ILM Asia: Google Pitches Partnership

Speaking today at ILM Asia in Singapore, Google’s James Sanders made a very direct appeal to directory publishers to resell Google advertising products to SMB advertisers in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Globally, Yellow Pages companies are our most successful partners,” Sanders said.

Sanders tried to address one of the biggest concerns Yellow Pages companies have about Google, namely that Google is simply biding its time working with partners until it can build or buy its own local channel.

Sanders addressed this head on during Q&A.

When asked if Google would buy a directory company, something that has been rumored from time to time, his response was an unequivocal “no.”

He added that Google has no plans to build a local sales force, noting that it would be too formidable a task to build an SMB sales force with tens of thousands of sales reps worldwide.

Both Google and Microsft are present at ILM Asia and actively seeking reseller partners among Asia-Pacific directory publishers. It’s a testament to the fact that directory organizations, despite their challenges, remain crtical partners for any organization looking to reach the SMB market.