Internet Yellow Pages Battle Heats up between Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com

Due in part to new strategic partnerships, shifts took place among the top Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) sites in 2007, with Yellowpages.com Network becoming the IYP search market leader in Q4 2007, according to a comScore study of national IYP search activity, MarketingCharts writes.

Yellowpages.com forged multiple partnerships in 2007, including with Areaguides.net and 411.com, helping it take the top position in total IYP searches, according to the study. (View table of IYP search market share, 4Q07 vs. 4Q06.)

“In the highly competitive IYP search market, partnerships played a significant role in determining the 2007 landscape,” said Serge Matta, SVP of comScore. “Yellowpages Network was one of the key beneficiaries of this strategy, since partnerships helped it secure a leading position in the market.”

According to comScore analysis and findings:

• Yellowpages.com Network (20.2 percent share) edged out Superpages.com Network (20.0 percent share) in Q4 2007 to lead the IYP search market.
• Like Yellowpages, Superpages’ new partnerships provided a boost to its search activity, with the new Local.com relationship and the Infospace FindIt/Switchboard.com acquisition contributing to its gains.
• However, Superpages discontinued its affiliation with both 411.com and MSN Yellowpages, offsetting the positive impact of the new relationships.
• Although Superpages registered an increased number of total searches in 2007, it did not grow as fast as the market, and as a result its share fell slightly.
• Certain top IYP providers experienced growth in 2007 by capitalizing on changes in their partner and affiliate relationships:
  • Yellow Book Network, which more than doubled its share from 4 percent to nearly 9 percent, benefited in part from its new relationship with Addresses.com.
  • Microsoft Sites recorded an increase in IYP searches after it began redirecting searches to Microsoft Maps beginning in December, subsequent to the dissolution of its partnership with Superpages.

R.H. Donnelley, the only truly regional local search provider among the top 8 U.S. IYP sites, had a relatively modest national IYP search market share of 3.3 percent; however, within its 14-state region, it actually led the market in Q4 2007 with a 22 percent market share, comScore said.

Yellow Book Network and R.H. Donnelley traffic more than doubled from December 2006 to December 2007, driven by a combination of new relationships and organic visitor growth, comScore said (see table of visitor growth).

Contributing to growth at Yellow Book Network were partnerships with Infospace and Addresses.com; R.H. Donnelley’s growth can be largely attributed to its acquisition of Business.com, according to the report.