Type of business LLC Website www.donedeal.ie Founded 2004 Parent organization Schibsted | Type of site Classifieds Alexa rank 6,619 (September 2016) CEO John Warburton (2012–) | |
Founder(s) Fred Karlsson
Geraldine Karlsson Slogan(s) Ireland's biggest classifieds site Motto Ireland's biggest classifieds site Profiles | ||
Donedeal tv ad husband for sale
DoneDeal is an Irish company that operates DoneDeal.ie, a classified ads website in Ireland. DoneDeal was established in May 2005 as an online classifieds website by husband and wife team Fred and Geraldine Karlsson.
Contents
History
The founders were inspired to set up the site after returning to Ireland from Sweden where they had used similar websites. Initially, the ads included their own belongings before real users started placing ads. By late 2008, DoneDeal was experiencing a notable growth in visitor figures – monthly visitors to the site had jumped from 175,000 per month in November 2007 to 561,000 in November 2008. The site became so popular in Ireland that €1bn worth of goods were sold through the site in 2011, a €300m increase from 2010. Following an independent ABC audit in 2011, it was found that DoneDeal had the most visited motoring classifieds website in Ireland. By late 2011 "DoneDeal" had become the fastest growing search term in Ireland for 2011 according to Google. Approx. 85,000 ads per month were placed on the site in 2011 and it can have approximately 160,000 active ads on the site at a time.
Business model
While the site was free at the beginning to use, a €3 charge was introduced after about a year. The site featured a system where people could place ads and pay by calling a special number which would bill to their phone, as well as credit or debit card and PayPal account.
The website also generates revenue from banner ads and one fifth of their 2009 revenue was from banner ads provided by Electric Media. In August 2009 it passed the 2 million monthly visitor mark, passing rival Gumtree. In January 2011, the ads on the website could also be seen on the Eircom website following the launch of a new classifieds channel on Eircom.net. DoneDeal’s revenues for the year ending April 2011 were just over €3 million. In 2012 the DoneDeal pricing model changed – with some ads reduced to €1 and others increased to €5.
Schibsted Media Group took a 50.09% stake in the company in 2011. In 2012, the company announced a new CEO, John Warburton, who had previously been the DoneDeal’s COO.
Apps have played a part in the accessibility of DoneDeal with an iPhone app launched in 2011 followed by an Android app in 2012. DoneDeal ventured into television advertising for the first time in 2012 with a popular and amusing ad featuring a woman who sells her husband on DoneDeal. This was at a time where the number of monthly unique visitors to the site had increased to almost three million.
DoneDeal has raised hundreds of thousands of euros for charity by donating a portion of ads to charities. The company is ABC audited and is a member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau in Ireland.