Classified advertising is a $100 billion-plus industry worldwide. With such a lucrative market, Google is in talks to launch classifieds via partners like Classified Intelligence according to its news release. Google is also seeking classified advertising sites like CareerBuilder and Adicio for direct feeds of listings which would complete its local coverage in search results. It will mean additional distribution outlets for partners and that could attract a lot of partners eager to drive more traffic to their sites. This move, however, will likely affect other big players like Craigslist, eBay, and Newspapers already providing such services.
According to Paid Content:
CIR’s John Zappe writes: “Commercial classifieds sites such as CareerBuilder, Cars.com and others have to weigh the additional audience Google could deliver against the potential loss of revenue. Analysts, including us, predict that advertisers will move to free sites if they become convinced that they will reach an audience as large – or larger – on a search engine than on a paid advertising site.”
Baker told CIR that’s why the company and some of its larger clients are looking at alternatives including pay for performance rather than pay for distribution.
What are the implications of this move on those who don’t partner with Google? How will these feeds be used? What will classified advertisers do? What effects will it have on local newspapers?
All this remains to be seen. It’ll depend largely on Google’s strategy to integrate all this information. Whatever happens, it’s sure to change the current landscape of classified advertising.