Digital transformation of the yellow pages has seen YP, giving the likes of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) a run for their money in the lucrative sector. YP is still making its book because people are still using them evidenced by the fact that the company has fitted them with trackers that highlight their frequent usage.
“We filled the book with call tracking numbers we keep track of where the book is being used how it is getting used,” said, Mr. Darren Clark, Chief Technology officer at YP, in an interview on Bloomberg West with Emily Chang.
YP has been recruiting local businesses to get online with a view of increasing mass audience for the books on offer. YP ride in the market has not been easy considering it faces stiff competition from the likes of Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP), which has over 132 million active monthly users globally, in contrast to its monthly active users at 70 million.
Mr. Clark said that YP is pushing for new features that help users choose the best business or business subscription for their need, despite facing immense competition from the likes of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). Mybook is one of YP programs that started as a bookmarking feature that essentially helps people keep track of their local contacts
“Mybook started off as a bookmarking feature that we developed to help people keep track of their local contacts and merchants, now we are evolving it into a publishing platform and social platform,” said Mr. Clark.
YP is also in partnership with Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP); competing on the consumer side but sharing traffic on the media side.
YP produces its books with a view of targeting a specific kind of market in terms of sales; the strategy has been a success according to its Chief Technical officer. The company also carries out, smart deliveries to ensure that its books reach people who are likely to use them.
Focusing on the business as its core operations according to Mr. Clark has given YP the competitive advantage compared to giants like Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), which have interests in other investments.
Disclosure: none
