DISQUS

Grokodile · 2 years ago

Canadian startups? Who knew? :p

Gary Haran · 2 years ago

Disclaimer: I'm an ex employee of Ziplocal.

I find it ridiculous how you base your assumptions on compete.com's data. If you go to their web site they say themselves that they have too little data to give an accurate analysis and that more people need to download their browser plugin to have the correct data.

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/ziplocal.com+i...

"We have little data for ziplocal.com, so these are rough estimates. With more data, we can cover more sites. Try the Compete browser plug-in to participate."

Try the Alexa.com web site and it paints a very different picture: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_detai...

And I can tell you for a fact that Ziplocal.com developers don't have either the alexa.com or compete.com toolbar installed.

Jonas Brandon · 2 years ago

No doubt, gathering reliable data about site traffic is difficult.

But who cares what toolbars the ZipLocal developers have installed? And what bearing does that have on whether Compete, Alexa, or Quantcast provide somewhat reliable traffic data. Speaking of toolbars... "Compete data is not based solely on Compete Toolbar users. Compete balances multiple data sources, including ISPs, ASPs, Opt-In Panels and the Compete Toolbar. We strongly believe in our multiple data source strategy and its ability to detect and correct for bias across diverse data sources to ensure accurate projections." Anyways, I prefer Compete over Alexa because Compete's chart is easier to read.

Sure, lets compare apple's to apple's. iBegin has a significantly higher Alexa Rank than ZipLocal. The chart you linked to was only for the last 3 months... Here is a link to Alexa (iBegin vs ZipLocal) for the last 2 years: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_detai...

The opinion I hold of ZIP is the result of careful research. I have read their financial statements, used the website, reviewed their latest marketing programs, read blog posts by the developers behind the latest site refresh, and unearthed comments from ex-employees. I even considered surveying their customers but, quite frankly, was afraid of what I would find.

I think you missed this post's point. It was about iBegin. About doing more with less, creating something from nothing, and iterating to find a market. iBegin is worth celebrating. And there are some great lessons here for other entrepreneurs.

Ram · 2 years ago

Hi Jonas, I think you made an important point. In fact I think you made several:

Local search - at www.findnearyou.com we have had a similar experience, how he saw traffic suddenly starting to go up. We also started this site with a simple aim of providing service numbers for people since we couldn't find any at a notice, saw an opportunity to expand, did so.

We have no ceo, cfo, no venture funding so far. We have climbed well in alexa rankings and think we have hit a sweetspot. What ibegin has done is the exact opposite - found an opportunity in sourcing the data and jumped there. We would love to talk to them about data on Indian shops & establishments in Canada and the US.

Lesson - find a sweet spot - grow organically - bring in tech/marketing guns blazing when you hit a critical mass - say a million users. Makes sense.

Ziplocal is an interesting site with humongous potential. iBegin and Ziplocal are two different animals competing in two different market places at different levels.