FindWhat.com In Canadian Yellow Pages Deal

Paid search player FindWhat.com is back to its private-labeling ways. This time the revenue-sharing partner is Yellow Pages Group (YPG), Canada’s largest publisher of telephone directories.

The two companies have agreed to together create a Canadian pay-per-click advertising network — matching FindWhat.com’s technology and expertise with YPG’s local sales staff and relationships with merchants.

The new ad network’s listings will run across YPG’s online properties, which include YellowPages.ca, Canada411.ca, CanadaTollFree.ca and the CanadaPlus.ca network of local city sites. Those sites reached 3.7 million unique visitors in May of this year, according to comScore Media Metrix Canada.

YPG calls its online properties part of “an important organic growth initiative.” When it recently reported earnings, it said its online revenues increased 21 percent in the second quarter and 23.6 percent for the year-to-date 2004. The company recently introduced new search functions on YellowPages.ca.

Advertisers will be able to buy ads in both English and French, with English being launched first and French to follow. The new network is expected to debut in the second half of the year.

“YPG is the perfect local partner with which to expand into Canada. Nnot only are they experts in their marketplace through 96 years of providing Yellow Pages directories, but they are also the Canadian market leader in online Web directory properties,” said Craig Pisaris-Henderson, chairman and chief executive officer of FindWhat.com.

FindWhat.com’s expansion strategy has involved partnering with players that possess either local or domain expertise. The search company provides the technology and some consulting, while the partner handles sales and network-building. In the U.S., FindWhat.com works with Verizon to offer paid listings on its SuperPages.com site. That venture launched in March of this year.

Some of the company’s other partners include Mitsui & Co. in Japan, which recently launched the LISTOP paid listing network, Thomas Global Register, and Terra Lycos.