Ibibo is known to launch multiple initiatives within its social networking platform to continue engagement of users. Earlier this year they had launched a ning like feature. We have covered Ibibo’s talent contest initiatives and also its attempt at an ad network before. Now it seems ibibo has launched (not sure how recent but found no info or coverage on this feature) another initiative and this time with the intention of monetizing its online assets.
Ibibo has launched a web classified product by the name of City Ads which can be found on cityads.ibibo.com. There are two kinds of ad packages available i.e. free and premium listings. With this ibibo enters the market in which competitors like quikr, click.in and others are trying to establish themselves. As per vizisense data quikr currently leads the web classifieds pack.
| Category: Classifieds (B2C)October 2009Source: ViziSense | Category: Classifieds (B2C)July 2009Source: ViziSense | ||
| Property | Unique Users (M) | Property | Unique Users (M) |
| Quikr.com | 4.25 | Clickindia.com | 2.80 |
| Clickindia.com | 2.84 | Sulekha.com | 2.63 |
| Sulekha.com | 2.83 | Justdial.com | 1.71 |
| Justdial.com | 1.94 | Olx.in | 1.18 |
| Olx.in | 1.68 | Quikr.com | 1.16 |
The premium ads at Ibibo start from Rs.500 onwards. This model seems like ibibo’s way of tapping into the long tail of advertisers for their website. All in all its still a pretty new feature and it will take time to build traction within ibibo as well. In the future they could also look at the opportunity of social classifieds or an ebay like exchange of sorts for existing social members of ibibo.
Great Initiative by Ibibo