Business News
Atex acquires Kaango to help publishers reclaim online classified marketplace
Tuesday 22. June 2010 - Kaango provides publishers a powerful self-service tool for placing print or online classified ads Media companies using Kaango will be able to preserve print classified revenue while growing their online classified marketplace
Kaango, the leading web classifieds software platform in the United States, has joined the Atex global family of companies. As part of a deal that keeps Hearst Corporation and MediaNews Group as shareholders, Atex plans to expand Kaango worldwide, while bolstering the software platforms existing U.S. business with Atex sales, service and support infrastructure.
John Hawkins, Atex Group CEO, said: “The Kaango classifieds platform delivers a key element in our strategy to enable publishers to better exploit the digital marketplace and to deliver greater customer self-service tools. We will be looking for other media partners around the world to participate in the launch of national Kaango websites and to establish the Kaango brand in their countries and worldwide.”
Kaango, which launched its first affiliate site in 2006 and currently serves more than 200 publishers in the U.S., provides a technologically advanced Web-based software platform to syndicate and publish its media partners print and online classified ads. Unlike traditional aggregator systems, Kaango websites do not send users clicking away to unknown sites to view and interact with ads, regardless of the ads origin. This allows Kaangos media partners to provide large ad volumes and a consistent user experience within each partners branded marketplace.
“This is an exciting time for Atex,” said David Montgomery, Atex Head of Global Product Development. “Product internationalisation and the use of high-availability cloud computing services will enable Atex to extend the Kaango advertising network into new markets around the globe. Self-service advertising in the Atex cloud environment will enable publishers to generate new revenues, drive new website traffic, reduce costs, and expand hyperlocal and community initiatives.”
Kaango boasts the industrys most advanced ad search and ad placement tools, which cater equally well to online-only and print-only customers. Kaangos national and affiliate marketplace environments offer a more advanced alternative to list-based markets. Kaango also supports social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as well as cross-posting to multiple Twitter accounts to support individual publishers.
Atex plans to leverage the Kaango platform to expand its reach to both existing and new customers with an effective, simple-to-deploy and proven product. With its global sales and deployment resources, Atex will offer the Kaango service and brand to non-Atex sites as well as Atexs current client base. Plus, integrating Kaango technology with Atexs world-class advertising and Web content management systems will give media companies a complete advertising solution that makes it easier to monetise content and compete against other news aggregators.
In addition to the sales and customer support boost that Atex will provide, the company also aims to strengthen Kaangos development resources and has started work on internationalizing Kaango for deployment in other regions of the world.
Michael Kranitz, the founder and former CEO of Kaango, will continue to work closely with Atex, to expand Kaangos international presence, utilising the existing Atex worldwide sales, support and service capabilities in 54 countries. Kaangos product development team will remain based in Denver, CO as part of Atexs well funded global development resources. Joe Conti will act as Kaangos COO and he will continue to manage the day-to-day operations in Denver.