Comments on: An old-world publisher embraces the brave new world of ‘free’

By: Mike R

Mike R — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:35:48 +0000

Junkmail ate into the press income from line ads – had a few years good times.

Now Gumtree has killed it. RIP.

Si it goes

By: Seo-Development

Seo-Development — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:18:12 +0000

I would say that Junkmail is fighting strongly, has you can see in Alexa:

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/junkmail.co.za

This is a huge growth and I think that the game is only starting now!!

Cheers

By: nevo

nevo — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:34:19 +0000

the online classified model is definitely not just a “free” space, craig’s list turns over $100Million with a team of under 30 people and no cost of sales. classifieds is a platform business like facebook (i.e. the users provide the content) look at the amount of premium advertising that is generated by users plus other ad revenues due to the amount of eyeballs. classifieds was 30% of newspaper revenues before and that propensity to spend by small business has not gone away – its just a matter of unlocking it using newer models.

By: Michael van Dijk

Michael van Dijk — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:57:41 +0000

Good man, you got it!

We need that local content…

All you need do now is to integrate with the local online newspapers and convince them of your business model.

Good luck!

Regards

Michael

By: Ally

Ally — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:33:09 +0000

Oh please, Vottle is small time.

By: justinspratt

justinspratt — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:22:27 +0000

i think http://www.vottle.com will win out…

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:20:28 +0000

I use to buy junkmail when it started. Then they went online and at a stage you would be able to search online for adds but without the telephone numbers on. That worked great and if you found something, you would go out and buy the newspaper in order to get the telephone number(s).
Then they stopped that as well, and thats where they lost me totally. Even when I spoke to the people at Junkmail and asked why they did this, they told me to either subcribe at same price as the newspaper or to buy the newspaper, end of story.
Then I found gumtree and havent looked back! Sorry junkmail, you had the market by the, you know what, and you lost it! You will never catch up and really I hope that you dont.
Long live Gumtree!!

By: Allen Baranov

Allen Baranov — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:23:38 +0000

This sounds like pre-2001 thinking.

Who cares if you manage to corner a market that makes no money?

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:01:49 +0000

I don’t think they’ll win. One, ‘Gumtree’ is one of the country’s most searched keywords on google, showing that in terms of brand Junk Mail has has lost that fight. In terms of site functionality and ease Gumtree wins hands down. The fact the dodgy ads can be reported and dealt with in what seems lightning speed compared to Junk Mail is also a big plus for me as the classified are a huge feeding ground for fraudsters.

Personally I’ve stopped using it a while back and will never return.

Good luck to Junk Mail, they’ll need it.