… and it starts in Australia.
The Yellow Pages was a fantastically huge cash cow for many years. They were a cash cow because they had a virtual stranglehold on the market – if you were not in the Yellow Pages, you were not getting business. Period. And you know what? They were right. And they *knew* they were right, and they made an awful lot of money when they had that noose around our necks.
In the last 15 years, since we first predicted the death of the industry, the industry has seen massive bankruptcies and massive consolidation.
A few have done well. YPG in Canada survived, and even after massive write-downs, they are still alive. Australia did well. Most US yp properties suffered in major ways. One of our own businesses was part of the SuperPages bankruptcy – we lost many, many thousands when they went belly-up.
So what is happening now? Well, the Big Guns are gearing up to fire. Facebook. Google soon? What will the rest do?
The issue is that the YP companies have simply not kept up. They are not delivering the value that they charge for, and they are being brought to task.
Most YP companies were fat and slow – they made an awful lot of money, and they did not deserve what they made. This local revolution is bringing a bit of reality back to local search. Pay for actual results. Who knew?
Indeed. We all knew. We just never had the means to Make It So.
Now we do.
On with the Local Search Revolution. Pay for what it is actually worth. Finally!
