Is The UK Directory Market Full?

[jmccormac]

Is the UK web directory market fully exploited or is it now a mature market? The mature market idea is that the top of the market is now dominated by a few key players and the barrier for entry for a small or new player is high.

Part of the work I've been doing since 2000 has been tracking domain names and I've added .eu and .co.uk tracking recently. So far the system here is tracking approximately 2 million .co.uk domains and approximately 1.8 .eu domains. Just going on the Dmoz/ODP data, the number of existing websites versus the number included in various web directories are vastly different. Perhaps once the web was mappable in Human terms and it was possible to track new websites manually (on a local search basis). Now the number of new domains and websites has grown to a level that is impossible to track manually.

Given that these web directories only have a small fraction of the number of active websites, is the lifetime of any new web directory, and the existing directories, limited in the face of opposition from search engines like Google/Yahoo/Microsoft (GYM)? Or is there still a place for new directories in the UK's directory market?

Regards...jmcc

[IanTurner]

The real issue for any directory is how do you get traffic.

If you rely on being a traditional directory and pulling traffic from the majors, then I think the market is pretty much saturated. On the other hand there is plenty of room if you can come up with other strategies for getting traffic that are financially viable.

[centime]

Actually, I am of the opinion that hardly any of the UK based directories actually stand out.

Furthermore , the more established ones are horrendously expensive.

Okay, I am newish, so I am probably wrong, but no UK directory actually comes to mind when I think about directories

[centime]

@ jmccormac

I visited your site, where do you have your .co.uk & .eu listings?

[jmccormac]

The real issue for any directory is how do you get traffic.

Most of the traffic growth would be organic (from the search engines).

If you rely on being a traditional directory and pulling traffic from the majors, then I think the market is pretty much saturated.

This is what I was thinking. The only possible strategy would be some kind of directory/search engine hybrid with its own index. The key would be finding the right niche.

Regards...jmcc

[jmccormac]

I visited your site, where do you have your .co.uk & .eu listings?

They aren't listed on the site Centime,
I am working on building a new website with the data on it. Though the .eu figures are not exactly good - approximately 25% of the .eu websites checked are on 15 IPs and these are "coming soon" site IPs and direct navigation network sites.

Regards...jmcc

[DeVille]

so what about UK Net Guide then?

[IanTurner]

Thats not the thing being started up by the woman from Dragons Den is it?

If so I think it has zero chance of making money.