Online and offline classifieds – Disconnect in traditional media

I have been thinking about this for sometime: All of us know, classifieds is big business. Both online and offline. In the offline world traditional media like newspapers are the big gorillas – they basically built the classifieds industry. In the online world we of have craigslist, networks such as google adwords, vertical classifieds such as magicbricks, trulia etc. Though newspapers have gone online and online classifieds are proving to be successful businesses, I feel that there a distinct disconnect between the offline and online worlds. Why aren’t newspapers (or any other traditional media) integrating their offline classifieds with their websites? Online classifieds of all newspapers (thehindu, timesofindia, local papers like deccan chronicle, eenaadu) suck big time – they have minimal/obsolete content, search/usability features are non-existent. What could be the reason for this?

I feel newspapers have everything going for them 1. They have a captive customer set (who give them offline classifieds). So content (and revenues) is not an issue. Pricing could be different for online. 2. They have a decent online reader base. So integrating the online and offline worlds should be the most obvious thing to do. But this definitely is not happening. Even newspapers in US (NY Times etc) dont seem have integrated their online and offline worlds. Only google (who buys a lot of print ad slots) seems to be bridging this.

I would like to understand the reasons for this disconnect. Are they purely cultural – sticking to the existing cash cow and under estimating the online effect? Or is it more than that?
Are there any traditional media which have successfully embraced the online classifieds model – can anyone point some examples? It would be great if someone can throw some numbers – typical revenues made through offline classifieds. How much can online classifieds effect the overall revenues for the business etc.

I feel there is a business opportunity here – enabling traditional media to broaden their pie. If you want to collaborate on this pls comment or directly contact me.

regards,
Vamsi

Article reposted from here

Content Aggregation sites in India: Legal problems ?

There have been quite a few content aggregation sites that have cropped up in the recent past – both in India and US. ixigo.com, Yahoo Farechase, zoomtra for travel, Yahoo Jobsearch, bixee etc for jobs, spoteazy for electronics and there are many others in US in this space. My question is: What are the legality issues w.r.t content aggregation? Can the host websites sue the content aggregator for using their content for “commercial purposes”?

For example: I build a car portal aggregator from carwale.com, carzoo.com, carsalesindia.com etc. When a user searches on my website, he/she is presented results from any of these websites (with a brief summary) and when he/she clicks the link, they are taken to the host website. My revenue stream is sponsored ads. Once I get sufficient traffic, I may also open up the site to take listings directly.

Can carwale.com etc sue me on the basis “I am using their information for commercial purposes” or “I am using copyrighted content” etc – and yes, its written in the terms and conditions of all the content websites that their content cannot be used for commercial use without their explicit approval.

Atleast with travel, jobs the main revenue stream for the host web sites is not ad based (they are getting paid for subscription or when a transaction takes place). So content aggregators may not be perceived as direct competitors. But for free listing providers such as directory services, car listings, yellow pages, real estate websites where their primary revenue stream is also ad-based, content aggregators can be perceived as direct competitors (even though they drive traffic to the host site). CAN the host websites sue content aggregators? What about the “fair use” clauses – can they protect the content aggregators (in India)?

First of all, is this a big issue? How are the current content aggregators (in India) dealing with this issue? And should start-ups be worried about this? And how should they deal with this?

(this article is also published here)

iPhone – Windows Killer?

My friend Arjun recently blogged about something interesting – Can iPhone dent Windows marketshare? Here’s the gist. iPhone is based on OS X and Apple has hinted of opening iPhone for developing 3rd party apps. With iPhone quite likely to dominate the cellular market, 3rd party apps for OS X (iPhone) are likely to proliferate. When this happens, the developers will then port the apps to Mac OS X and hence increase the ecosystem for Macs – thereby denting Windows marketshare.

I think there is a distinct possibility that iPhone will dent Windows marketshare, but in a different way.

1. Apple with iPhone x.0 may actually deliver on “convergence” which has been the holy grail for everyone.

2. SaaS is taking off in a big way in the b2c and b2b spaces.

(2) is already happening and going by Apple’s track record (1) is also highly probable (iPod was not the first music player, similarly iPhone can dominate the cellular market even though its a late entrant). In such a scenario, coolness, usability, and high quality basic apps (voice, voip, email, browser, multimedia) are all that matter. Apple doesn’t need to worry too much about 3rd party apps. With most of the apps being delivered over the web, all Apple needs to make sure is to get the platforms right (great UI, email, browser etc). iPhone will likely displace the PC and hence Windows.

BarcampHyderabad4

BarcampHyderabad4 is scheduled to be held at TCS DeccanPark campus on July 14th from 1pm – 6:30pm. Please visit http://barcamp.org/BarCampHyderabad4 and register/sign-up. There is no theme for this barcamp, so if you have anything interesting to say, this is your 15min of fame.