My Virtual Paper Inks Deal With Mexico’s Seccion Amarilla

The Canadian start-up MyVirtualPaper.com has finalized a deal with the Mexican directory publisher Seccion Amarilla to create SEO-ready Web pages using a small-business advertiser’s existing business papers (think menus, fliers, brochures and catalogs). One of the MVP product’s key selling points is that it takes much of the complexity out of the interaction with the small-businesses owner by reducing the conversation to, “Give me your brochure and we will create an SEO-ready Web page out of it.” Seccion Amarilla also will use MVP to do online conversions for the publisher’s 40 U.S. Spanish language print directories.

Seccion Amarilla follows Yellow Pages Group in Canada, which has been trialing the MVP solution since last year, and rolled it out across Canada this month.

Seccion Amarilla Marketing Director Sergio Dominguez told The Kelsey Group today that the MVP solution is part of a broader rollout of new online products this year, including online video. He said the ability to easily Web-enable small businesses was a key appeal of MVP, given the relative lack of online development of Mexico’s small-business community.

“That was one of the most interesting benefits,” Dominguez told us. He estimates that somewhere between 5 percent to 10 percent of Mexican small businesses have an online presence, which suggests tremendous upside for Seccion Amarilla if it can position a solution to small businesses that simplifies creating an online presence.