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It has become more popular with local Internet users than Amazon.com and eBay. Jul 31, 2008 The Straits Times SINGAPORE Press Holdings' (SPH's) online classifieds website has become more popular with local Internet users than Amazon.com and eBay. ST701 received more visitors than any other shopping and classifieds website between April and June, bagging it the No. 1 spot in a ranking by Internet research firm Hitwise, the media group said in a statement yesterday. The portal now has a market share of 8.22 per cent in the online shopping and classifieds category, and a 52 per cent share of the classifieds field alone, according to Hitwise, which tracks the surfing habits of 1.5 million users in Singapore. On a broader level, ST701 is the 25th most-visited site out of a total of more than 94,000 websites that local Internet users go to. It edged out popular ones such as photo-sharing site Flickr, Windows Live Search and Channel NewsAsia. Ms Elsie Chua, the executive vice-president of SPH's classified advertising department, attributed ST701's success to good content and good customer service. 'Online classifieds is a very fragmented marketplace,' she said. 'The challenge for any player in a crowded market space is to give what users want with minimal fuss and hindrance.' Yahoo Auction No More , Can Try ST701