Fairfax Digital Media has acquired babysitter’s directory FindABabySitter.com.au for a reported $3 million, expanding its parenting-related Essential Baby business.
The directory, founded by entrepreneurs Delia Timms and Jeff Bonnes in 2005, will be integrated with other Fairfax sites.
After encountering difficulties locating baby sitters for their own children, the two decided to create a directory of their own. Inspired by a similar US venture it took them six months to create the site, but it grew from just 234 registered baby sitters in its first month to 8000 as of July.
Originally operating in Sydney, the site expanded to all states with six months and now counts over 17,000 parent subscribers who pay $49.95 for a three-month membership.
Matthews refused to confirm the $3 million purchase price reported in Fairfax publication the Australian Financial Review, but says the site and its growing community will be a “good fit” with its Essential Baby community, which currently has over 170,000 members.
“We’ve had our eye on the site for a reasonable period of time, but once we mutually decided on terms that worked for the both of us the deal happened quite quickly.”
Matthews says the site will integrate well due to its “deeply engaged community”, and says the value of smaller, community-driven sites will continue to grow if they offer interesting products.
He says that on a basic level, these smaller, niche sites are more likely to develop a community that will make them more attractive for acquisitions.
“This community generates 10,000 posts in its forums every day, and is a deeply engaged community. What I find is that the deeper and more focused a community is, the more engagement you have. Our view is that online you need to have a broad view, but also you need to have communities within that.”
Matthews says demand for these smaller community sites is growing.
“Clearly demand is growing, but there’s not necessarily demand for the product, it’s just the process of getting that product. If you think about finding a baby sitter, it’s a laborious process. Something like this just makes it so much easier, and that’s valuable.”
Timms and Bonnes have won a Telstra Micro-Business Award, a 3AW Small Business Award and have continued to open new businesses while operating the directory. Their latest project, twitsms, allows Twitter users to receive “tweets” on their mobile phones via SMS.
Ann Nolan, who operates BabySitterDirectory.com.au, says the acquisition is a “great” move and proves demand for community-based sites is growing among larger corporations.
“I think this is really good for the industry, and I think it shows there is a good market out there for community, small sites and it means there is so much opportunity for those of us that are out there doing it,” she says.
Nolan also says the acquisition shows there is demand for smaller sites developed by entrepreneurs in their spare time, which have grown over the past few years. Several parenting community-based sites founded by mothers, such as KidzSpot founded by Katy May, have surged in popularity.
Nolan says these smaller sites are more likely to create loyal, tight-knit communities that cannot be found on larger sites.
“There is demand for these sorts of sites. I don’t think it’s a big corporation coming in and taking over, I think it’s a great thing. One of the key things is that it’s a Mum-driven business, and I think a lot of Mums will like that and see that they can do it too.”
Timms and Bonnes did not return calls before publication.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
