05.11.07
Yellow Pages Dooms Day
“Yellow Page(s) usage among people below 50 will drop to near ZERO in the next five years,” Bill Gates told a crowd of more than 1,000 people from the advertising, publishing and tech industries at recently held Microsoft’s Strategic Account Summit.
Will Bill Gates get it right? Well, ask yourself a question, when was the last time you flipped through your clunky Yellow Pages looking for products or services? Or you just simply “Google” for the stuff you are looking for ?? Heck, I even Google using my mobile looking for the book title i couldn’t seem to recall during my recent visit to popular *sorry gates, Google equals search now. NOT live or MSN.
Now you shouldn’t wondered why Malaysia Yellow Pages (Own and operated by the monopolistic TM) is looking for a buyer and asking for a merely RM25 Million “only”. Better sell it fast before it actually worth nothing more than a junk bond in few years time – if Bill Gates were proven right.
Well again, Bill Gates might be wrong, he actually quoted this back in 1981: “640K of memory should be enough for anybody.” But i won’t bet against it this time. Because I myself believe, if they (traditional yellow pages or directory companies) don’t transform fast enough, they will end-up in HELL.
Internet is already taking over. Search is the king. Think you can hide? Google already have a regional presence in Singapore and they will come and whack your a** soon.
Also, Blog no doubt will be one of major advertising channel as advertisers like its loyalty readers and “high trust”. That’s why services like reviewme, text-link-ad, adbrite etc are blossoming. As for Malaysia context wise, let’s watch and see whether Nuffnang or Advertlets will swamp the market. 
