LiveDeal Joins Online Video Movement
Classified aggregator and newly vaunted IYP destination LiveDeal announced today that it will integrate video content to its listings. Specifically, this will allow individual sellers and businesses to upload videos to enhance their classifieds or directory listings.
This follows the general trend toward blending video with local directional advertising. With Yellowbook.com’s video integration last month, every major U.S. IYP now has video capability to some capacity for business listings. For LiveDeal, video now joins a set of content formats it has brought into the fold in the past six months to improve its site experience and expand its monetization opportunities.
First, the June acquisition by YP.com brought the unique online combination of classifieds and directory content. This integration makes sense because of the complementary buckets of content that can be blended in certain kinds of searches (i.e., used cars + local dealerships). This also gets closer to solving the perennial challenge of monetizing free online classifieds; complementary paid listings are in some cases a natural fit.
It also recently launched social features such as community discussion boards around classifieds and topics of local interest. Now adding video to the mix makes the site more compelling for users and advertisers. As explored in Facebook and the Marriage of Classifieds, Social Networking and Video, these elements can be complementary in social networking as well as local search and classifieds. We’ll see what LiveDeal does next.
