The Ananzi search engine and its new owners, business directory publisher Brabys, do not exactly scoff at the beliefs of the Johnnic publishing empire, but neither do they agree with its sentiments.
"We are taking a Ferrari and finding somebody to drive it," says Brabys MD Des Isaacs.
This contrasts sharply with what Ananzi`s former owners and happy sellers had to say when it announced the sale.
Johnnic sold the only local search-engine-cum-portal still in play only two years after fully acquiring it. At the time Johnnic online division e-Ventures declared it would turn Ananzi into a consumer Internet hub that would blow any competition out of the water. Last week it admitted it would take a write-down on its investment, but said it was willing to do so in order to rid itself of the last vestiges of dot-com exuberance.
Johnnic says the site became a drain on resources it could no longer sustain. Ananzi says this is not its fault.
"We met all the expectations set at the onset and beyond that," says Mark Buwalda, former business unit manager for Johnnic who will also head up the site under Brabys. "But from the onset it was set up to be a conduit to other Web sites and other parts of the business." Profitability based on advertising was never part of the strategy, he says.
This has now changed. Isaacs is happy to wait for profitability and confident that losses can be stemmed in three months, but Buwalda has worked for more than one owner and knows the score.
"If it [profitability] does not happen in the next six to nine months, my head is on the block," he predicts.
Going below the line
To keep his neck covered, he plans to simply cut costs and increase revenue, which means changing focus as far as advertising goes.
"We need to look at below the line [advertising] as much as above the line, to spread the emphasis on both," he says.
Not only is the value of expensive online brand advertising dubious, Buwalda believes, but the commission advertising agencies take on it is too much of a drain.
The online equivalent of handing out flyers seems like a better proposition.
Brabys fully agrees, and has a legion of telesales operators to make it happen. "We are very focused on below the line advertising," says Isaacs. "We operate in a business where we have a formidable selling force."
On the cost-cutting side the company wants to concentrate on overheads, and will also give some thought to its free Web-based e-mail service, although closing it down is not being considered. Brabys is a private company with limited funds and has no intention of reliving the days of dot-com bloat.
"We are going to make it a lean, mean revenue-generating machine," Isaacs promises.
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