Commentary
Yellow Book Doubles Visitors on INetwork
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 7, 2008
Yellow Book Doubles Visitors on INetwork
A recently released comScore study into national Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) search activity, showed that Yellow Book Network, which more than doubled its share from 4 percent to nearly 9 percent, benefitted in part from its new relationship with Addresses.com. Microsoft Sites experienced an increase in IYP searches after it began redirecting searches to Microsoft Maps beginning in December, subsequent to the dissolution of its partnership with Superpages.
Serge Matta, senior vice president of comScore, said "... partnerships played a significant role in determining the 2007 landscape... (they) helped Yellowpages Network secure a leading position in the market."
Yellowpages.com Network edged out Superpages.com Network in Q4 2007 to lead the IYP search market. Like Yellowpages, Superpages' new partnerships provided a boost to its search activity, with the new Local.com relationship and the Infospace FindIt/Switchboard.com acquisition contributing to its gains. Although Superpages saw an increased number of total searches in 2007, it did not grow as fast as the market, and as a result its share fell slightly.
IYP Search Market Share(Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations) | |||
| Share of IYP Searches |
| |
IYP Networks | Q4 2006 | Q4 2007 | Point Change |
Yellowpages.com Network | 14.7% | 20.2% | 5.6 |
Superpages.com Network | 20.9% | 20.0% | -0.9 |
Yahoo! Sites | 22.9% | 17.9% | -5.0 |
Google Sites | 13.0% | 15.1% | 2.1 |
Yellow Book Network | 4.0% | 8.6% | 4.6 |
Time Warner Network6.4% | 6.1% | -0.3 |
|
Microsoft Sites | 3.8% | 4.8% | 1.0 |
R.H.Donnelley (14-state region provider) | 3.9% | 3.3% | -0.5 |
Source: comScore, March 2008 |
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R.H. Donnelley, regional local search provider among the top 8 U.S. IYP sites, actually led the their 14-state region market in Q4 2007 with a 22-percent market share.
Several providers of local business search listings experienced substantial growth in the number of unique visitors from December 2006 to December 2007. Contributing to growth at Yellow Book Network were partnerships with Infospace and Addresses.com, while R.H. Donnelley's growth can be largely attributed to its acquisition of Business.com.
Visitor Growth to Leading Local Business Search Listing Providers(Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations Unique Visitors (000)) | |||
| Dec-06 | Dec-07 | Percent Change |
Yellow Book Network | 4,386 | 10,388 | 137% |
R.H. Donnelley | 3,036 | 6,768 | 123% |
Yellowpages.com Network | 16,168 | 24,453 | 51% |
Superpages.com Network | 15,861 | 23,448 | 48% |
Source: comScore Media Metrix, March 2008 | |||
For more information, please visit comScore here.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.