Quoka.de belongs to Austrian media group Vorarlberger Medienhaus (soon to be renamed Rust Media).

Quoka CEO Patrick Günter still shies away from calling Quoka “Germany’s No. 1 small ads platform”, because Quoka’s biggest competitor, Kleinanzeigen.ebay, may have more traffic than Quoka.

“No official traffic statistics are available for Kleinanzeigen.ebay, but we estimate their traffic to be slightly higher than ours. On ads listed we are ahead of them,” he said.

Assuming Kleinanzeigen.ebay has between 4 and 5 million listed ads, the pecking order in Germany looks like this (all statistics supplied by portals, not verified by 3rd parties):

* Quoka.de (5.08 million)
* Kleinanzeigen.ebay.de (4 – 5 million)
* Markt.de (2.6 million)
* Dhd24.com (1 million)
* Smazaar.de (1 million) (read about Smazaar.de here)
* Kalaydo.de (530,000 )

The milestone for ads listed was reached about two months after Quoka set a new record for monthly unique visits and page views as measured by Germany’s IVW. In March the IVW officially measured 15 million unique visits and more than 128 million page views for Quoka – the highest numbers in the platform’s 29-year existence.

“The new highs prove that small ads remain a major topic in Germany,“ said Nina Christin Müller, head of online marketing at Quoka. “Our most popular categories are for animals, autos and home/furniture. And in summer the categories holiday/travel and wellness/health grow very popular,” she added.

Quoka’s app (for iPhone and iPad only) enables on-the-go ad listing with video or photo. “This app gets ever more popular and our next update will enable users to amend ads listed on-the-go on their PCs at home,” said Müller.

Die Heisse Draht operates the very successful free, small-ads platform Dhd24.com, which is often referred to as Germany’s third biggest small ads platform after Quoka.de and Kleinanzeigen.ebay.de. A spokesman told AIM Group Dhd24’s roughly 1 million listed ads are duplicated on Smazaar. So, the two platforms mirror one another, but “wear different clothes”.

Dhd.24.com is a small ads platform in the “old, proven format” (look here), with lists on the home page, which accentuate the wide variety of goods for sale on the platform, but also leave the impression of being a rather boring environment.

Enter the “Spassfaktor” (fun factor). Smazaar is an app backed up by a stationary website, which turns selling “stuff” online into a fun-activity, the spokesman said. The look-and-feel of the site is young and invites participation. The big drawcard is the app, which enables the user to post the pics he has taken with his smartphone to Smazaar by simply shaking the phone. Add some text and ready!

“The keywords are “fun”, “easy” and “quick results”, meaning it was important to us that the user in the target group should see the result of his effort quickly,” the spokesman said. That explains the unusual pay-off line: Place six ads in less than a minute. Naturally, there are links to Facebook and YouTube. In fact, the social vibe is unmistakable.

One of many illustrations (note the target market!)

The look-and-feel alone makes Smazaar.de worth a browse. Probably the most interesting page is this one, where the listing process is explained. You must agree, the message is clear – even to a non-reader of German!

In short, Die Heisse Draht may well grow the interest of young people in selling online with this attempt. And the strategic approach, namely to target platforms to sub-groups, is very interesting. In fact, it has copy-potential. As an effort to drag online selling into the social media era, Smazaar has success-potential.

• The platform launched with an Android app only, which is interesting in itself. The iPhone app will be available in June.

Between them the two B2B sites feature over 90,000 ads and a joint visitor total approaching 3 million a year.

Enter Facebook.

Just a few days before its initial public offering, Facebook is testing a freemium model for classifieds and other “highlighted posts.”

(We learned about it from Mashable.com, which in turn learned about it from the New Zealand blog “Stuff.” We haven’t yet had a chance to get confirmation from Facebook or follow up. We’ll do that next week, but Facebook is in a “quiet period” under securities laws and we don’t know whether they’ll talk at all.)

Facebook told Mashable “highlighted posts” is in a limited test, with prices ranging from nothing to “a couple of bucks. Two examples of potential “highlight” users the company gave were someone selling a car, or a band promoting an appearance. Mashable said highlighted posts could make Facebook a competitor to Craigslist. (Well, isn’t just about everybody?)

The Mashable piece includes a screenshot of one example of a purchase screen.

Monetize, monetize, monetize. We hate the word, but it’s something Facebook had better be doing. Because once it goes public, the pressure for increased revenue will be relentless.

Read the B corp announcement here.

Consumers anonymously “netotiate” their own deals without The hassles or uncertainty of auction or daily deal platforms

Netotiate.com allows consumers to conduct price comparison and on-line negotiation (netotiation) in several product categories, including consumer electronics, appliances, watches, musical instruments, and select apparel products. More categories will be added as consumers and merchants are drawn to the benefits of price negotiation. In the coming weeks, netotiate functionality will also be available directly within merchants’ sites.

Unlike auction or “daily deal” type sites, Netotiate does not involve bidding against others, and consumers are not at the mercy of other consumers who must also purchase the deal in order to receive the desired product. Users simply search for the desired product on Netotiate.com and then select a merchant to netotiate with. They can submit a reduced offer price for the product, while guided by the Netotiate system for its probability of success. Consumers are only allowed to submit one binding offer per product for each merchant. The offer is then transferred anonymously to the merchant selected by the consumer, who can accept, decline, or counter the offer with up to three different counters. In addition to reduced pricing, the merchant also has the flexibility to offer additional incentives such as a coupon on future purchases, free or upgraded shipping, additional accessories, or a further discount for the purchase of multiple items.

Netotiate was founded by Amir Farhi (Chief Executive Officer) and Keren Zimmerman (Chief Revenue Officer), two Israeli entrepreneurs who came together when they saw a market need to change the consumer e-commerce landscape.  They understood that price-conscious consumers are becoming more and more tech savvy and are treating shopping like a game they want to win, and that mid-sized retailers were losing business because they simply could not compete with the largest online retailers.

“With Netotiate, we are transforming e-commerce from business-to-consumer (B2C) to consumer-to-business (C2B), a fundamental shift that reflects the consumer’s control of the process,” said Mr. Farhi.  “With the ability to netotiate pricing, we give consumers the power to enjoy real savings beyond the advertised price. In addition to savings, our consumers enjoy the negotiation process and the satisfaction that comes from getting your own deal, and yet without the discomfort associated with haggling, and all with just a minimal time commitment compared to other deal purchasing means.”  In fact, in an external usability test of the service conducted prior to the launch, 73% of consumers surveyed responded “definitely” when asked if they “would be inclined to use this website or suggest it to someone”.

Netotiate’s goal is to create a fair playing field for the consumers and merchants who work together for mutual benefit. “Netotiate is helping both the individual consumer and the merchant to get a good deal”, said Mr. Farhi, “We consider ourselves the perfect tool for “the 99%” of people who need to stretch their budgets and get the most out of every dollar. Unlike daily deal sites, our goal is to create an environment that provides a sustainable value to both sides of the equation.”

Merchants, especially mid-sized, are poised to gain substantial benefits from usage of Netotiate’s platform. They can now attract paying customers that would likely make purchases at only the bigger or most familiar retailers. Acquisition costs can be greatly lowered, as the merchant can reduce advertising and other initiatives designed to attract business, and instead rely on Netotiate to build repeat brand loyalty. By allowing merchants to counteroffer with future discounts or other incentives, Netotiate gives merchants another marketing channel and a way to encourage brand loyalty.

“Netotiating merchants are able to generate variable margins through an effective and legit price discrimination, which can directly boost their revenues and profits” continued Mr. Farhi. “They are only charged a fee on completed deals via Netotiate, giving them a cost-effective customer acquisition vehicle. Eventually, every product category will be on Netotiate, giving merchants a whole new way to convert sales and engage with consumers.”

About Netotiate:
Patent-pending Netotiate is a unique consumer-to-merchant online negotiation platform that allows consumers to “netotiate” with merchants in order to secure better deals on products. Launched as a beta platform in early 2012, the solution provides multiple benefits to both consumers and merchants. Backed by venture capital, the company is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts, with R&D offices in Tel-Aviv, Israel. For more information, visit www.netotiate.com.

SOURCE Netotiate

PromotionalCode.ca last week launched its own group deals aggregation service. There’s nothing mind blowing about PromotionalCode.ca’s new offering, other than it being a part of a larger site that aggregates Internet and in-store discount codes (i.e., $10 off at The Gap), printable coupons and freebies. That makes for a nice synergy, in our opinion, though it’s not at all clear if that can cut through the clutter of similar sites – from DealBot and Yipit, to our favorite: the amusingly-named BargainMoose (although Miser McGee comes in a close second).

GroupBuyingCanada has a list of the 40 top sites it’s watching, including the aforementioned Bullwinkle site.

Shiny Ads does not charge its clients any registration or monthly fee. Advertisers make payments through Shiny Ads and then Shiny Ads pays the publisher, rather than the other way around.

Although Shiny Ads is a Canadian company, Kijiji is its only client in Canada. Other publishers using the Shiny Ads platform include CBS Interactive, AdWeek.com and Wikia.com, all in the U.S. The company does hope to roll out its service abroad. “Engaging with other Kijiji sites globally is certainly an initiative that we are embracing and looking forward to embarking on,” Shiny Ads sales manager Michelle Tomicic told us.

Earlier this year, Shiny Ads closed a financing round of just under $400,000 from the Canadian Intertainment Media and existing angel investors. The company also received an investment of $197,000 from the Ontario government. Both investments have helped Shiny Ads expand its staff. In March, the company hired Graham Huddlestone as its director of client services. He previously held positions at AOL Canada and Advertising.com.

Alpha Media Holdings, publisher of daily and weekly newspapers and a relatively young free small classified ads portal at Classifieds.co.zw, turned news kiosk owners throughout the country into enthusiastic classified ad sellers with a pre-paid classified ad card.

Kiosk owners earn a commission on pre-paid classified ad cards sold by them. Each pre-paid card has a unique code. The buyer scratches to uncover the code, then e-mails (or SMSs) his classified ad (not more than 12 words) with the code to the address or number on the back of the card.

The printed monthly is distributed nationwide

His ad appears in the monthly print issue of Classifieds (pictured), which is sold by kiosk owners countrywide, and also on the portal Classifieds.co.zw. Incomes are low in this African country with 12 million citizens, but they pay Zim$1 for a copy of the printed Classifieds paper (Zim$364 = $1 U.S.). (Probably because they are used to paying for newspapers.)

The benefits to Harare-based Alpha Media Holdings:

+ the commission turns kiosk owners into enthusiastic classified ad promoters and sellers;

+ also newspaper readers in remote areas (where there are no newspaper offices) can now list classified ads in print per mobile phone;

+ rural consumers do not have to travel long distances to the nearest newspaper office to list their ads any more;

+ classifieds revenue is optimized for print, while the online platform benefits indirectly.

“Advertisements in our newspapers inform readers about the pre-paid card option. We hope to eventually push 75 percent of our classified ad sales through this sales channel,” said Silent Kamambo (picture), group marketing and advertising manager of Alpha Media. “We are the first in Zimbabwe with this idea, which should give us a competitive edge,” he added.

Kamambo listing ad with phone and pre-paid card

Alpha Media Holdings publishes the daily paper Newsday (also at Newsday.co.zw), business weekly paper The Independent (also at Independent.co.zw) and Sunday paper The Standard (also at Thestandard.co.zw).

On the portal Classifieds.co.zw individuals can list ads free. Businesses with paid storefronts (such as this one and this one) may publish 5 ads free in the monthly printed edition of Classifieds. A storefront costs Zim$50 per month.

The portal has about 19,000 ads listed, including about 3,700 auto ads and 5,000 real estate ads.

The Markt.Gruppe is a joint-venture of the media groups Georg von Holtzbrinck, Dr. Ippen and WAZ.

According to Markt.de, its so-called “Handwerker-Portal” (artisan services portal) already has about 45,000 services-offered ads listed. The revamped sub-portal, which divides artisan services into 12 sub-categories, has a strong local focus. Users may limit their searches to service-providers in their own towns. If they fail to limit their searches geographically, service-providers close to them are high-lighted in the search results. The user then contacts service providers per e-mail from the portal at no cost.

Service-providers may also ad videos and photos to their free listings. This is probably the biggest advantage over other players in the market, such as Quoka.de, EBay-Kleinanzeigen.de, My-Hammer.de and Handwerker-Anzeiger.de.

The first two small ad platforms are free, but service-providers cannot link videos; on Handwerker-Anzeiger.de a video costs €555 (production included) and My-hammer.de is free for consumers, but service-providers must pay to advertise (between €24.90 and €59.90 per month, depending on the size of their typical contracts).

So, Markt.de’s “Handwerker-Portal” seems to be a good place for service-providers to be. There’s just one “if”, namely if ads are left on for more than 6 weeks.

In other sections of Markt.de ads are removed after 6 weeks. It is not clear whether services-offered ads in the “Handwerker-Portal” carry the same time-limit. It would be quite annoying for a carpenter to go back to re-list his service every 6 weeks! So, we inquired at Markt.de about that. There’s been no response to date. We’ll report once we’ve received the information.

Cédric Gourbault, Ageo’s founder declares that, “the goal is to bring a new brand – Quel – to the public at large”.

We’ll see how this boosts Blocket’s sales. The year 2011 was a record year for the site: The Swedes used the site to sell  stuff worth SEK 254 billion ($37.7 billion U.S.), an amount that equals 7.3 percent of the country’s gross national product (GNP).

See clips from the show here.

PromotionalCode.ca last week launched its own group deals aggregation service. There’s nothing mind blowing about PromotionalCode.ca’s new offering, other than it being a part of a larger site that aggregates Internet and in-store discount codes (i.e., $10 off at The Gap), printable coupons and freebies. That makes for a nice synergy, in our opinion, though it’s not at all clear if that can cut through the clutter of similar Canada-specific sites – from DealBot and Yipit, to our favorite: the amusingly-named BargainMoose (although Miser McGee comes in a close second).

GroupBuyingCanada has a list of the 40 top sites it’s watching, including the aforementioned Bullwinkle site.