Car classifieds website in administration

Small car classifieds website car4me.com.au has been placed into administration after the collapse of its parent company 247Ads Global.

The site, which competes against the might of market behemoth Carsales.com.au and up-and-comers such as Car Advice, remains online, but according to administrator Manfred Holzman from Sydney firm Holzman Associates is not active.

Holzman, who took control of the businesses in late December, says the businesses are not trading while he seeks expressions of interest for the businesses in the coming weeks.

“There will be a meeting next Friday to determine the future of the company,” he told SmartCompany this morning.

“The holiday period meant we couldn’t really actively market the business over Christmas and New Year, but there is interest out there and we are hoping we can do something with it.”

247ads was established as a classifieds business about eight year ago and changed its name to 247ads in 2006. It then set about establishing a series of classifieds websites that allowed individual sellers and businesses to advertise their products and services.

247ads even offered franchises at one point under the leadership of former Boom Logistics and BHP Billiton CEO Rod Harmon, who joined the company in June 2007.

Sites set up by 247ads included a general goods website, a baby goods website, a bike website and the car website.

The car website – which appears to have changed its name to cars4me in 2008 – is the only site still online.

Holzman declined to comment on the reasons for the collapse of the companies, but the dominance of Carsales makes the automotive classifieds sector extremely difficult to prosper in.

According to Carsales documents, 75% of time spent looking at automotive classifieds sites in Australia is spent looking at Carsales.