Dipping into the Blogpond

An article in today’s SMH stating that “James Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL) has joined with Sir Tony O’Reilly’s APN News & Media in New Zealand to have a crack at the country’s online classifieds market. PBL’s New Zealand subsidiary ACP Media and APN plan to develop sellmefree.co.nz, a free online general classified site in New Zealand which has been operating since August 2005 and has published about a million private seller ads online.”

Obviously they think they can mount a convincing challenge against the nation’s number 2 website (behind only Google.co.nz) which has a phenomenal Alexa rank of 433. Sell Me Free has been online since August 2005, and visitor numbers have been dwindling (see daily reach below). Dispite claims of 319,432 “members”, they only have an Alexa rank of 292,345.

Obviously, there is perceived strength and value in the free classifieds market (a la craigslist), which would give hope to recent new ventures in Australia. It also signals a big concern by publishers that classifieds advertisers will continue to flock to this medium and their attempt to recapture the market segment and resulting profits.