city guides web 2.0
DESCRIPTION
As the web is increasingly becoming participative, more and more websites are being developed on the Web 2.0 platform and the existing ones are transtioning themselves to include the Web 2.0 features. One of the domains where the Web 2.0 features have been successfully leveraged is that of City Guides. When someone wants to have some information about a particular city or a particular product/place in a particular city, he can ask his friends, read books/yellow pages on the particular city or he can browse the net for the information. The Web 2.0 platform gives him the benefits of a place/product being reviewed by a large number of users so that he can take an informed decision. This sector was pioneered by two gentleman from US namely Craig Newmark and Bill Gross in the year 1995. The three top players in this sector are craigslist.org, citysearch.com and yelp.com. Both craislist.org and citysearch.com started as Web 1.0 sites and gradually trasitioned to Web 2.0, while yelp.com started in 2004 completely as a Web 2.0 initiative. All the three sites are US based and include mostly the cities of US. The users of these sites also show a similar demographic profile but the differtiating factor with Craigslist which enjoys the maximum traffic among the three lies in the fact that it provides a platform for dating and job-search which is unique to Craigslist. Citysearch and Yelp have a similar revenue model comprising banner ads and classified ads while the sole revenue for Craigslist is the paid job-ads in select cities. As the internet penetration has incresed in India over the years, so has the use of local city guides. Some of the prevelant players in the Indian market include sulekha.com, justdial.com and whereincity.com. Among these, Sulekha has the highest ranking. Sulekha also started as a Web 1.0 site and currently it has almost all the features of Web 2.0. Its revenue model is similar to Citysearch and Yelp. As the online ad-industry is growing very rapidly, the revenue model of these sites is pretty sustainable. The future trends in this industry include virtual tours, the use of 3G and GPS on mobile for directions and the increasing use of video ads. Also in the developing countries like India where we have city guides for particular cities and not a single point, the industry may see a consolidation where the small players from each cities would integrate their databases.TRANSCRIPT
Web 2.0
Content AggregationGuides and Reviews
“City Guides”
Enayath SheikhKartiksinh Sarvaiya
Shikha Gupta
Agenda
Products / ServicesParticipantsWeb 2.0 Tools and TechnologyPlayersDemographicsWeb 2.0 tools DifferentiationIndian ScenarioFuture Trends
Products / Services
Participants
Transition
Web 2.0 Tools and Technology
Players
Craigslist.org An online community service featuring classified
ads and forums. Founder: Craig Newmark Year of inception: 1995 Presence: 500 cities in 50 countries Operating expenses for 2008: $7.5 Million Value of the company:$2.4B eBay owns 25% stake in Craigslist
Source: Alleyinsider.com
Revenue Source
Paid Job posting ads in select cities 75$ per ad for the SFBA $25 per ad NY, LA, San Diego, Washington
D.C, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, Portland and Oregon.
Apartment listing only in New York City $10 per ad
Growth
Source: Alleyinsider.com
Demographics
Source: quantcast.com
Citysearch.com An online city guide which taps community
voice and reveals honest and current insights on local businesses and services on everything from martinis to mechanics.
Founder: Bill Gross Year of inception: 1995 Revenue model:
Pay per click on add Pay for Performance Other sources
Owned by – Interactive Corp
Source: quantcast.com
Demographics
Yelp.com Yelp is an online urban city guide that helps people find cool
places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play, based on the informed opinions of a vibrant and active community of locals in the know
Ownership : Privately held Co-founders : Jeremy Stoppelman(CEO) and Russel
Simmons(CTO) Founded in : July, 2004 Current funding : $ 31 M Current Value : $ 200 M Revenue Model
Advertisements Yelp store (Apparels)
Source: Alleyinsider.com
Source: quantcast.com
Demographics
Demographics Craigslist Citysearch Yelp
Traffic Rank 11 87 79
Traffic Count 1.13 Bn 9.9 Mn (US only) 11.3 Mn
Major visitors US US US
Gender Male-Female (Both) More Female Male-Female
(Both)
Age 18-49 18+ 18-49
Education College Grads College Grads College Grads
Economic Strata More Affluent Affluent More Affluent
Web 2.0 tools
Chats
Blogs
Communities
Forums
Mobile
RSS
Rating
Comparison
No. of employees 25 Around 75 Around 50
Revenue $ 81 M $ 88 M $ 10 M
Ranking 39 754 666
Source: trends.google.com
Yelp.com
Source: spyfu.com
Citysearch.com
Source: spyfu.com
Craigslist.org
Source: spyfu.com
Differentiation
• Presence across different geographies • Simple (Less graphics)
• Does not have the traditional ad-revenue model
• Focused player for US
• Leverages on its experience over the years and trusted editorial reviews
• Relies solely on the user reviews and not editorial
• Uses more Web 2.0 tools than most of its competitors
•Spamming and selling of user information to third parties.•Impersonation •Illegal and inappropriate ads•Information collected and used•Transfer of information•Links•Email and opt-outs•Dispute resolution
Privacy Policy
Sulekha.com Online Indian community with classifieds for
60 cities worldwide, Matrimonial for Indian professionals Tickets Weblogs News.
Sulekha.com has a traffic rank of: 913 tie up with yellow pages classifieds and local search wap version available
Network (Communities) Forums Blogs Photos Reviews & Rating Classifieds
SMS query Yellow pages Mobile QnA
Demographics
Source: quantcast.com
Sulekha.com
Source: spyfu.com
Future Trends Virtual Tours
3G and GPS on Mobiles
Video Ads
Consolidation in the developing countries
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