The move adds the f2 directory's push for a greater slice of the SME market to recent initiatives by LookSmart and Yahoo! to attract a greater share of revenue from the sector through the marketing of their lower end services, with the online directories both carrying express submit schemes for small business.  

Some local services like AltaVista admit to planning to target the small business sector with a range of products including an 'express submit' component, currently being trialled in the US, according to AltaVista Management. LookSmart and Yahoo! have also incorporated paid for listings as an enticement to small business operators, with Yahoo! also offering broadcast and store options proced at the SME market.  

Although online directories have only just begun to target the SME sector, Citysearch has worked in the niche since its inception in 1997, with the service carrying around 700 000 listings and showing growth in states like South Australia, while markets in NSW were 'a tad slow'.  

"We are well aware of small businesses' reliance on local directories for generating business", said Bob Copp, Citysearch's Managing Director. "Experience shows that when the economy weakens, small business tends to decrease marketing activities. This can be a devastating strategy for some businesses."  

Copp, who has managed the directory for a year, said that successfully servicing the small business market involved a no-frills approach, working with customers and not 'lecturing to them', in addition to targeting businesses with packages that offered substantial bang for their buck."By maintaining our prices we want to encourage business proprietors to continue to market their business. We call on other small business service providers to support their customers with their hip pocket." Copp said that the directory aims to rework the 'traditional' directory market and exploit the growing need amongst small businesses to have not simply a 'yellow pages' listing or an Internet listing, but a combination of the two services.There is a developing demand for multiple sources of contact information for Australian businesses and this is where CitySearch steps in," said Copp. Having both internet addresses and phone numbers for local businesses provides a new level of convenience." 

The small to medium business market constitutes only around ten percent of the total volume of business currently in Australia for AltaVista, while other directories like LookSmart or Yahoo! don't even go so far as to put numbers down for the SME sector. Copp, too, doesn't talk figures but says that while there are 'thousands' ofbusinesses using the exclusively online product, 'tens of thousands' of businesses have taken up Citysearch's 'bundled' package of directory listings, with Copp saying that Citysearch had seen uptake of that service increase by 5-6 percent over the previous year.