Clues as to what the plain-as-can-be classified portal might have in mind are in the job description:

Senior UI / Usability / Front End Engineers at craigslist.org (financial district)

Date: 2012-05-16, 7:39AM PDT

Senior UI / Usability / Front End Engineers 

“it feels like newspaper classifieds.”

Monster Worldwide, one of the last major job sites to come to the social recruitment table,  has finally announced the ability for job candidates to see which of their socially-networked friends have connections to the hiring firm, right from the Monster.com site. Candidates won’t be searching Facebook or LinkedIn -  they’ll be searching BeKnown, the Monster-Worldwide-owned Facebook app. If a candidate tries the search and is not set up on BeKnown, she or he will be prompted to create that free BeKnown profile and account.

There’s nothing really innovative here. However, the fact that it’s Monster means that 100 million monthly visitors –  most of whom have not set up a BeKnown profile –  will be encouraged to do so.  That’s good for BeKnown, which in the social recruitment battle is way behind both fellow-Facebook-app BranchOut, and LinkedIn. For more on what each of these big three social recruitment sites offer, what Monster told us about the socialization and why it waited so long,  and where each firm is headed, see our upcoming CIR.

Here’s the Monster Worldwide announcement:

Monster Brings Networking into Core Site with the Integration of BeKnown(TM), its Professional Networking App on Facebook

Additionally, while so much focus is now on pushing online vehicle-shoppers to the specific makes and models they might crave, and then providing an assortment of local dealers who have the car in stock, Cars.com has rolled out new features to help showcase specific dealers. It’s the first of many changes, according to the listing giant’s recent announcement.

The new BaseDrive package for dealers – an automatic upgrade in most markets – includes:

•  Reporting – Total contacts, broken down as count of ad prints, map views, clicks to dealership website, email leads, phone calls to the number supplied by Cars.com, and chat sessions. A contact is recorded anytime a user performs one of these activities. For example, a contact recorded when a shopper clicks to a dealer’s website. If that same shopper calls the dealer, an additional contact is recorded.
• Video showcasing
• Partnership network 
• Dealer Reviews by consumers – with the assistance of the Cars.com Reputation Management Tool Kit to make the most of the feature.
• Chat
• Mobile – both mobile-optimized site and apps, with Send-to-Phone feature so consumers can save their choice of vehicle listing.

Here’s the announcement, with more details.

Market research firm ForeSee was commissioned to study both merchant and customer satisfaction with Groupon. The Daily Deals behemoth scored an 83 with customers and 79 with merchants, way ahead of most online retailers.

The jump from 25 percent to 30 percent mobile access from December 2011 to March 2012 may have been the catalyst for the new “up-to-the-minute” Groupon Now success, with 1.5 million Now deals sold.

With past store-owner complaints that Groupon was being far too selective in its choice of who could offer Deals, it’s nice to see that merchants are declaring their happiness with a Deals site.  We suspect that merchant approval is partly due to the Groupon Merchant Center, where merchants can track response, administer and see the history of their deals, and manage their Groupon Rewards activity. Here’s the earnings report.

Haaretz made its announcement with the upbeat proclamation of “the start of a new era,” adding that it “will enable us to provide you with accurate and comprehensive news coverage, analyses and commentary on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.”

The revamped site, which went live on Monday morning, is slightly more content heavy than its predecessor, but not enough to warrant such a rosy declaration, in our opinion.

Haaretz’s new digital subscriptions pricing plan mirrors that of The New York Times – no charge for access to a limited number of articles per month (only 10 vs. 20 at The Times) with the front page always free and the rest nestled behind a pay wall. Print subscribers will get access to the whole kit and kaboodle. A subscription will cover all digital platforms: web and mobile (both smart phones and tablets).

Also, as with The Times, savvy users can bypass the access limitations by typing the name of an article of interest into Google.

Haaretz’s aping The New York Times makes sense: its daily English language edition is bundled with The International Herald Tribune, The Times’ version for Europe and the “rest of the world.”

While we are all for newspapers trying out ways to better monetize their offerings in tough times, sequestering content for paying subscribers works only if you’re the undisputed leader in your space: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist have all succeeded. Other attempts to cut free access have too often failed.

So, is Haaretz the clear king of the Israeli news space? Their Hebrew edition certainly has elements of The New York Times, particularly in terms of its writing, columnists, features and investigative reporting. It also has the fastest news coverage, making it the go-to site after a terrorist attack or midnight coalition re-alignment, But the online competition – in English, in particular – is fierce in Israel. The Jerusalem Post’s website has far more readers than Haaretz; indeed, it’s the web’s number one English language site on Israel and Jewish subjects in terms of traffic.

More recently, a new paper – The Times of Israel – has come on the scene. Launched earlier this year by the former editor of The Jerusalem Post and backed by an investor with pockets deep enough to cover the first two years of operation, the writing is uniformly excellent, superior even than to Haaretz (which consists of direct translations from Hebrew). The Times of Israel also borrows a page from The Huffington Post, making liberal use of (unpaid) bloggers.

Haaretz has one thing going for it that the other English-language online Israeli news sites don’t, though: a top-notch mobile app. The Times of Israel’s David Horowitz says that a smart phone app is on the newspaper’s development horizon but, in the meantime, a browser version optimized for mobile will be out soon.

Will Haaretz succeed where others have faltered? The company has high hopes, ending its announcement on a decidedly cheery note:

As we approach our first centennial, we hope you will join us as we embark on a new chapter in our history, one in which will pledge our allegiance to maintaining the standards of journalistic excellence and integrity that are the bedrock of Haaretz as we explore the new frontiers of the modern digital age.

The group released its financial results for the first quarter recently. In the quarter group revenue grew to €789 million ($1 billion U.S.) from €736 million in the 1Q last year (+7 percent) and the digital division’s share in group revenue rose to a whopping 33 percent, the company said. (Read full statement here).

The digital division’s share in total revenue is climbing so fast, that the declared goal of growing it to 50 percent of total revenue suddenly seems very realistic. On the way to that goal, another important psychological barrier will be removed first – maybe already in the second quarter. That’s when the digital division may overtake the local newspaper division to become Axel Springer’s biggest revenue-generating division.

The digital division came very close to that goal in the first quarter, when digital’s revenue rose strongly to €263 million from €202 million, while the division local newspapers contributed a stagnating €276 million. So, at the end of the 1Q the gap was just €13 million.

The digital division also grew its EBITDA 82 percent to €47 million, while its EBITDA margin climbed 5 percentage points to 17.8 percent .

Dr. Mathias Döpfner, chief executive officer of Axel Springer, said: “In line with our defined digitization strategy, we strengthened our digital division with the acquisition of the British online recruiting firm Totaljobs.com and launch of (coupon portal) KaufDA in Russia”.

So, Axel Springer is successful and confident. All the more reason to look south – to Switzerland, where the joint-venture RingierAxelSpringer is head-quartered.

Axel Springer and Swiss media group Ringier merged their businesses in Eastern Europe in 2010 in a 50:50 partnership. It was supposed to be a partnership of equals in every respect – also as far as management is concerned.

But, recently, Ringier’s contribution to the management expertise of RingierAxelSpringer got very thin – at least at the very top. To the point where success-spoiled Axel Springer may start wondering whether it is alone in the project.

Here is how each partner contributes:

• In the 4-seat board 2 seats are occupied by Axel Springer people and 2 by Ringier appointees. The president and director are Springer representatives, while the vice-president and CFO are Ringier nominees. Until recently Ringier was represented by Christian Unger and Tobias Schulz-Isenbeck. When both defected recently, Ringier was forced to fall back on younger representatives.
• In the 3-man executive two  (Mr. Fels and Mr. Dekan) are Axel Springer appointees and the third (Mr. Boos) is an outside appointment. So, here Ringier contributes nothing.

So, at the highest level Axel Springer seems to be calling the tune – at least for now. On the next management level things are more evened out:

• Of the 7 divisional heads 4 are Ringier appointees (Mr. Korner, Mr. Späth, Mr. Mauron and Mrs. Delvenakiotis) and 3 Axel Springer appointees (Mrs. Kruse, Mr. Reimelt and Mr. Dauck).
• On the level of the country managers Ringier seems to have the edge – of 4 country managers, 3 are Ringier appointees (Mrs. Smuclerova for Czech Republic, Mr. Mertus for Slovakia, Mrs. Drakulic-Petrovic for Serbia) and 1 is a Springer appointee (Mrs. Sadokska for Poland). But, Poland is by far the most important country. So, also here Axel Springer seems to be making an above-average contribution.

The question is: how much longer before Axel Springer gets itchy feet?

According to The Washington Post, Certifikid, a DC-based Daily Deals site focused on children’s products, is expected to earn in 2012 more than $350,000 from $2 million worth of Daily Deals sales.   The Post also reported a record February for the site and its teleworking-mom founder Jamie Ratner,  with $100,000 in gross sales for the month. Promotions included gyms, summer camps, haircuts for kids, birthday party packages, and family photography. The top-selling Deal that month was Baltimore Harbor’s Urban Pirates Family.  Certifikid buyers spent nearly $30,000 for that one family outing. Certifikid recently launched a “special needs” focus, with alerts and deals especially for children with special needs. In a video interview with Baltimore’s WBAL TV Ratner talked about her company’s mission to put “special needs” families together, and provide them the outlet they needed.  A Certifkid Cares project offers schools and other organizations a group-referral program that can make up to $1000 for the organization. It all sounds great, doesn’t it? Perhaps not. 

It’s all quite warm and fuzzy, at first glance –  especially since a travel-to-the-office mom was able to turn stay-at-home mom and still make this happen. Our first thought was that local classified and online marketplace publishers could and should seek out local netpreneur wannabes – perhaps even among their staff – to find their niche and get going on a deals site. Perhaps The Washington Post, clearly interested in local and social (see our upcoming CIR coverage of the new Service Alley,) should reach out to Certifikid about collaboration.

What about the local merchants, though? Is anyone watching their revenue backs? We have to wonder. It might well be that these merchants are raking in the big bucks after their Certifikid deals, with consumers returning time and again to pay full price. But given what is clearly Certifikid’s considerable ability to generate local media coverage, the fact that merchant testimonial is nowhere to be found has us thinking otherwise.

So we approached Ratner by email to request a phone conversation. We said we wanted to ask the hard questions – What about the all-too-common complaint from merchants that Daily Deals discount too heavily and then the publishers take another big cut and the merchant takes a financial bath? (Certifkid takes 35 percent.)  All of a sudden Certifikid was not responding to us.  We asked if Certifikid merchants saw customers come back after the discount deal to pay full price later. We got no reply from Certifikid. We asked if merchants came back to repeat their deals. Certifikid did not respond.

The Certifikid.com merchant page espouses its benefits for merchants. “Certifikid has become an online playground for families to build relationships with each other and participating businesses that will last beyond the initial transaction,”  it reads. We’d really like to know if that’s happening. Certifikid is not saying.

Ratner and her staff have talked about how much money they’ve made, and how nice this is for families, but nowhere did we see a conversation about or by the merchants.

No one discussed with any media outlet if this worked for the merchants, and if buyers came back later to pay full price. That’s what we want to know.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote about one local bakery about to launch its first Daily Deal through Certifikid. No medium seems to have checked back to see what it brought that bakery. We will.

That’s the issue we have with Daily Deals. If you don’t take care of the merchants, you won’t have a Daily Deals site after you’ve run out of local merchants to lure to the site for the first time. Of course, that might take awhile (and you might get rich as you head down that road to demise, of course. So if you don’t really care about your local business community, it won’t matter to you ).

Certifikid, according to WPAL, is expanding nationwide. It’s already gone from DC /Baltimore to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Hampton Roads (VA), and all of Delaware. An aggressive and accomplished sales staff should be able to keep this “try-us-once” approach bringing in revenue for quite some time.

This problem isn’t exclusive to Certifikid. Since we’ve been writing about Daily Deals, Certifikid is the first Daily Deals site that declined to speak to us openly about the issue, however. So we have to wonder if the news here is not really very good for the merchants. That ultimately isn’t going to be very good for Certifikid. We’ll be asking the merchants, and we’ll let you know. If we’re wrong and all is rosy here, we’ll say that.

The Daily Deals concept is hot right now, and we still suggest that local classified and online marketplace publishers be the incubator helpers and publishers for local niche-focused netpreneurs. We think the concept is going to crash and burn, but in the meantime there is money to be made, and business relationships to be created. What’s absolutely crucial (and would be a standout in this space) is that publishers take care of their merchants.  Local news publishers with classified verticals and online marketplace products can do that well.  After all, what they can offer these local merchants that others cannot are additional traffic and publication / site resources, and trusted, long-standing community relationships.  Local newspapers and broadcasters might include advertorial coverage as well.

A Daily Deals site has to be a win-win-win (publisher – consumer – merchant) or it’s not going to last beyond this short-term “everybody-create-one” Daily Deals craze. Too many Daily Deals site are forgetting that third win. Its seems that Certifikid might be one of them. We’re going to find out.

The switch to uniform, co-branded Immonet platforms is part of an agreement reached between Immonet and Madsack in February (read our report here – clients only). In terms of this agreement Madsack sold the real estate platforms of its 15 regional newspaper sites to Immonet in exchange of a 11.28 percent stake in Immonet. Madsack gave up all ambition to operate its own real estate platforms; handed full operational and management control of its 15 real estate platforms over to Immonet and agreed to give Immonet marketing and sales support going forward. A 16th newspaper, Lübecker Nachrichten, later decided to join the party, although Madsack only has a minority stake in it.

The German anti-trust authority approved the deal in March.

Here is the list of 16 newspapers to have Immonet-powered real estate platforms by the end of May. The same template (frontend) is used, and customized with the logo and corporate colors of every newspaper.

These papers already have Immonet-front- and -backends today:

* Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung and Neue Presse of publisher Madsack;

* Göttinger Tageblatt of publisher Göttinger Tageblatt;

* Aller Zeitung and Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung of publisher Adolf Enke;

* Peiner Allgemeine Zeitung of the Peiner Allgemeine Zeitung Verlagsgesellschaft;

* Schaumburger Nachrichten of the Schaumburger Nachrichten Verlagsgesellschaft;

These will get theirs in the next few weeks:

* Oberhessische Presse of the HITZEROTH Druck + Medien;

* Waldeckischer Landeszeitung and Frankenberger Zeitung of Wilhelm Bing

Druckerei und Verlag;

* Leipziger Volkszeitung and Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten of the Leipziger Verlags- und Druckereigesellschaft and Verlag Dresdner Nachrichten;

* Lübecker Nachrichten of Lübecker Nachrichten;

* Ostsee-Zeitung of publisher Ostsee-Zeitung and

* Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung of publisher Märkische Verlags- und Druckgesellschaft in Potsdam.

Read the media release (in German) here.

The gossip about Zillow has just gotten ”juicier.” Amidst a rumor that Zillow is about to spend $45 million to buy rental management software firm RentJuice, the third-largest online real estate marketplace has just announced its new Android rental app. Both follow on the heels of Zillow’s launch of Rent Zestimates. (For even more on Zillow doings, and industry-insider ponderings about what’s really going on, read our upcoming CIR.)

RentJuice made its own important announcement two weeks ago, making it an even “juicier” buy for Zillow. The new RentJuice product is called Common Application. The new online and mobile-enabled tool could be described as a Facebook Connect for rental listings. With the new Common Application, a prospective renter can complete her or his online application one time and then send it in one-click thereafter to any property she favors. The tool also enables online and smart-phone or tablet-based lease application as well

Here’s the Zillow app news release: 

Zillow Launches First Mobile App for Rentals

Zillow Rentals for Android App is Company’s 10th Mobile App; Provides Access to Rent Zestimates, Allows Renters to Compare Favorite Homes Side-by-Side

SEATTLE, April 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Zillow, Inc. (NASDAQ:Z), the leading real estate information marketplace, today announced the launch of Zillow® Rentals for Android™ App, the company’s first dedicated rentals app, optimized for renters who need to make decisions quickly.

The Zillow Rentals for Android App is the only rentals app that allows users to access Rent Zestimates® – Zillow’s estimated rent prices on more than 100 million U.S. homes and apartments. Additionally, the app allows rental shoppers to: Compare and contrast favorite homes on a side-by-side list, a rental app feature exclusive to Zillow. Draw one or more boundaries around neighborhoods to narrow a search by geography. Use Android’s voice search capabilities to quickly search for-rent homes in an area. Quickly browse color-coded results organized by time on market, so renters know which homes are new to the market and which have already been viewed. Automatically receive on-screen notifications when new rental homes matching search criteria hit the market, with no login or sign-up required. Contact landlords by phone or email instantly. These properties are automatically added to the renter’s list of favorites with a time stamp to help keep track of when landlords were contacted.

“Renters shop differently from buyers and look at many homes quickly, in specific locations, in a short amount of time,” said Jeremy Wacksman, vice president of consumer marketing and mobile at Zillow. “The Zillow Rentals for Android App was created specifically to address their needs by organizing listings in an easily-accessible way and allowing them to shop for the right home on location, in the neighborhood where they want to live.”

This is Zillow’s 10th mobile app, adding to the most popular suite of mobile real estate apps with dedicated apps available on every major platform. Zillow’s early investment in mobile is fueling the company’s growth. In March, 155 million homes were viewed on Zillow mobile apps – that’s 57 homes per second.

Zillow Mobile’s full suite includes: Zillow on iPad®; Zillow iPhone® App; Zillow Mortgage Marketplace iPhone App; Zillow Android App; Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Android App; Zillow Android Tablet App; Zillow BlackBerry® App; Zillow Kindle® Fire App; Zillow Windows® Phone 7 App.

Zillow Rentals for Android App is free to download, and is available in the Google® Play store starting today. Search for “Zillow” in the Google Play store, or find it in the Lifestyle category.

About Zillow, Inc.

Zillow (NASDAQ: Z) is the leading real estate information marketplace, providing vital information about homes, real estate listings and mortgages through its website and mobile applications, enabling homeowners, buyers, sellers and renters to connect with real estate and mortgage professionals best suited to meet their needs. In March 2012, more than 32 million unique users visited Zillow’s websites and mobile applications. Zillow, Inc. operates Zillow.com®, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow Mobile, Postlets® and Diverse Solutions. The company is headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow.com, Zillow, Zestimate and Postlets are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. Diverse Solutions is a trademark of Zillow, Inc.

Kindle Fire is a trademark of Seesaw, LLC. iPhone and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Google is a registered trademark of Google Inc. BlackBerry is a registered trademark of Research in Motion Limited. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.

SOURCE  Zillow, Inc.

Opportunities abound, as demonstrated by companies like EBay and Naspers targeting the traditional family-owned media companies in Latin America. The growth of interactive media and smartphones is changing the way buyers and sellers match their needs for cars, homes, jobs and other items. Free classified marketplaces are surfacing as the new turf in the war for revenue and profits.

Six key Latin American markets are covered in a 64-page report, “Latin America: Battle is growing for classified advertising,” released today by the AIM Group, publishers of the Classified Intelligence Report, the global industry continuous advisory reporting service. The report, available for purchase here, focuses on Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. The AIM Group reviews the market forces in each country; the traditional media companies and their efforts to manage the transition to interactive media, and the largest classified publishers in the market, whether print, online, or both.

“Growth in the consumer economies of these major markets is forcing media companies to adapt,” said Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of the AIM Group. “With young audiences and a still-vibrant traditional print newspaper environment, a fundamental transition is under way.

“As Internet use grows in Latin America, especially on smartphones and tablets, users are finding new ways to search for cars, homes, jobs and ‘stuff’ — putting newsprint classifieds at great risk, while creating opportunities for a wide range of media companies, ranging from small feisty independents to some of the biggest media companies in the world,” Zollman said.

*    *    *    *

About the AIM Group: The AIM Group, formally the Advanced Interactive Media Group

LLC, is the world’s leading consultancy in interactive media and classified advertising. It publishes Classified Intelligence Report, a continuous advisory service often called “the bible of the classified advertising industry.”  Founded in 1998 and based near Orlando, Fla., the AIM Group works with leading media companies, broadcasters, dot-coms, yellow-page publishers and technology companies. It provides strategic and tactical consulting; sales training; proprietary and published research about interactive media; and other services.

Zollman and AIM Group Latin America Director, Dave LaFontaine, are available for interviews. Copies of the Latin America classified report are available for journalists for coverage purposes. Call: 407-788-2780 or email: JenniferL@AIMgroup.com for more information or to schedule an interview.

Last week I wrote Hein Pretorius, CEO of MIH Internet Europe, must be searching for a new CEO for Allegro Group, since Grzegorz Wójcik isn’t CEO of Allegro Group any longer. He’s been head of corporate relations at MIH Internet Europe since February (here). At the same time, Pretorius added the job of CEO of Allegro Group to his portfolio of tasks (that report here). I suggested this must be a temporary arrangement, but the “Schibsted appointment” and the fact that Pretorius has since changed his LinkedIn profile page to show CEO of Allegro Group as his primary job (look here), now makes me wonder.

(One can only “wonder”, since Naspers works with a very narrow interpretation of the stock exchange rule that “information with the potential to move a share price must be communicated to the world in such a way that no investor is disadvantaged”.)

According to LinkedIn, Martin Scheepbouwer, Schibsted Classified Media senior vice president and general manager Southern Europe, moved to MIH earlier this month as “CEO Classifieds and Western Europe” (here). Last week an Allegro spokesperson said no media statement will be forthcoming before the “Allegro restructuring process” has run its course. So, one can only guess what the Scheepbouwer position entails, namely that he will look after Western Europe, while Pretorius looks after Eastern Europe. If that’s the idea, then Pretorius might find enough hours in the day to remain CEO of Allegro Group.

But, one shouldn’t interpret Scheepbouwer’s new title too literally. According to his LinkedIn profile, the ex-Schibsted man will also be looking after Dubizzle, a classified platform focused on the Middle-East.

Life sure is tough for a journalist when a company decides to release information via LinkedIn only.

On the Allegro site Wójcik is still shown as CEO (look here). An Allegro spokesperson didn’t want to say more than that “Allegro Group is undergoing structural change” and “we’ll make the changes to the website once the new structure is in place”. The spokesperson didn’t say when restructuring will be completed.

It can be assumed Pretorius won’t remain CEO of Allegro and that a new CEO is being headhunted. With the exception of Africa, where Naspers has gained management experience over many years, Naspers has been careful not to place “head-office managers” in its internet businesses outside South Africa. Pretorius is a “head-office manager”. It is therefore highely unlikely, firstly that Pretorius will stay on, and secondly, that a non-Polish manager will be appointed to the position of Allegro Group CEO.

After all, the founder of it all in 1999, ex-Allegro CEO Arjan Bakker (photo), is still around.

Arjan Bakker, chairman of Allegro Group

He has moved up in the Naspers hierarchy since Wójcik’s appointment as CEO in 2010, and now carries the title of chairman of the Allegro Group. As such he still reports to Pretorius. It is, therefore, somewhat perplexing why Pretorius took over the role of temporary CEO and not Bakker.

Whether Wójcik’s move had anything to do with the fact that Ringier Axel Springer, the joint-venture of Swiss media group Ringier and German media group Axel Springer, is negotiating to buy a controlling stake in Onet.pl, Poland’s biggest news, entertainment and e-commerce portal (read about that here), is also unclear. Wójcik is an ex-Onet.pl manager who maintained close ties to Onet.pl after his arrival at Allegro in 2010. The Allegro spokesperson said it was “far too early” to speculate on the impact an ownership change at Onet.pl might have on Allegro. The Ringier Axel Springer negotiation is expected to produce an outcome in May.

Members of Ricardo's auto portal team "hard" at work. They requested to remain anonymous.

According to the Allegro site, the group operates 75 sites in 17 countries on 3 continents. Listed are 15 sites and 5 European countries only (here). Allegro developed white label small classified ads platforms, which other Naspers subsidiaries use under license from Allegro, which also gives technical support. These sites may have been included to get to the above number of 75.

In the meantime, Ricardo Group, the Swiss-based subsidiary of MIH Internet Europe, has also been busy – mostly with appointing new staff members. A spokesperson confirmed the group is growing steadily and needs more hands at its head-office in Switzerland for its auto portal team (photo above). Ricardo Group recently launched a friendly, new corporate website (here), which explains where in Western Europe it operates, what it does and who does it.

Edmunds.com just signed with Contact At Once, joining AutoTrader.com and Cars.com in adding live chat to its dealer listings, with the goal of increasing sales communications between consumers and dealers

“Today, according to Dealer Chat Market Share, nearly 20 percent of all dealers use live chat on their own websites and that number continues to rise,” Contact At Once director of marketing Aaron Hassen told us by email. “As the major automotive listing sites have embraced live chat, dealers have increasingly begun integrating live chat into their processes and are selling more cars as a result.”

“ContactAtOnce! fully managed chat is responsible for a 25 percent increase in our sales, both new and used,” Chris Forsythe, Internet & BDC director at David Stanley Chrysler reported to Hassen. “ContactAtOnce! is the most cost-effective way to sell more cars immediately,” he said.

Here’s the official announcement, from Edmunds.com:

Contact At Once! Selected byEdmunds.com as Dealer Chat Provider

Live chat solution to connect dealers to car shoppers conducting vehicle research on Edmunds.com

ALPHARETTA, GA. April 16, 2012 – Contact At Once!, the leading dealer chat provider connecting online carshoppers to auto dealers, today announced that it has been selected by Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information.  Contact At Once! will provide live chat functionality across Edmunds.com’s consumer-oriented web properties.

“There are obvious benefits to giving car buyers access to real-time text-based communication with dealers as they conduct research online,” said Edmunds.com Sr. VP for Dealer Initiatives Donna Sechrist.“Contact At Once! offers our users a secure, intuitive chat solution that lets them communicate directly and easily to our dealership partners.”

The Contact AtOnce! chat solution is used by over ten thousand automobile dealerships.  Using a single set of tools and processes, dealers can respond to consumer chats originating from anywhere in the ContactAt Once! dealer chat network, which now includes Edmunds.com.  Dealers leveraging thedealer chat software typically experience an increase of at least 25% in the number of online shoppers that contact the dealership.  Shoppers can connect with dealers via icons personalized photo greetings placed on websites.

“Adding live dealer chat to Edmunds.com makes the site more effective,” said Skip Dowd, Vice President of Business Development at Contact AtOnce!  “Choosing Contact At Once! meanseasy to use solutions for dealers.”

Dealers have rated Contact At Once! as the number one chat provider in 2010 and 2011 on DrivingSales.com.  For additional information about dealer chat powered by Contact At Once!, please visit www.autodealerchat.com.

About Contact At Once!

Contact At Once! isthe leading automotive chat software provider and operator of the industry’sonly dealer chat network connecting more than 9,000 auto dealers with thewebsites car shoppers visit most often. Adding Contact At Once! dealer chatsoftware to a website typically increases a dealership’s sales conversations byat least 25 percent. Named to the Inc. 500 as one of America’s fastest growingbusinesses, Contact At Once! is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For moreinformation about the company’s auto dealer chat product, please visit www.autodealerchat.com.  To learnmore about the company, please visit www.contactatonce.com.

The new online and mobile-enabled tool by rental-relationship-management innovator RentJuice can be described as a Facebook Connect for rental listings. With the new Common Application, a prospective renter can complete her or his online application one time and then send it in one-click thereafter to any property she favors. The tool also enables online and smart-phone or tablet-based lease application as well. To kick off its launch in Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco, every rental application enters the applicant into a drawing for a $500 Amazon gift card.

Here’s the announcement: 

RentJuice Rolls Out Unprecedented Online Lease Signing and “Common Application” for Renters,

Enables New Way of Signing Up Tenants

 Gives Apartment Seekers a Leg Up in Their Hunt, Enables Real Estate Pros to Dial Up Their Leasing Business From a Smartphone or Tablet

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – Apr 12, 2012) – Renters can now gain an edge in the rental race thanks to the “Common Application” by RentJuice, provider of lease marketing technology to thousands of real estate property managers and brokers. Similar to Facebook Connect, consumers fill out RentJuice’s Common Application online one time and their personal information can subsequently prepopulate any real estate office’s custom leasing-related forms, as well as applications for separate rental units.

Onet.pl is big
Alexa places Allegro.pl and Onet.pl in positions 5 and 6 respectively in its ranking of Poland’s most popular portals, after Google, Facebook and YouTube.

Not only will a majority stake in Onet.pl catapult Ringier Axel Springer from nowhere into second position behind the Allegro Group on page views (look at the chart second from the top on Onet.pl). It will also put pressure on Allegro’s auto, real estate and free small ad portals – if Ringier Axel Springer decides to play hardball.

The Allegro Group is a subsidiary of Cape Town-based media group Naspers.

Allegro’s auto portal benefits from Onet.pl
Allegro is a major classifieds player in Poland, the single biggest e-commerce player (by a long way) and – yes – a major partner of Onet.pl. Allegro’s successful auto portal OtoMoto.pl is duplicated on Onet.pl and Allegro has a very prominent link at the top of the Onet.pl home page. The two firms have been working together closely. For example, in January at the Start-up Weekend in Krakow (look here), where both sponsored and judged the 3-day event. Allegro’s representative in the jury: Grzegorz Wójcik CEO of the Allegro Group. He joined Allegro in 2010 from ITI Group, owner of (among other assets) Onet.pl.

Grzegorz Wójcik, CEO of Allegro Group, is an ex-Onet employee

Allegro would probably like to continue the informal relationship with Onet.pl, but it’s unlikely that Ringier Axel Springer will want to. It may prefer to throw Allegro off and use Onet’s traffic to strengthen its own portfolio of classifieds. (AIM awaits Allegro’s comment and will report as soon as it arrives.)

Allegro is active in 14 countries with 1,500 staff members, of whom one-third works outside Poland. In Poland its auto portal Otomoto.pl and real estate portal Otodomo.pl are Nr. 1 in their respective verticals, while its small ads platform Tablica.pl is among the leaders. It’s jobs portal Otopraca.pl doesn’t feature in Poland’s top 10. Ringier Axel Springer’s job portal Stepstone.pl closed its doors on Mar. 1 (read here).

Onet.pl has its own e-commerce ambitions
The Onet.pl Group operates more than 100 sites, with Onet.pl as the biggest. Apart from Allegro’s auto portal, the Onet.pl portal features a dating portal (Sympathia.onet.pl) and a fashion portal (PerhapsMe.com), travel services, games and other e-commerce services.

As far as e-commerce is concerned, it must be pretty much unimportant to Allegro what happens to Onet.pl. It’s e-commerce businesses dominate and are getting bigger – independent from Onet.pl (look at Allegro.pl). Allegro spokesperson Joanna Wagner said more than half all e-commerce transactions (by value) concluded in Poland in 2011 was concluded on Allegro.pl. (Transaction value in 2011 of PLN8.6 billion, or $2.7 billion U.S.). Allegro strengthened its e-commerce effort further in March, when the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (Poland’s antitrust authority) approved the acquisition of a 90-percent stake in e-commerce portal Agito.pl, one of Poland’s biggest e-commerce sites.

Big opponents
Axel Springer, Naspers and Ringier all declared the emerging markets of eastern Europe as their focus markets a few years ago. In 2010 Axel Springer and Ringier decided to work together in these markets – rather than compete with one another – and formed the joint-venture Ringier Axel Springer. Until now, the two big cannons haven’t been on a direct confrontation course. But, this may change if Ringier Axel Springer acquires Onet.pl.

More specifically, VRS Media offers the above-mentioned themes, as well as a congratulations, or best-wishes theme (eg. to congratulate someone on his 50^th birthday, his degree, or his first-born).

Markt.Gruppe did not reveal details of the deal, but it is assumed the stake in VRS Media is bigger than 25 percent. That is the threshold beyond one must get the approval of the Bundeskartellamt (Germany’s antitrust authority) and Markt.Gruppe requested the approval of the Bundeskartellamt for the deal, reported online magazine Deutsche-startups.de (here in German).

It can be assumed Markt.Gruppe will roll the white label theme portals of VRS Media out to many of the roughly 150 newspapers of about 50 regional publishers in Markt.Gruppe’s network, once the Bundeskartellamt has approved the deal.

Markt.Gruppe also owns and operates free small ads platform Markt.de, real estate portal Immowelt.de, jobs portal Stellenanzeigen.de, auto portal Motoso.de, obituaries portal Trauer.de, building portal Bauen.de and holiday accommodation portal Ferienwohnung.com.

Bremen-based VRS Media has a row of prominent regional publishers as clients. In fact, it operates over 60 white label theme portals on contract (software-as-a-service) for about 30 newspapers in Germany. Among them: Süddeutsche Zeitung, Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Frankfurter Rundschau, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Rhein-Zeitung, Nordwest-Zeitung, Neue Westfälische and Osnabrücker Zeitung.

Recipients of our clients-only bi-weekly Classified Intelligence Report (CIR) would have read in the latest edition (released yesterday) that some of the abovementioned newspapers also subscribe to white label real estate platforms (eg. Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Neue Westfälische). However, they rent these from other vendors. VRS Media is only focussed on, what I call, second-row verticals (not white label real estate, jobs and autos platforms). Among the better-known vendors in Germany for real estate, jobs and auto platforms are Evolver Group and Classmarkets.com.

More about Germany’s white label vendors

Here are details of 4 vendors, including the 2nd-row vendor VRS Media:

Vendor: Evolver Group                     Vendor: Classmarkets.com
Focus: Real estate, jobs, autos          Focus: Real estate, jobs, autos
Contact: Mathias Möckel, MD             Contact: Christian Scherbel, MD
Web: www.evolver.de                        Web: www.classmarkets.com
Geographic focus: Europe-wide         Geographic focus: Europe-wide

Vendor: VRS Media                            Vendor: artundweise GmbH
Focus: Themes mentioned above        Focus: Real estate, jobs, obituaries,
good-wishes, autos
Contact: Thorsten Reinhold, MD         Contact: Alf Weder, head of IT
Web: www.vrsmedia.de                       Web: www.artundweise.de
Geographic focus: Germany               Geographic focus: Germany