Ads infinitum

When people say that you can find everything on the Internet, they’re not kidding. Whoever thought that shards from a Hollywood celebrity’s smashed Mercedes-Benz headlight would fetch top dollar at an auction site? Or that somebody would actually think of putting up the last piece of his Brussels-sprouts Thanksgiving dinner for sale and actually selling it? Hell, yes, even brides can be had with the click of a mouse.

Okay, so you’re not in the market for such useless things (well, maybe except for the last if you’re a desperate octogenarian), but for everything else, there are legit websites that offer things you actually need. The problem with most of these sites is that they’re based abroad, making products and services inaccessible if you live here and don’t have a US billing address for your credit card.

The newly launched website 88DB.com, a classified ads portal, helps you look for things available locally. It doesn’t sell the products or services, but lets sellers post their ads for free on the site. So if you’re looking for a piano tuner or a package to Boracay, accessories or homemade cookies, you can go to the site and search; if you’re a teacher who wants to offer tutorial lessons or a musician who wants to put together a band, you can post your resume for employers to look at; or if you import a "health" product that lets men enhance their, er, manhood – you can try to post your ad and see if it gets past the website’s content supervisor, who happens to be former First Daughter Aimee Marcos.

As an online classified ads website, the possibilities are limitless. Think of it as one giant bulletin board that anybody, anywhere can view, ad infinitum – or at least for 30 days, after which you can post your ad again.

88DB.com has 30 main channels and 300 sub-categories with 10 of the most popular for the month highlighted on the homepage. Some of these channels are arts and crafts, beauty, health and fitness, business construction, business services, buy and sell, cars and bikes, clubs and associations, computers and the Internet, couriers, design and production, entertainment and film, food, sports, teaching services, pets, weddings and funeral services.

When it was launched on Aug. 8, at least 15,000 individuals and companies had already signed up for free membership. 88DB.com.ph country manager Jayjay Viray promises this is just the beginning, and that the company is more than an online ads site. "88DB.com is a lifestyle site that serves as an avenue for people to interact, connect, and exchange not just goods but ideas as well. A feedback mechanism on every channel will be in place very soon, which can be used by members to make recommendations and references, as well as talk shop on the various ways they can improve their services and enhance their current standard of living. We also have various articles on different topics. The channels are designed to encourage the creation of communities."

The company has a dedicated team that calls advertisers and product providers and constructs the ads for them. Advertisers can also upload their photos or videos for truly multi-media ads. "Comparing it with the traditional media, advertisers don’t pay with us for now. We have no immediate plans yet of charging them. How do we make money? From big advertisers like PLDT, or, say, a major spa, like Urban Spa, which is a major client."

Once you submit your ad, it will be up in 24 hours after the 88DB team verifies it. "You can put out anything you want, but we also want to regulate it. Your ad can’t be below-the-belt or malicious. One advertiser has his own website but he told us that he got more inquiries from our site than from his own; in one day, he got 600. As of now, the most popular channel is travel."

Aimee Marcos adds, "We pride ourselves on the fact that all the information online is up-to-date. Sometimes when you see an ad and call, you find out that the number printed is wrong. We make sure that that doesn’t happen." Aimee screens all the ads that are submitted, which could be as many as 500 a day – and that’s including resumes of, say, a clown or a graphic designer or a freelance writer. "We’re very meticulous. As much as possible we try not to edit, but we do ask the advertiser’s permission when we have to. The Internet is open to everyone, so we make sure it’s also child-friendly."

Still, they’ve gotten their share of controversial ads. She tells of one advertiser selling "sex-enhancing" pills. "We didn’t know where to categorize it. Is it health and fitness? Or is it under events, or leisure, or building and construction?" she jokes.

Traditionally, for print, people look at classifieds on weekends. Strangely enough, in cyberspace, Jayjay says the least active days are Sunday and Monday for the Philippines while Wednesday to Friday generate the most online traffic.

88DB may be localized in content – your IPS will immediately direct you to the local site, 88DB.com.ph – but you can also access the websites of countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand for services and jobs, and even post your resume on their sites. "The Philippines is taking the lead for the region as we’re the first to launch the site. The other countries are following us this time," says Jayjay.

How do they ensure the success of the site, in spite of low Internet penetration in the Philippines compared with more progressive countries? "We have the marketing budget to promote the site. If you want to draw traffic to your site, you really have to have good content and reasonable advertising rates. We’ve designed it in such a way that it’s very user-friendly, it’s interesting and it can be a source of news as well," says Jayjay.

A sister company of JOBSDB.com, 88DB is a Hong Kong-based firm, which explains the name. The numbers 88 in feng shui signify good luck. And when you’re trying to sell a product in a market with a million others, you need all the luck – and gimmicks – you can muster.