The Social Local Website Race - Engaging Groups
Posted on October 18, 2007
Filed Under Social Local |
Ok so I’ve not written a lot about whats going on in Europe lately. And surprise surprise there is a lot to catch up on.
reach in the last 6 month - alexa
There are a couple of fairly new players in the social local sector. Besides the “old” trusted places that was launched in mid 2006, there is welovelocal since mid 2007, and later in the year qype launched the UK site as their second market after Germany and are launching France later this year. Last but not least tipped.co.uk who launched late last month.
I do know qype quite well as I’ve been following them since they launched and have even written quite some reviews, for the others its more that I’ve heard about them and did have a look at some point but never dug any further into the pages.
Now we all know alexa is not the most reliable source of usage data - as its just too easily gamed - but it usually is a good indicator to get a feel for the volumes.
Looking at the traffic volumes of the players mentioned above reported by alexa they all seem to be head to head with no clear winner yet.
Whats interesting so is what you can see on the next chart - the reported numbers of page views for the same websites.
page views last 6 month - alexa
The number of page views usually is a good indicator of the level of engagement. And here you find a leader of the pack that is welovelocal and a strongly catching up second with qype.
Now whats different for welovelocal and qype to tipped and trusted places? Not a lot if you just take a quick look - and thats fair enough as they all cater very similar audiences and needs. But the most obvious difference seems to be the existence of groups in qype and welovelocal.
And this would make sense - users that are using a site not just because of its features and good content but because of the social aspect of being member of a group - are more likely to return and spend more time on the site.
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Frank Fuchs
London UK -
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Thanks for the kind words. I think local search in the UK is going to be pretty interesting over the next 6-12 months.
Hey Daniel,
I’d agree that within the next year or tow not only the market will continue to grow at such high rates as it does today, but although there will be a clearer picture regarding the users preferences where to go for this kind of services. IMHO Mobile alongside of other developments will be one key for success or failure.
[...] Otherwise things are moving ahead as well: We are now gaining traction in the UK, which has not escaped the attention of others. Our search has been massively improved. You might even want to try our mobile site. It is working here as well (m.qype.co.uk) [...]