Enjoyclassifieds.com Interview - Online Classifieds in Shanghai

I’m starting a new series of interviews with people/companies behind China related websites.

Some time ago Daniel from Enjoyclassifieds.com contacted me for a listing in MyChinaStart.com and as I was curious about the website and the company behind it, I asked him if he would be willing to tell more. He was.

Enjoyclassifieds.com is a classifieds website aimed at Shanghai that weekly publishes a print version with a selection of the online ads. You can pick up a copy in many Expat oriented locations like bars, cafe’s and city supermarket branches.

Enjoyclassifieds is part of Enjoy China, the company responsible for the Shanghai Enjoycard. Currently there are working 33 people for Enjoy China.

The Enjoycard gives you discounts in 230 venues in Shanghai and some in Hong Kong and Beijing. Other activities of Enjoy are credit card and bank privilege programs for companies like MasterCard

Daniel Borin is one of the partners and his main role is as a sales director. Having worked in the IT industry in Australia for 7 years he was ready for a change and ended up in China. We started talking first about the Enjoycard and after that their new website Enjoyclassifieds.

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Daniel, How did the Enjoy Card start and how did you come up with the idea?

I met a guy in a bar, invested some money, became a partner and helped launch the first enjoy back in 2004. It was the idea of my partner Aaron Landis. He has been out here in greater China for 8 years and was doing a lot of MarComm [Marketing & Communication], publishing/printing in Hong Kong. He started working on a private privilege program for the Hyatt just before Sars hit and the project was put on hold. He decided to come to Shanghai and try something similar.

Was it easy to set up the loyalty program? Did you run into a lot of regulations?

It was incredibly hard to set up. We were ok on the regulations side but getting companies involved was tough. It took a lot of hard selling for almost 9 months. It was a new concept for most people so it was hard to wrap their head around. Being a new company as well you also had to establish legitimacy.

What was the main thing that made companies wary and what convinced them?

Their main fear was whether it would work, that customers would come. What convinced them was passion and enthusiasm, and relentless hassling until they said yes.

What do participants pay?

There is a standard fee of 10K Rmb for the year. We call it a program fee rather than an advertising fee as its more than just advertising

Do most participants stay in the program, what’s their feedback?

The feedback is general good. We consistently get more than 50-60% retention year on year
Places that have poor offers generally don’t do so well from a Voucher or Card redemption perspective but still receive fantastic continual exposure throughout our membership and beyond (i.e. in store displays etc)
We have now about 230 venues and more than 25K members (card holders)

I noticed that on the enjoychina.com website there are some links to Beijing, HK. Are you planning to roll out the card in other cities, an Enjoy Beijing Card or an Enjoy Hong Kong Card?

For now it’s mainly focused on a Shanghai Base but we have some benefits in other cities, right now we are focusing on growth here.

We got in touch through the new Enjoyclassifieds website so let’s talk about that. What is Enjoyclassifieds and why did you start it?

Enjoyclassifieds is very simply “the place to find everything you need”. We perceived there to be a need for a consolidated platform here in Shanghai where people can post and find stuff, one that automatically comes to mind for all English speakers. The market has been very fragmented up until now, both in print and online

There are already loads of classifieds websites and recently three print versions have been launched, including Enjoyclassifieds. It seemed they were all there at the same moment, not sure whether that was intended.
What makes Enjoyclassifieds different and how much space do you think there is in this market?

Quite simply, we are totally focused on the user/reader, we believe if we win them over the rest will follow

What does that mean?

Online - usability first and foremost, speed, ease of use, hassle free posting and browsing. It’s so important, I think others underestimate that aspect

In print - real fresh content every week, and loads of it

Is there space in the market? Well, I think the market is big enough to sustain a few. Ultimately the one that gets the most readers and posters will win. One of the others may have to fall out for lack of content.

Who do you see as your main competitors, on the web as well as for the print version?

In print, Adweekly and SH Mags, SH Classifieds are our main competitors. I think we are all quite different though.
The content (both quality and quantity) and formats are all quite different

There is a long list of online competitors but other than the above-mentioned three we are providing a dual medium, which differentiates us from the rest

If I am correct posting is free at the moment, including print. Will this stay and what is the business model behind it?

Well, we thrive on the individual, the reader/user/poster, without them you have nothing, so we will endeavor to keep as much of Personals and Buy and Sell free indefinitely. Where things are of more commercial nature, Jobs and Properties, these will eventually be mostly paid for in print. And then obviously image advertising

Some of jobs and property is actually paid for already. We have more listings than we can accommodate in print, so we can only guarantee posting for paid ads

Ok, I see, does that include the small “I have an apartment for rent” ads?

Well, once again, for individuals (not agents) we will keep this free initially. But at the end of the day when our quantity is too large to accommodate we can only guarantee paid ads.

How big is the current circulation and do you plan to increase and if yes, what would be a number you think would cover it all?

We are distributing 20K copies per week right now. We think that is perfect for a weekly print. It’s important to get in peoples hands fresh and frequent

How many ads are posted and what is the ratio online /print published?

If you’re interested I have some comparative stats for a short period

Online Job postings across 4 sites in the period October 23 - 26:

Enjoyclassifieds: 50
Shanghaiexpat: 13
Sh classifieds: 6
Adweekly: 5

Can you tell me how many posts, including all categories, are posted daily and how many make it into print?

We are now averaging on a daily basis about this

15-20 jobs
4-5 buy and sell
5 personals
15-20 real estate

Some days we blow that out of the water though, this morning about 40 property ads already.
About half make it in print

Before I’m rounding of with some last questions, is there anything you like to tell and I haven’t asked about?

Actually yes, the Enjoycard costs 299RMB and has up to 50K worth of privileges inside.
If you buy it now you can extend it the next year for 99 RMB.

Just one more personal question. What’s your favorite website about Shanghai?

I like Shanghaiist. I like Dan [Washburn, the editor], it’s a good blog and it has interesting content

I think that pretty much wraps it up. Thanks a lot for your time and great answers.