Online advertising has three primary
categories, namely search advertising, display advertising and classified.
Classified portals cater to various categories like job listings, real estate
listings, automotive listings, yellow pages and some even cater to multiple
categories.
As internet user base grows in India more
businesses will be driven online and spending on online classified will
increase. According to an Edelweiss report the global online classifieds
segment stands at USD 10.5 billion, which translates to 17% of global internet ad
revenues. The size of India’s online classified industry is about INR 11
billion and is expected to grow to INR 31 billion by 2016.
The report also says that the growth
potential in segments such as real estate, cars and general classified is ripe
to be captured. However, the supply side is not adequate to meet such large
demand despite the readiness of users. Further, the online classified industry
in India has grown through vertical sites in different segments unlike the US
where the biggest classifieds site is Craiglist, a horizontal portal. Some of
the Indian classified portals working in with a horizontal model are OLX.in,
Quickr.com and Clickindia.com.
Most classified sites generate revenue
through content creation or content access. So if a business advertiser makes
itself available on Justdial.com then it is an example of content creation and
in case of content access an apt example would be Naukri.com, where candidates
access a database. Advertising is another revenue channel. “Advertising will remain
our main revenue model. We also have Featured Listings that users can buy to
get a value added placement on top of the listings or on the home page of the
site,” informed Amarjit Batra, Country Head, OLX.in.
Online classified is expected to hit newspaper
revenue as well. In USA internet is second only to television as an advertising
medium according to a report by Emarketer. China also had similar experiences,
where internet revenues are expected to cross newspaper revenue in 2012 as per
iResearch report. In India the share of print advertising revenue in the total
ad revenue dropped from 44% to 42% in 2010 according to a Pitch-Maddison
report. But the internet market is still comparatively small in India and local
language content is very limited, and that is where newspapers still hold the
upper hand.
The Edelweiss report also projects that SMBs
will emerge as top spenders in online advertising in India. There are 35
million SMBs, of which just 0.2 million have an online presence. Online
advertising will help them reach their target audience at a fraction of the
cost of traditional advertisement and they will also be able to track return on
investment. The report sums it up by saying, “Thus large potential market is
there with factors like huge benefits of Internet advertisement, low cost of
advertising on Internet, increasing awareness about this sector, increasing
global competition as well as opportunity of targeting global market they will
emerge as big spenders in near future. This is largely the potential for
horizontal classified models.”
Presently and in the near future, the online
classifieds space is clearly going to shift to the horizontal classifieds model
as these sites are free to search, free to post ads, free to interact and free
to transact; thus providing immense value to users. Moreover these sites are
local which is where most of the transactions are sought and completed by an
average individual,” said Amarjit. Indians are spending a significant amount of
time on these classifieds portals.
Source : www.yourstory.com
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