Oracle Online, the company responsible for banner-ad sales for the M-Web group, has announced that it will drop Ananzi as a client in favour of MAX, the relatively new M-Web engine. Ananzi, says Oracle`s Stephan Pretorius, is stagnating and MAX will soon be the predominant South African search site.
Ananzi is owned by I-Net Bridge, which has an internal advertising clearing-house. I-Net though, is not serious competition for Oracle, says Pretorius. "It just doesn`t have the financial and business content that the M-Web/24.com partnership can bring the user."
M-Web recently merged its content with 24.com, and Oracle has been responsible for its advertising space since December.
The Ananzi response is simply no comment. "We do not feel the situation warrants any response from us," says Mark Buwalda, Ananzi business unit manager for I-Net. But sources tell ITWeb that Oracle`s departure will have little or no impact on business. Oracle was apparently responsible only for the front page and "a few" other sections. I-Net has an internal sales team, and Oracle will have to continue to administer existing ads under contract.
Pretorius confirms that existing contracts will be fulfilled, but denies that sales for Ananzi were insignificant. "We sold the majority of its advertising," he says.
While M-Web has 24.com and the Mail and Guardian in its stable, I-Net Bridge, a joint venture between Dimension Data, Times Media, BDFM Publishers and Bridge Information Systems, has access to all publications in the Times Media stable, including its Business Day and its cigar and wine sites.
Max experienced periods of downtime while under development and some complain that it is not effective for short-word searches. However, Pretorius says he has been promised that the site will stay online and that the directory will be continuously expanded.
Oracle will not move outside the M-Web arena soon. "There are only three major players," Pretorius says, "I-Net, Iafrica and M-Web. Iafrica has a limited shelf life, because it does not have ISP support anymore. It will see major traffic decline. We are happy as things stand now." Oracle does serve niche sites, such as Webmail, but concentrates on high-volume, high-visibility sections of the market.
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