News & Discussions

Who Killed Global Yellow Pages?

by Willy Lim
(Co-Founder, NetProfitQuest)

The End of the Road for Yellow Pages?

I just read the Channel News Asia report that Global Yellow Pages experiences a huge 45.8% fall in net profit for Q3.

Global Yellow Pages said that the decline in revenue is in part due to the economic recession. This may be true, but I think to a very small extent. Businesses STILL advertise. The question is really where are businesses spending their advertising dollars now.

The article "Marketers to Spend More on Social Media as Usage Skyrockets" stated that 66% of marketers intend to invest in social media in the next 12 months. Our recent survey results, which are published in the Straits Times article "Asian firms go big on Twitter and Facebook", shows that 80% of local businesses intend to spend more on social media marketing in the future.

To me, telephone directory listings had this coming towards them with the rise of social media. People no longer search for businesses using these hard copy telephone directories. Without a change in business direction and model, Global Yellow Pages and all other telephone directory listings will go the way of the telegram.

2010 is going to be the year social media becomes mainstream media.

And like how email killed telegram, social media will kill telephone directory listings.

What are your views?
Do you think Yellow Pages still have a place in the business world?

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Who Killed Global Yellow Pages?

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Apr 03, 2010
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Change is Constant in the business climate.
by: Anonymous

Indeed, Internet is exactly like a double edged sword. As markets grow, we have be realistic in our business objectives, Indeed it has slowly killed many business. Business need to think out of the box. Cheers, Christie

Feb 11, 2010
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Search Engine Local Business Listing
by: YC. Ng

The main killer is search engine. For SE Asia, particularly Google and Yahoo. Local search (including mobile search) is the NEW Yellow Pages. Furthermore, both Google & Yahoo local business listing is FREE for the time being. Google local search is so powerful because of Google map, customer review and discount coupon service.

Live search is coming soon... will be a big blow to traditional yellow pages.

For Telekom, beside search engines they have another local major competitor - 701Panduan. They use paid search marketing heavily to make sure all people can find their listing when the prospect search for the specific topic. Again, also leveraging on search engine platform.

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