RefreshClassifieds

New York City is considering new legislation that would make it illegal to sublet a residence for less than 30 days.  The new law seems to be in response to the popularity of  sites like Craigslist, AirBnB, Homeaway and others that allow residences to arrange short terms sublets.

The city is citing fire and safety concerns but there is also a question around taxes.  The Hotel industry in New York City is heavily taxed and short term sublets allow visitors to skip this tax.  Its not clear the popularity of these sites or the size of the short term sublet market.

New York City is set to vote on the issue this week and it will be interesting to see the impact this change has on the classified market.

Daily American, out of Somerset Country, announced this week that they will be doing to a wider classified column display with a slightly larger font size.   The move is intended to make the classified section more readable and easier to use.   Demographics are showing an older demographic are the primary print users.   These changes should make it easier for them to use the print classifieds.  Its expected that this approach would be slightly more expensive to print and produce though.  It would be interesting to see the impact of the new approach on the Daily American classified sales.

More details on the change can be found here.

Marketing Charts has released the Top 10 US Auto Classified sites based on Hitwise traffic analysis. I believe they are combining Kijiji traffic with Ebay Motors and ignoring general classified sites like Craigslist. As a result I’m sure its an accurate analysis. The chart can be seen here:

And more details here.

Google UK this week launched property listings on Google Map searches.  On any map search users can now click on the “More” function and choose property listings near their search address.  The lists can also be refined to include only properties for sale or rent.

It would appear that Google is going directly to Real Agents for the data including Zoopla, SmartNewHomes, Spicer Haart and Countrywide.  This represent a significant by pass in that Google is not using the data from the local Real Estate board or from any classified media outlets.

At this point its not clear how complete the data set is or how aggressively Google plans to promote or expand the functionality to other regions.

Classifieds have traditionally been a very local transaction. In most cases buy and seller agree on a price and exchange the merchandise locally. Both sides seem to perfer this because the risk of fraud is greatly reduce with an enhanced benefit that auxillary costs like shipping and taxes can be avoid.

Its with some interest that we’re watching the Glyde.com beta and how it attempts to break this model. Glyde has choose to focus exclusively on the resale of the Books, CD, DVDs and Video games. All of these items can be fairly easily compared, if you have a Home Alone DVD its generally the same as millions of other copies of the movie. All of these items are also fairly easy to ship.

The Glyde system works by allowing a buyer to purchase an item ( unseen ) and receive it from an unknown seller. Once a purchase has been made Glyde will send a self-address envelope to the seller to collect the goods and take them to the buyer. The system also includes a set to transaction rules outlined here. Maybe the most interesting one is the situation where an item is lost in transit and both parties ( buy and seller ) pay for the item, and Glyde only waives its transaction fee.

Glyde.com presents an interesting model for Classifieds and it will be interesting to see if it can get traction.

Facebook has launched an updated Marketplace powered by the Oodle classfied service.  The relationship was initially announced a few months ago and has just launched today.  Leading up to the launch Facebook deprecated their Marketplace API, there is currently no way for Facebook Applications or Facebook Connect sites to publish to Facebook Marketplace.

The Facebook Marketplace had been neglected by Facebook with their focus on developing other areas of the platform.  It seemed like most of the Marketplace listings ( atleast in the Toronto area ) did come through the Marketplace API so it will be interesting to see how the new launch is received.

Oodle has been doing very as the online classified partner of choice for many online communities, including Myspace and AOL.  I was lucky enough to meet Craig Donato a few years ago at an ICMA conference but I’m impressed with the way he’s grown the business.  I’m sure there are many Newspaper executives are also envious of the Oodle growth.

Trader Corporation, owner of the Autotrader brand in Canada, has announced an exclusive partnership with the Canadian International Autoshow.  The Canadian International Autoshow is held annually in Toronto and the largest Canadian Automotive show.

Typically attendees of the Autoshow are consumer that are looking for a new automobile.  Attendence for the week long event typically exceeds 300,000 and the show occupies 800,000 squarefeet in the convention center and the skydome.

This looks like a good partnership for both parties as Autotrader seeks to reach customer looking for an automobile and encourage them to consider a used vehicle as part of their search.  The Autoshow typically benefits from increased exposure on the Autotrader publications and Autotrader.ca.

The relationship seems to be focused exclusively on the Toronto show.  There is no mention of the regional shows in other Canadian markets.

Techcrunch is reporting that OLX.com raised $13M from General Catalyst, Bessemer Venture Partners, Founders Fund, and DN Capital.  OLX.com aims to compete with Craigslist and other free classified sites but seems.
The most interesting aspect of the OLX business plan is perhaps their partnership to white label their site with Friendster.com, the social networking site.    Unlike the early Oodle partnership with Facebook, the Friendster relationship seems to provide OLX as the exclusive classified site.

OLX.com is also very popular outside of the US and a great web experience for users.    The sites traffic has been relatively flat over the last year and it would appear that a growth strategy for North America is required.

Overall its great to see a Classified sites still getting funding with Craigslist and Kijiji competing so actively.

Homenet Inc and Gumiyo have announced a partnership to leverage the Gumiyo’s mobile platform with the Homenet dealer inventory management tools.  The Homenet Inventory Online service is used by over 12,000 dealers primarily in the US and processes 2.5 million vehicles daily.

A key requirement in the US automotive industry are window stickers which are required in most states and need to be very accurate.  As a result most dealers outsource the inventory management process to third-parties, like Homenet.

Gumiyo provides the ability to view classified information on mobile devices.  Gumiyo users can view small brochures with the classified listings.  Gumiyo can support a variety of classified services but the Homenet service would be focused on the Automotive business.

This looks like a great relationship for both companies, the dealers they service and ultimately classified users.  With increasing pressure from free classified provides its good to see innovative approaches and partnerships.

Autotrader.ca has launched a New Car search and Autotrader New Car publication. Autotrader.ca is the number one automotive site in Canada with 2 million unique monthly visitors and it makes sense that they would expand into the New Car category. The Autotrader New Car magazine will be distributed in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Montreal with 230,000 copies in circulation.

Autotrader Canada has traditionally been a used car source and the brand took over the automotive classified advertising space in many Canadian markets. Newspapers and other media outlets have been forced focus on New Car advertising revenue, and done fairly well off the automotive manufactures.

The Autotrader.ca New Car offering appears to be positioned at giving automotive manufactures more choice with regards to advising. Currently the New Car search is separated from Used Cars but its not clear that consumers make a hard distinction between New and Used when they start searching. In most cases the price point of new cars puts them out of reach but with some incentive programs the cost for a new car is very close. In the future it new and used advertising may share more of the media outlets.

Disclosure: Colin Smillie worked with Trader Corporation in 2007, which owns Autotrader.ca.