Skip to main content

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 $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.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Good follow up Vishal. Interesting times indeed :)
Anonymous said…
Hi Vishal, we are very pleased that you noticed us here at Brownbook. If we can give you any more info about our plans, then please do drop me a line marc[AT]brownbook{DOT]net. Also, we are on the lookout for a person in Sydney to help us launch Brownbook. is there anyone you can recommend?
Thanks.
Marc.
Unknown said…
As everyone knows by now, video is very exciting. I think in the next few years people will discover that video is appropriate for certain areas of the consumer market, right now it seems like everyone wants to use video for everything. I think the small business arena will benefit the most from video which is pretty much the thesis behind Jippidy.com

Popular posts from this blog

Sensis and the Australian Search and Directories Market

Background: I have undertaken this report to explore, learn and analyse the local online search and directories market to understand the developments that are taking place in this area. There are more than 18 players, from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to large corporations trying to get some share of this market. The main focus of this report is on Sensis and its competitors and how it can reinvent itself in a rapidly changing local market. Note: This report can be downloaded as a PDF from here . Introduction: Australia’s online search and directories market is rapidly growing and to this date, there are 18 players in this market segment , worth $235 million as reported last year (2007). It is expected to reach $532 million by 2010. Sensis, (owned by Telstra) is a dominant player in the directories market and Google in search. The online search market only represents a portion of the much larger local online advertising market. The local online advertising marke...

99designs - Connecting Designers from Around the World

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture co-founded by, Mark Harbottle in 2008 from Melbourne, Australia, 99designs - it connects thousands of designers from around the world with clients who need design tasks completed fast, and without the usual high cost and limited choices you get from most traditional design firms. In a recent email-based interview with Mark, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? I’m 34 years old. I have a degree in computer systems engineering. I started my wo rking life as a programmer, but I eventually found I was much better at online marketing, which back in 1995 was an area not many people had explored. I’ve worked with pure internet businesses for 13 years now. The first 4 years after I graduated I worked with one of Australia’s first internet companies, and the last 9 have been spent working on my own businesses. I started...

Plutext

The 9th participant is Plutext . Plutext enables collaborative editing around docx documents, where docx is the default file format in Word 2007. In simple terms, it's a word processor like Openoffice Writer and Google Docs. Based out of Melbourne, it was created by Jason Harrop in 2007 and this is the second venture he has started, previously he was involved with SpeedLegal (now Exari). Let us explore a bit further about Plutext from Jason, on various facets of his startup: Q. How long it took before it was up and running? A. A couple of months to build a proof of concept, whilst also doing other things, before giving it 100% focus in September 2007. Q. What stage of your start-up is, stealth mode, beta mode or fully functional? A. Beta mode. Q. What is the main objective/mission behind your venture? A. Enable people to work on a Word document at the same time. Provide an environment for doing this irrespective of whether you have Word 2007. Q. What is unique about your ventu...