http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/01/09/the-quiet-death-of-rednano-sg/
The quiet death of Rednano.sg
9 January 2011 By Chan Chi-Loong
After less than three years of existence since its launch in March 2008, Singapore’s local search engine Rednano.sg passed away quietly last month in December 2010.
A joint venture between local newspaper giant Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH) and Norwegian media group Schibsted ASA (Schibsted), Rednano.sg was a Singapore-centric search engine whose aim was to provide fast and accurate local search results.
A visit to the site shows that it has simply been folded into SPH’s existing online classified business, ST701
Rednano’s holding statement as of early January 2011
Up against giant Google from the start
Since it’s inception, Rednano has been compared with Google, and often unfavourably.
From being called a superfluous search engine by well-known celebrity blogger Mr Miyagi to undispelled questions about how they compete with Google ,Rednano had to show that it provided something different to stand a chance.
Unfortunately, tests from end users showed otherwise, like Thinking Nectar’s detailed ones here and here that boded ill for the site. Not only did Rednano not have a differentiated service, the search product they offered was often worse than Google.
Rednano was also slammed for being a souless mercenary product. Blogger Nocturne ranted about how Rednano’s ST Archive results links didn’t link to the content itself, but to a payment gateway. He likened this to Google mixing adwords with its search results, and not telling the user which is which. Nocturne also did a review post on the Rednano a year later in 2009, but the search engine results were still as bad as ever.
Source: Nocturne.noctalis.com
Rednano also tried to extend their platform to include location-based and mobile search via their SMS 33333 service but initial reviews were subpar, like this one from LivinginSingaporetoday.com’s blogger James Soh. What really hammered the nail in the coffin, however was the change from being free to charging S$0.30 per search.
As late as the middle of last year, Rednano was still experimenting with ways to find a “hit” product, from mobile directory listings to augmented reality. Shortly thereafter, Rednano ex-CEO Paul Jenson retired in September 2010, and Rednano got deadpooled (aka died) in December 2010.
Epitaph for Rednano
As an ex-SPH scribe with multiple friends working in SPH (yes, even in Rednano itself), I was sometimes privvy to gossip about Rednano from the inside — and it often wasn’t good.
It probably suffices to say that Rednano probably wasn’t one of SPH’s better ideas, and they burned a ton of cash — annecdotally, about 10-odd million — with it. A classified directory like ST701 is less ambitious, and plays better to SPH’s existing strength in classified ads. ST701 is similar to other broad-based portal sites like Mocca (by Mediacorp) and inSing.com (by SingTel).
However, the market is rife with competition and it’s no cakewalk for these big companies.
With function-specific localized Singapore portals blooming all over like SG CarMart (cars), Property Guru (housing), Hungry Go Where (food), Cozy Cot (beauty and fashion) and Beeconomic (coupons and deals), it’s going to be a battle between the broad vs. the niche. And if I had to pick a side, I would pick the niche vs the broad anytime.
I’d leave you with this excellent YouTube video of all the funny and probably expensive TV ads for Rednano during its heyday:
<object height="385" width="480">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a_ohvcwh6Mk?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></object>
The quiet death of Rednano.sg
9 January 2011 By Chan Chi-Loong
After less than three years of existence since its launch in March 2008, Singapore’s local search engine Rednano.sg passed away quietly last month in December 2010.
A joint venture between local newspaper giant Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH) and Norwegian media group Schibsted ASA (Schibsted), Rednano.sg was a Singapore-centric search engine whose aim was to provide fast and accurate local search results.
A visit to the site shows that it has simply been folded into SPH’s existing online classified business, ST701
Rednano’s holding statement as of early January 2011
Up against giant Google from the start
Since it’s inception, Rednano has been compared with Google, and often unfavourably.
From being called a superfluous search engine by well-known celebrity blogger Mr Miyagi to undispelled questions about how they compete with Google ,Rednano had to show that it provided something different to stand a chance.
Unfortunately, tests from end users showed otherwise, like Thinking Nectar’s detailed ones here and here that boded ill for the site. Not only did Rednano not have a differentiated service, the search product they offered was often worse than Google.
Rednano was also slammed for being a souless mercenary product. Blogger Nocturne ranted about how Rednano’s ST Archive results links didn’t link to the content itself, but to a payment gateway. He likened this to Google mixing adwords with its search results, and not telling the user which is which. Nocturne also did a review post on the Rednano a year later in 2009, but the search engine results were still as bad as ever.
Source: Nocturne.noctalis.com
Rednano also tried to extend their platform to include location-based and mobile search via their SMS 33333 service but initial reviews were subpar, like this one from LivinginSingaporetoday.com’s blogger James Soh. What really hammered the nail in the coffin, however was the change from being free to charging S$0.30 per search.
As late as the middle of last year, Rednano was still experimenting with ways to find a “hit” product, from mobile directory listings to augmented reality. Shortly thereafter, Rednano ex-CEO Paul Jenson retired in September 2010, and Rednano got deadpooled (aka died) in December 2010.
Epitaph for Rednano
As an ex-SPH scribe with multiple friends working in SPH (yes, even in Rednano itself), I was sometimes privvy to gossip about Rednano from the inside — and it often wasn’t good.
It probably suffices to say that Rednano probably wasn’t one of SPH’s better ideas, and they burned a ton of cash — annecdotally, about 10-odd million — with it. A classified directory like ST701 is less ambitious, and plays better to SPH’s existing strength in classified ads. ST701 is similar to other broad-based portal sites like Mocca (by Mediacorp) and inSing.com (by SingTel).
However, the market is rife with competition and it’s no cakewalk for these big companies.
With function-specific localized Singapore portals blooming all over like SG CarMart (cars), Property Guru (housing), Hungry Go Where (food), Cozy Cot (beauty and fashion) and Beeconomic (coupons and deals), it’s going to be a battle between the broad vs. the niche. And if I had to pick a side, I would pick the niche vs the broad anytime.
I’d leave you with this excellent YouTube video of all the funny and probably expensive TV ads for Rednano during its heyday:
<object height="385" width="480">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a_ohvcwh6Mk?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></object>
