Trade & Exchange Launches Free Advertising Service

News Release
Tuesday 11 September 2007
For immediate release

Trade & Exchange Launches Free Advertising Service for Businesses

New Zealand businesses can now advertise free of charge, with a new service launched by Trade & Exchange Online, [www.te.co.nz.]

A product of Cabbage Tree Press Ltd, Trade & Exchange is the country’s only major free trading website that is New Zealand owned.

Trade & Exchange Managing Director Peter Whitmore said, “Given our longstanding commitment to free ads, we are pleased to launch this new Internet business model, which extends the free listing service to business advertisers as well as to private parties.”

The new service for businesses means Trade & Exchange will now accept free listings for vehicles, real estate, rental properties and jobs, as well as for general items. Businesses can also place their entire stock list onto the site using a new upload system.

“Some of these types of listings can cost up to $150 each on other sites, but on Trade & Exchange they will now be completely free,” said Whitmore.

“Trade & Exchange is already well supported by some of these markets, but we expect to improve this position with the introduction of the new service.”

Whitmore says top of mind when designing the new service, was making sure entering and managing free listings was a simple process.

“Customer research revealed that site users wanted the listing process to be as simple as possible. Our new service reflects this with only a few steps required to complete the exercise.

With the launch of the first Trade & Exchange paper in 1981, Cabbage Tree Press Ltd became the first organisation in New Zealand to offer free ads as a core part of its service. In those early days, the free offer was limited to private sellers.

“The introduction of the Internet to the classified advertising industry has changed the economics of the business, allowing us to open up the free listing service to businesses as well as private sellers.”

Revenue to run the site will come from paid upgrades and additional services, as well as from banners and sponsored links.

Trade & Exchange Online first offered free business listings in May this year, but delayed the launch announcement until user testing was complete. The new service has already found favour amongst many New Zealand businesses with strong growth through this period, from around 500 to around 50,000 listings. Whitmore said that he expected the strong growth to continue.

ENDS

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