Safa Rashtchy

Safa Rashtchy: Local Search is Set for a Boom

~ Sebastien Provencher ~ 2 Comments

(via the ClickzNews Blog)

I’m down here visiting the Kelsey Group’s “Drilling Down on Local ’07” event, and a few minutes ago Safa Rashtchy, sr. research analyst, Internet media and marketing, managing director for Piper Jaffray, finished up his keynote address regarding local search. (…)

(…) as this is a local show, he expanded on user interest trends to say that “Local search is the second most popular activity other than e-mail. You will have more and more focus on local search, whether it’s information or product searches that are happening. The adoption of local search by both local and search advertisers will see an increase.”

He also predicted a shift of users away from portals to search platforms, and said the inflection point for local search will happen when businesses finally get more of their inventory online. The first company to do so, he added, will “win” the business race.

“The navigation method from portals is changing from portals to search,” he said. “People are saying ‘we know what we want, help us to find where it is and don’t tell us what we want to buy.’” Rashtchy continued, “The trigger point [for local search] is likely to be when you have a large number of major merchants that have their inventory easily available online. I thought we might see something by now, but nothing significant has happened yet, but once we see a good part of inventory easily accessible online, we will see a shift.”

Finally, he predicted that mapping and satellite imagery will be coming an integral part of search. “Geographical representation of not just products, but also businesses, is more appealing — the visual aspect of it — and it will play well.” (…)

Safa recently announced he was leaving Piper Jaffray.

What it means: like Safa, I’ve recently become a strong proponent for graphical navigation in local search (through maps, images, etc.). I just love the Flickr geo-tagged image navigation interface (BTW, that’s a great source of local content). Safa also thinks that product inventory is also a killer app but I think it’s going to take a long time before we get to that place. I still think CrowdShopping (or Tuangou) can happen more quickly.

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Safa Rashtchy Leaves Piper Jaffray

~ Sebastien Provencher ~ 3 Comments

Just received an e-mail from Safa Rashtchy at Piper Jaffray. Here’s an excerpt:

As you may have already heard, yesterday we announced that I am retiring from the sell side, after ten excellent years that I will always remember and cherish. The decision was not easy for me and, in fact, I have been thinking about it for quite some time now. Part of my reluctance was based on the desire to continue to expand the strong platform that we have built here at Piper, a process that I have enjoyed over the past years, and one that has been fruitful both for our clients and for us at Piper. I also wanted to make sure that after my departure, the platform continues its strong reputation and further expands. I am happy that the new team which will include Aaron Kessler and Gene Munster, as well as a number of other analysts, is exactly capable of this, and thus, I can leave without worry. Aaron and Gene, as well as the rest of the new Internet and China team, are highly thoughtful, intelligent, and well-respected analysts, who I am convinced will maintain our high standards and further expand the platform. Over the next few weeks, we will transition coverage of my universe to the new team.

Safa’s seminal paper on the Search economy, “The Golden Search”, published in 2003, was instrumental to my strategic thinking when it was released. I’d like to thank Safa for his contribution to our great industry.

Safa Rashtchy Leaves Piper Jaffray

~ Sebastien Provencher ~ 3 Comments

Just received an e-mail from Safa Rashtchy at Piper Jaffray. Here’s an excerpt:

As you may have already heard, yesterday we announced that I am retiring from the sell side, after ten excellent years that I will always remember and cherish. The decision was not easy for me and, in fact, I have been thinking about it for quite some time now. Part of my reluctance was based on the desire to continue to expand the strong platform that we have built here at Piper, a process that I have enjoyed over the past years, and one that has been fruitful both for our clients and for us at Piper. I also wanted to make sure that after my departure, the platform continues its strong reputation and further expands. I am happy that the new team which will include Aaron Kessler and Gene Munster, as well as a number of other analysts, is exactly capable of this, and thus, I can leave without worry. Aaron and Gene, as well as the rest of the new Internet and China team, are highly thoughtful, intelligent, and well-respected analysts, who I am convinced will maintain our high standards and further expand the platform. Over the next few weeks, we will transition coverage of my universe to the new team.

Safa’s seminal paper on the Search economy, “The Golden Search”, published in 2003, was instrumental to my strategic thinking when it was released. I’d like to thank Safa for his contribution to our great industry.