4th September 2006
Telecom Giant locked in price war with Auckland based start up.
In a tale reminiscent of David & Goliath, Auckland based start up Splurf is locked in a price war with Telecom's online giant, Ferrit.
However in true David & Goliath fashion this little online battler refuses to be intimidated by its much larger adversary. “Any online site
that needs to spend millions on TV, Print & Radio Advertising like Ferrit to generate traffic to their site is simply missing the whole point of being online in
the first place”, says Splurf Co-founder Patrick McPhee. “As preposterous as this may sound we’re actually competing
quite successfully against Ferrit, and its got to the stage where they’re actually undercutting our pricing to try and
take one of our major clients”.
“The Splurf business model is being welcomed by consumers eager to save time and avoid the hassle of having to search
through hundreds and sometimes thousands of results to find what they want. Our service eliminates the need for search
and that renders guys like Ferrit and the Yellow Pages obsolete” says Splurf Director Nigel Lewis. “Selling the Yellow
Pages is the smartest thing Telecom have done in a long time. Once Splurf goes live in October their days are numbered”,
adds Lewis
Splurf currently has over 10,000 members and is aiming to have the same number of businesses on board within the first
month of going live. “Our aim is to create the most customer centric online service in the world; we’ve designed Splurf
so that the customer is in the power position. At Splurf we believe that the Customer really is King”, says Nigel Lewis.
“When you come to Splurf you’ll be able to source a minimum of 3 quotes from over 100 business categories for products
and services within your local area at the push of a button. That’s significant, and it’s got a few large organizations
like Ferrit standing up and taking notice!”
The early signs indicate Splurf could catch on. The Splurf Co-founders are currently fielding offers from as far abroad
as Kelowna, British Columbia. “We get 2 or 3 offers for investment a week”, says Lewis. “Last week we had one interested
party fly over from Brisbane”. “I’ll admit it’s going to be tough going to knock over an outfit like Ferrit”, says
McPhee “but we can definitely give them and a few others a good shake up. If David knocked over the Giant so can we!”
ENDS