Telstra CEO David Thodey (who won’t remember me, but I worked for him once) has refused to rule out a possible sale of Sensis, Telstra’s directory business that, apart from white and yellow phone books, also owns Trading Post, Whereis and other Internet-based businesses.
Hey, I’m not surprised. Sensis is a business that needs to be sold off while it still has value (estimated to be up to $7 billion Australian, according to the Herald Sun).
I already wrote about why Trading Post would die on the sword called eBay. The simple fact is that you cannot copy a larger competitor (in this case, eBay) and expect to win.
You can only win by being different, by offering a viable alternative for the consumer and, well, being the same isn’t much of an alternative.
I should add that my impression of the Trading Post is that it made life hard, not easy, and my perception was formed as a direct consequence of actually trying to use the service. Of course, in an age of fast Internet, and slick competitors like eBay, you just can’t make life difficult and get away with it.
So a few years back, I wanted to sell my daughter’s car seat. It looked a bit like the one in this picture.
It was a great opportunity to try out the Trading Post’s online service – and try it I did.
After 4 unsuccessful attempts to upload my ad (for some reason it kept triggering an auto message that told me that my product fell into banned listings categories along with bombs, guns, ammunition… you get the general idea), I rang customer service for help.
The very nice chap gave me his email address, I sent him the screenshot. He admitted that he was every bit as confused as me as to why my child car seat should trigger the filter. I gave up and posted my ad at eBay.
It was easy to upload my ad to eBay, the car seat sold very quickly, I got the money I wanted. This was the first and last time I ever attempted to use the Trading Post service.
But there’s more to the story than this, it’s also a question of strategy and where the future looks like taking those steering the Sensis ship.
A quick look at Sensis’ other businesses should be making the sweat pop out on the forehead of Telstra execs. The Whereis mapping service, although it is being sold to third parties, is less than poor cousin against Google Maps.
Then there are the phone books.
If Sensis ever bothered to ask if people wanted a phone book delivered before they just left them at your front door, my bet is that a great many households (perhaps even the majority) would save the trees and tell them not to bother. We’re on broadband. The book is old technology and when you have always on broadband, it’s quicker to go online.
That said, my view is the white pages is a safe legacy product, but it’s revenue-free. Last I heard, you don’t pay to be listed in it so it’s funded by phone companies (or someone) to pay for its production. Not much profit when you don’t pay for a listing, right?
The Yellow Pages, though, that’s a different story, dependent on advertising revenue. The Yellow Pages is getting eaten alive by Google and, frankly, it deserves to be savaged too.
Then bottom line is it is far easier to search in Google for what you want than it is to use the Yellow Pages. Make it too hard and the people will leave. Once they’re gone, it’s very difficult to get them back.
Last time I looked at the Yellow Pages (it was months ago), you could enter a search into the yellow pages, specify your location, and get a bunch of sponsored links back, from every location except the one you wanted. It was obviously a revenue-raiser by Sensis, presumably collecting premium listing fees from any advertiser willing to pay them, but it served up a frustrating nuisance for product users.
You’d have to scroll, even click through multiple pages, to find a supplier in your location.
Now Google doesn’t require me to do this. Google makes my life easier. It gives me what I want. It doesn’t make me wade through stuff that isn’t relevant.
To be fair, I see that Sensis has now fixed this problem, but it’s too late. I’m gone and I ain’t going back, and I’d be willing to bet I’m not the only one.
The Herald Sun quotes Citi analyst Chris Vagg, who values Sensis at $6.7 billion – down from his estimate of $8 billion earlier this year – as saying ”If you could get a decent price now, it would be a good time to sell.”
I’m no analyst, but I’m a great fan of common sense – and common sense tells me that you sell while you can. Read the tea leaves, Google is in town, and it’s better for Telstra to realise current value than be left with something worth nothing.
UPDATE.
According to a pal, he recalls that a Sensis sales guy once tried to sell him both white and yellow pages listings. So maybe Ben is correct that Sensis is charging for white pages listings (I don’t recall ever paying for one for my home phone). However a brief scan of the White Pages website has failed to deliver me with a rate sheet or any pricing information. So if anyone out there has it, do feel free to share.
Half your article is about trading post which hasen’t been owned by sensis for sometime now and sits in Telstra.
Hi Ben, Telstra owns Sensis. Have a great day.
Indeed they do yet if the point of the article is selling Sensis then what is the point in talking about a product that they don’t even run?
Also, my advertisement for my business in White Pages also costs and has done for years – I believe they make over $180mil a year from the books.
You sound like a staffer, Ben, quoting product revenue numbers? Or is there a link to some public accounts you’re happy to share? When I spoke to the nice chap on the phone at Trading Post, it was definitely being run out of Sensis. Regardless of whether it sits within Sensis or Telstra today – they are essentially one and the same company. (I should know, I’ve worked at both.) If Telstra was smart (and it has some really smart people), it would move Trading Post back to Sensis (if, like you say, it’s managed by Telstra now) and offload it with the rest of those businesses.
Hi Guys.
The residential listings in the White Pages are free of charge, (like your home phone listing) – but the White Pages Buisness and Government section has all sorts of ad-ons that you have to pay for just like the Yellow Pages. That is of course optional though, everyone can choose to have a Free Listing as standard.
As for if I work for them – Yep.
And I hope I’m made redundant when the company gets sold, I’ll be in the money! lol.
Thanks, I appreciate you stopping by to clarify the billing for white pages. Couldn’t find the elusive rate card online. Good luck with getting the wheelbarrow stuffed full of cash. (I’ve got my fingers crossed for you!)
Interesting article Fiona. Sensis, or Yellow Pages Australia were once pioneers in online media. They were one of the first to put YP on the web. They have since been hamstrung by protecting print revenue. Innovation ceased when ensuring print revenue was not lost to online. I understand the sales guys have negative print targets now. Sensis has done a good job in diversifying it’s offering with the purchase of many business’s, its bigger than Yellow and White now. However just because they diversified doesn’t mean they bought well, Citysearch, Trading Post have been written down in profits.
It will be interesting to see what Sensis will offer in the future.
On a sidenote, White Pages offers all business’s and residences a single listing in light print. You pay for mobiles, fax’s, emails, web, bold writing and logo’s etc. Make no mistake Sensis does make money from this. Interesting though, I put a free listing in the White Pages months ago and I am still waiting for a call to see if I want to be in the Yellow or upsell my listing in the white. So maybe their systems are not working as well as they should.
I agree. I used to work for Sensis years ago (it was called Pacific Access back then) and they were pioneers in their field. I sense it’s the same story across both Telstra and Sensis. Both are dependent on legacy revenue and that seems to stifle any appetite for real innovation. At Telstra, you had to maneuver your ideas for innovation through multiple committees, with dozens of participants that all with the right to veto what you are trying to do, even if it doesn’t actually affect them. The process could take months. This kind of structure doesn’t work when your competitors are Google and eBay. The modern online corporation moves much quicker and more aggressively than this allows for.
OMG I love your site
Thanks, I kinda like it too.
Are you still writing on this site?
Sometimes. I’m a bit busy at the moment. (-: