The bulky physical printed Yellow and White Pages will move online as Internet penetration grows and the hard copy increasingly becomes a doorstop.
Trudon, which was known as Telkom Directory Services until March 2009, publishes the printed pages on behalf of Telkom. It spent R72 million in the financial year to March to bulk up its digital offerings.
In March, the directory company's revenue increased 1.1%, to R1.2 billion, but operating profit dropped 2.1%.
In Telkom's latest annual results, the company says the “core printed directories business has reached maturity in SA”. Trudon is moving from being a publisher of traditional print products, to being a local online search solutions provider to keep pace with changes in the market, it says.
“Print usage by subscribers has reduced and younger users access information primarily through Internet and mobile channels, rather than printed White or Yellow Pages. Trudon has no choice but to follow this migration and build up its capabilities and capacity to offer these products.”
Building platforms
Chris Deeks, GM of online and search, says, while there will still be a Yellow Pages, it may not be printed years from now as Trudon is managing a migration to online. The group is aggressively pursuing digital growth, he notes.
However, Deeks adds that it would be rash to believe that all South Africans have Internet access, so Trudon still sees a place for the physical book for a period of time. He says the pages will eventually migrate online altogether, but the printed version is still in demand.
Trudon is adding QR codes into the advertisements in the Yellow Pages to “close the loop”, says Deeks. About six million books are dropped off each month.
The company is developing mobile applications and the app is available in five stores, such as the iPad store, he says. According to Deeks, in the last seven to eight months, since launch, the app has been downloaded more than 200 000 times and the digital platforms combined have about 800 000 unique users each month.
Trudon has also just gone live with a Windows phone “flavour”, says Deeks. In addition, the sites detect devices and render the screen accordingly.
Deeks adds that the White Pages will soon launch a “mash up” version, which will give people a better view of individuals as it will add in social media results. “To be relevant, you have to be where people are looking for things.”
Trudon has 130 000 advertisers, most of which are small and medium companies. It has a 30% call to transaction conversion rate.
Mobile driver
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says the key to the pages' future is mobile as many people throw away the physical version after it has been delivered.
Currently, the increase in Internet users comes from mobile phones, says Goldstuck. He points out that at the end of 2011, there were 8.5 million South Africans online, of whom 7.9 million surfed using cellphones.
During the same time, of those 7.9 million, some 2.5 million only used handsets, says Goldstuck. He says this figure should grow by about a million this year. Trudon has no choice but to have a full online and mobile presence and phase out the books, he adds.
However, the group will have to continue printing for years to come until digital demand picks up to a point where most people are accessing directory entries online.
Goldstuck says many people write the pages off as being stodgy, but the group is busy with a lot of cutting-edge developments.
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