Following Australian Startups and Tech Trends

As we reported earlier the Online Local Search and Directory Market is Heating up , which is an emerging marketplace as confirmed by the Sensis FY08 report . Today we explore one of the new entrants in this segment, Local.com.au , founded by Ron Brewster of Sydney, Australia. In a recent email-based interview with Ron, he gave insights into his venture and how he is progressing with it. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about your venture/company? local.com.au is a directory of business and services Australia-wide. We allow free advertising for all businesses, including FREE links to websites. For $1 a day, businesses can rise to the top and add pictures and videos to listings. I believe we have the BEST directory model currently on offer in Australia. • Who are the people behind this and how it started? Myself primarily, but I have a very good coder and a series of consultants who I work with. I had the idea back in the late 1990s when I could see tourism embracing the inte...

Today we showcase an exciting and successful venture founded by, Marc Lyne from, London, UK, Brownbook - A free business directory that ANYONE can instantly edit. Brownbook , one of the emerging players in the local search market which is heating up , seems to be following the Wikipedia model - publish then filter. 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 . In a recent email-based interview with Marc, 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 have an extensive directory industry background, having put Scoot (formerly Freepages) on to the web in 1995, rolled out to Belgium, Holland and France and then sold Scoot UK to British Telecom. I then spent 4 years as the CTO of BT Directories - added the classified business directory to the BT PhoneBook, directory enquiries a...

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: AussieWeb Local Search Brownbook ClickFind dLook Docoloco FreeConnect HotFrog Google Maps Local Search Solutions Local.com.au Nook NineMSN - My Local OurPatch Phone Book Rave About It RAYV Start Local Street Directory True Local VirtualMap Yellow (Sensis, formerly YellowPages) Vouchorgrouch Womow WhitePages (Sensis) Yahoo!7 ReachLocal As f ar as the top p l ayers are concerned, this h asn't ch a nged much since we reported l ast time. So, the top 5 players in this market according to their market share/business listing s are . 1. Yellow, My...

Today we showcase an exciting and interesting startup, in the online business directory search market segment, from Sydney Australia, FreeConnect - An online business directory search with multichannel capability, including VOIP. It was started by John Kennedy and was launched on May 28, 2008. In my view,  FreeConnect is definitely a unique service in the Australian business directories market segment as compared to other players . It has the huge potential to change market forces. It offers consumers a free way to connect with the business of their choice via (multichannel) telephone, email, SMS and VOIP. It is also Australia’s first-ever VOIP online directory service. It allows businesses to post a wide array of information - everything from their address and contact details to product and service information, photographs, payment options, business history and more – all at no cost. The only payment businesses make is for the actual lead when it connects them with a customer l...

In our ongoing coverage of startups coming out of Australia and interviews with CEOs, Media Personalities, Philanthropists, and VCs, to gauge the innovation and startup landscape in Australia, today we showcase our interview with, the co-founder of OurPatch - Regional And Rural Business Directory, Simon Wyk. I did this interview to learn more about OurPatch , its offerings, its progress and what it means to the regional and rural business of Australia. Let us explore what Simon has to say about the progress of OurPatch and the state of affairs in this domain in Australia. This is what he has to say: • Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests? I was born in South Africa and came to Australia in my mid-twenties. I started my career in marketing. Initially for a chemicals company and subsequently for a home improvements company. I then found myself in Interactive Communications and built the first commercial CD-ROM in Australia. We migrated from commercial CD-ROM...