Wampit up for website winners

Published 26 Feb 2010 12:10 1 Comment

AN ONLINE directory launched last year has grown from 2,000 members six months ago to 350,000 and its founders are now talking to investors.

Wampit founders Paul Holland and Adam Purrier, who were made redundant from Yell, are also considering launching a US version of the site.

The enterprise has thrived since the Chronicle reported on it in September in our We Can Work It Out Campaign.

Paul, 42, from Caversham, and Adam, 34, from Leamington, both work from home.

They are now aiming for 500,000 members and are speaking to venture capitalists about funding.

Wampit offers free listings but makes revenue from optional extras such as video footage and the ability to upload documents such as menus (rich content). Paul said: "We are not talking about £300, £400 or £500 like some sites. We are looking at £9, £6 or £20. For us it is all about growth, about getting as much on there as we can."

Word of mouth, marketing campaigns and search engine optimisation has helped drive the increase but licensed data (such as lists of business addresses) has allowed Paul and Adam to add some businesses themselves.

Many of those, when they found their businesses on there, then paid for rich content to be added.

Paul says the days of traditional free directory listings (such as name, address and phone number) are limited.

He said: "With the explosion of services like Facebook, YouTube and Myspace people expect rich content to be free. If they can offer so much free content to their users such as images and video, then there is no reason why this cannot be transferred to a business model."

Visit www.wampit.co.uk

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• 

  James Wright
  Unregistered User
  Mar 1, 19:34
  Report comment

  Excellent - good to hear a local success story. Good luck.
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 0

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