is the engine beneath Telstra’s (Sensis) Whereis Everyone.

• For searching Yellow & White Pages on Mobile, they are using the services of Mobilepeople. MobilePeople provides a product suite under liquidSearch.

It is good to see that local technologies are being used locally for consumers. We will be interested in learning more about what others are using for their offerings in this space. Please feel free to drop an email to us or just drop your comments here.

Credit: Thanks to Mark for some of the tips on the new players.