Just Dial, a local search engine company in India, raised approximately $10 million from SAP Ventures and Sequoia Capital Global Equities. The Mumbai-based firm was founded by VSS Mani in 1996 to connect potential buyers of products and services with small businesses.…
Sebastien Provencher introduced the EADP audience in Mallorca, Spain, to the concept of conversational commerce. Praized Media's latest product, Needium, mines local Tweets to uncover intent whether it is intentional or unintentional. Provencher offered the example of a series of…
The EADP conference in Mallorca was treated to the insights and good humor of Yellow Pages Group Canada's Matthieu Houle and the company's very funny ad campaign. Mobile, Houle said, gives directories the appeal local advertisers are looking for. His…
Publicar, S.A., a leading publisher in Latin America, announced today a deal with Virginia-based Ya Sabe, Inc. to provide local search for U.S. Hispanics at PaginasAmarillas.com. As part of the deal, YaSabe will operate the U.S. website. The company will…
Last week I spoke at the annual gathering of the International Classifieds Media Association (ICMA) in Vienna, Austria. My colleague Peter Krasilovsky and I have had the pleasure of attending and speaking at this function in past years. What I…
Groupon, the pioneering deal-a-day provider, has used some of the proceeds of its recent $135 million round to buy CityDeal, a European imitator that has launched in 80 markets in 16 countries. The cost of the deal has not been…
MerchantCircle, which has established some expertise in launching markets on the cheap, says it is going international with new sites for Canada, the U.K. and Australia. It had previously announced that it is opening up its API to allow sites…
Last week the Australian directory publisher Sensis released its half-year financial results, ended Dec. 31, 2009, which showed pretty strong resilience but nonetheless a meaningful decline in print revenues. For the half-year period, combined print and online Yellow Pages results…
Following a significant court decision, Yellow and White Pages content is not entitled to copyright protection in Australia. Assuming the case is upheld, any entity can legally copy the content from a Sensis directory, even to build a competitive local…
On a recent visit to Stockholm, we sat down with Eniro President and CEO Jesper Karrbrink, who is managing Eniro through a strategic shift described in a presentation late last year as moving "from print dependence to online opportunity." In a videotaped interview,…
My colleague Neal Polachek and I just got off the phone with the leadership team at the Australian publisher Sensis, who walked us through its half-year results ended Dec. 31. We continue to marvel at how successful Sensis has been at…
Last week, Yell Group issued its nine-month earnings report (the company's financial year ends March 31) and most of the news was sobering. Organic growth is expected to be in the negative double digits in its fourth quarter, and…
Yelp announced today that it will launch Yelp U.K. From the release: Now people in the UK can use Yelp to read and write reviews about great businesses in their neighborhood. Locals are able to share their opinions on everything…
The Egypt Yellow Pages, operated by Dubai-based Al Wahda Express LLC, has launched an online/mobile mapping service. According to the announcement, users will be able to view local businesses on their mobile phones in either satellite or map view. We…
The U.K. online Yellow Pages directory Yell.com has announced a partnership with IdealHomeShow.co.uk, giving the home improvement and garden trade show Web site access to Yell.com’s local business listings in related headings. This agreement is a first for Yell.com, according…
Here is a collection of newsworthy Yellow Pages and directional media items that I've noted over the past week or so. Got this press release in my inbox from Yell Group this morning, showing some creativity in linking the print…
Sometimes even the most clever advertising for Yellow Pages has a "been there, done that" quality to it. Take a funny situation, add a clever conclusion involving a play on words related to a Yellow Pages heading and, bam, you've…
New Canadian local search destination Weblocal.ca has launched. The site is the product of a partnership between Canadian publisher Transcontinental and social/local pure play YellowBot (see profile). The site is one of Transcon's first moves into online local search. As…
One of the things that dawned on me after listening to the many speakers at our recent DMS ’08 conference in Atlanta was that a fundamental aspect of the Yellow Pages business has been lost -- exclusivity. During the days…
Sami Kassab, analyst on the European Media Research Team at Exane BNP Paribas, gave a data-laden, insightful perspective on the many of the world's largest Yellow Pages publishers in "The Financial View" panel at Directional Media Strategies 2008. Highlights of Kassab's…
