Yellow Pages Monitor (Issue 3)

© Heernet Ventures Limited. All Rights Reserved

Yellow Pages Industry Monitor

| Fortnightly newsletter on the Yellow Pages industry | Issue No. 3, Published 18th May 2009 | Published by Heernet Ventures Limited (heernet.com) |

News UAE-based Etisalat launches new compact directories

Yellow Pages Group (Canada) developing new marketing strategy

Baidu.com to develop new mobile search tools for Chinese market

1850 Directory Assistance acquires Vodafone’s directory assistance in the Netherlands

Local search engine, YellowSpaces launches in US market

Eniro to publish telephone directory for Turku (Finland)

LocalAdLink launches in Asia through joint venture

Yell becoms Google AdWords’ reseller in the UK

Microsoft relaunches online city guides

BT Group plc declares financial result for year to March 2009

Data Share price performance

Deal sheet (January – March 09)

Online local search in the German market

Advisory services

Heernet Ventures publishes this newsletter as part of its research coverage of the yellow pages industry. You can access more research on the yellow pages industry from our research website at G2Mi.com.

If you are a media company or financial investor seeking market or company analysis on the yellow pages industry, we can assist you. With dedicated research analysts based in both Europe and Asia, we are well placed to provide ‘on the ground’ assistance and support in most countries.

Over the last five years, we have worked on a number of advisory assignments in the industry on areas such as growth strategy, product benchmarking, competitor intelligence and acquisition search.

For an initial discussion, contact Harjinder Singh-Heer on +44 (0) 208 180 7223 or by email on [email protected].


News

UAE-based Etisalat launches new compact directories

Date 5th May, 2009

The UAE-based telecoms operator, Etisalat has launched a

compact yellow pages directory in partnership with Al

Wahda Express, a Dubai-based directory publisher. The

directory is a combined English-Arabic book and will be

published in 3 editions covering Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the

Northern Emirates. Etisalat has 7.34 million mobile

subscribers and 1.35 million fixed line subscribers in the

UAE; the company also provides Internet access services to

1.2 million subscribers. Al-Wahda Express is a leading

provider of both print and online yellow pages solutions in

the Middle East.

Yellow Pages Group (Canada) developing new

marketing strategy

Date 5th May, 2009

The Canadian directories publisher, Yellow Pages Group (YPG) has hired two new marketing agencies to help it develop its new marketing and branding strategy. The agencies are TAXI Canada and PHD. The agencies will help develop a new communications strategy across YPG’s print, online and mobile offerings. YPG is the incumbent directory publisher in Canada and holds a leading position across both print and online offerings.

Baidu.com to develop new mobile search tools for

Chinese market

Date 5th May, 2009

The Chinese search engine, Baidu.com has formed a partnership with a number of mobile handset manufacturers to develop and install a mobile search product on their handsets and other wireless devices in the Chinese market. The manufacturers include Samsung, Lenovo and Tianyu. Baidu is the leading search engine in the Chinese market and it is keen to extend its market leadership to the mobile search space.

Baidu will also develop a mobile search engine that integrates with MediaTek’s mobile operating system.

MediaTek is a Taiwanese-based mobile hardware and software company; it’s primary business is manufacturing integrated circuits for mobile handsets, but in recent years it has expanded into software.

1850 Directory Assistance acquires Vodafone’s

directory assistance in the Netherlands

Date 5th May, 2009

The Dutch directory assistance company, 1850 B.V. has acquired Vodafone Netherlands’ directory assistance service. 1850 operates the 1850 Directory Assistance service; it was launched in April 2007 when the previous 118 service was terminated.

Local search engine, YellowSpaces launches in US market

Date 6th May, 2009

A new local search engine, YellowSpaces, has been launched in the US. The search engine utilises local content from Localeze and claims that its search algorithms enable it to provide a smarter, more efficient search experience to users. Localeze is a local content provider and has recentluy developed a scoring mechanism (Localeze Confidence Score) which it claims allows search engines to better identify the accuracy of listings data.

Eniro to publish telephone directory for Turku

(Finland)

Date 12th May, 2009

The Nordic directory publisher Eniro won the tender to

publish telephone listings for the Finnish city of Turku.

Eniro won the competitive tender following a bid € 26,700

(compared to Fonecta’s bid of €54,000). Eniro’s access to

the data will be on a non-exclusive basis.


LocalAdLink launches in Asia through joint venture

Date 14th May, 2009

The local search content and technology company Beyond

Commerce Inc., has formed a 50:50 joint venture with the

Singapore-based company, Labocus Ultronics. This is its

first major expansion into Asia; the joint venture will see

Beyond Commerce licencing its LocalAdLink brand and

technology to the joint venture, with Labocus Ultronics

funding and running the operation. The venture will target a

number of Asian markets including Malaysia, Indonesia,

Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma and Laos (it

also has the option of expanding into the Philippines and

India). LocalAdLink is an online local advertising network.

Yell becoms Google AdWords’ reseller in the UK

Date 14th May, 2009

The UK-based directory publisher Yell Group plc has

become a Google AdWords reseller in the UK. Yell is the

incumbent publisher in the UK and had initially formed a

partnership with Google back in 2005. That earlier

partnership was based on Yell providing Google Local

search access to Yell’s local listings data. This new

partnership will see Yell selling Google AdWords products

to its own small business customer base.

The deal could be perceived as an acknowledgement by Yell

that its online offering will find it tough to deliver its

advertisers sufficient traffic from its own Yell.com website.

Google has invested heavily in building its local search

offering in the UK market; recently, it launched its Street

view product with coverage of all major cities. The latest

audited traffic data shows that searches on Yell.com

declined by almost 3% in the twelve months to March 2009.

Mar-08 Mar-09 % change

Unique users 8,490,667 10,740,688 26.5%

Visits 16,557,076

PVs 63,583,393

Searches 30,911,451 30,118,372 -2.6%

Source: eABC

Microsoft relaunches online city guides

Date: 8th May 2009

As part of its online local search offering, Microsoft has

launched new online city guides. Covering over 5,000 US

cities, the website introduces better mapping and search

tools and new editorial content and advertising. The site

also has enhanced networking tools (including a facebook

application).

BT Group Plc declares financial result for year to

March 2009

Date 14th May, 2009

The UK-based telecoms operator, BT Group Plc announced its financial results for the year ended March 2009. The company increased revenues by 3.3% to £21.39 billion and EBIDTA declined 6.1% to £5.55 billion. The company is the No. 3 print directory publisher in the UK market with its BT Phonebook offering; it also has an online offering based around a BT website and the recently purchased Ufindus websites. In a bid to improve profitability, the group is planning a 10% reduction in headcount in 2009.

£ billion 2008 2009 % change

Revenue 20.70 21.39 3.3%

EBIDTA 5.91 5.55 -6.1%

Net Loss 2.63 2.08 -20.9% Source: Company data


Share price data

Company name Reuters Code

Bloomberg Code

Currency Current price

% Change

1 mth 6 mth 12 mth

Eniro AB ENIRO.ST ENRO.SS SEK 17.80 85.4% -21.3% -13.5%

Pages Jaunes PAJ.PA PAJ.FP EUR 8.22 13.58% 11.12% -31.51%

Seat Pagine Gialle PGIT.MI PG:IM EUR 0.20 -40.24% -61.00% -80.74%

Telegate TGTG.DE TGT:GR EUR 8.38 -3.68% 14.17% -31.87%

Yell Group YELL.L YELL:LN GBP 40.78 66.33% -37.55% -78.32%

Yellow Pages Income Fund YLO_u.TO YLO-U:CN CAD 6.06 1.68% -21.30% -43.26%

Yellow Pages (Singapore) YELP.SI YPG:SP SGD 0.29 45.00% 20.83% -67.05% Date updated: 15th May 2009

‐61%

‐38%

‐21%

‐21%

11%

14%

‐80% ‐60% ‐40% ‐20% 0% 20%

Seat Pagine Gialle

Yell Group

Eniro AB

Yellow Pages Income Fund

Pages Jaunes

Telegate

% share price change (Last 6 months)

‐81%

‐78%

‐67%

‐43%

‐32%

‐32%

‐14%

‐100% ‐80% ‐60% ‐40% ‐20% 0%

Seat Pagine Gialle

Yell Group

Yellow Pages (Singapore)

Yellow Pages Income Fund

Telegate

Pages Jaunes

Eniro AB

% share price change (Last 12 months)


Deal Sheet

A summary of key deals and joint ventures over the previous 3 month period.

Date Investor Investee Terms Details

March 2009 Eniro AB (Sweden)

Oreo AB (Sweden) SEK 6.6 million The Nordic directories publisher, Eniro AB acquired Oreo AB, a local public procurement service company. The website aims to facilitate the public procurement process for small businesses.

March 2009 Yellow Pages (Singapore)

Insis (IE Singapore holdings)

S$ 6.0 million Yellow Pages (Singapore) acquired the international business information website, Insis. The website was owned by the IE Singapore holdings (a public sector organisation).

February 2009 Yellow Pages New Zealand

APN News and Media Ltd

N.A. APN News and Media divested its online business directories operation(websites include FindA.co.nz, Wises maps, menus.co.nz, UBD and APNData) to Yellow Pages New Zealand.

February 2009 Helion Venture Partners

GETIT Infoservices (India)

Rs 200 million The venture fund, Helion Venture Partners invested in the Indian yellow pages and directories publisher, GETIT Infoservices. The capital will be used to expand GETIT's services nationally.


Data

German local search and yellow pages website traffic data

In addition to the incumbent publisher, DeTeMedien, the German local search market has a number of other domestic players. The

leading ones include the directory assistance operator, Telegate which operates the 118088 website and the online specialist,

GoYellow. The website Was leifert Was is a specialist trade directory website.

Growth in visitor numbers for leading local search websites

1,922

15,027

4,419

13,758

2,751

5,975

1,854

16,801

6,390

15,018

3,220

6,464

‐ 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000

Was leifert was

Das Telefonbuch

Telegate / 118 088

Das Ortliche

GoYellow

Gelbe Seiten

No. Visits (000s)

Apr‐09

May‐08

% change in visits and page views for leading local search websites

‐27.3%

5.7%

7.1%

‐0.2%

‐5.7%

‐0.8%

‐3.5%

11.8%

44.6%

9.2%

17.0%

8.2%

‐50% ‐30% ‐10% 10% 30% 50%

Was leifert was

Das Telefonbuch

Telegate / 118 088

Das Ortliche

GoYellow

Gelbe Seiten

% change (May 08 ‐ April 09)

Visits

Page Views

Source: IVW


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Yellow Pages Monitor (Issue 3)

Business

Transcript of Yellow Pages Monitor (Issue 3)