2001 The Year of the SME George Jewell General Manager toronto.com

n Observations re the SME market today n toronto.com experience to date n What opportunities there may be for you here in the room.

SME FACTS n Small <50 employees n Medium < 499 employees n 97 % Cdn businesses < 50 employees n 78 % Cdn businesses < 5 employees n Business < 50 employees account for over 36 % of employment in Canada 52 % of all off-line advertising is local 14 % of online advertising is local

Source: Canadian Federation of Independent Business Business Size (Employees)

Source: IAB Survey of Publishers

toronto.com - background n Joint Venture between Torstar, Sympatico-Lycos & City Search n # 2 in CitySearch’s network of 65 + cities, trailing only New York City n 9,000,000 monthly pages views n 359,000 unique visitors n website customers

toronto.com - Consumer usage n 80 % had looked for specific info re buying & selling a product n 61 % dealt with a they saw on toronto.com –67 % of these people had never dealt with that business before

toronto.com- Customer Evolution n Year 1- Sept 97 –Experimentation –Little or no plan around site re objectives –Price based not a business based decision n Entering Year 4 –Media value> web development –2,000,000 plus monthly page views at customers site

BARRIERS TO ENTRY OF SME n Time n Expertise n Integration into operations n Perceived Consumer Demand n Costs ROI

Key Drivers n Increasing Simplicity of Transaction n Application development targeted low end of market n Creation of marketplaces suited for SME success n Last mile provisioning –Empori –Who is next, Beckers?

Key Drivers n Market Pressure –Suppliers –Consumers –Competitors –Internal Growth