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Published on September 26, 2007

Andreas Koestler, who calls himself a "lawyer gone bad", has made Bangkok the operational headquarters for his Yello Media, an online classified firm that covers seven South and Southeast Asian countries.

A doctor of law from the University of Vienna, Koestler says he "went bad" when he was successfully convinced by a friend to change his career from practising law to working for the advertising industry.

"I invented it myself," he says of the title. "It's just for fun. Working as a lawyer was not bad. I learned a lot in law. But did I have any fun? No!"

Koestler left the law firm in 1984 despite being close to becoming a partner, in order to work as an account manager for Young and Rubicam in Austria. He eventually became managing director of Ogilvy and Mather in Austria.

But Koestler soon felt advertising was boring him.

"When the Internet came in 1995, I felt, 'This is it! This is what I have been looking for.' On the Internet, you can do direct marketing, PR, everything. It's total communications. I wanted to do this," he recalls.

But advertising firms were slow to embrace the opportunities offered by the Internet. So Koestler decided to set up his own Web-consulting firm in 1987: Wunderman Austria. However, it was not long before he began feeling bored again. He sold his stake in Wunderman, even though it was doing well. The firm went on to become one of the biggest Web-consulting firms in Austria.

"After 20 years in service businesses, there were always projects. The customers wanted everything cheaper, better. I felt like I was a circus lion."

So in November 2002, Koestler took a six-month break to travel around the world.

"I looked around the countries of the world. I saw the whole [Asian] region. [And I discovered] it's not about what I do, it's about where I am. If I have inspiring surroundings, then I will be great."

Koestler found that Bangkok was his most inspiring place. Unlike Europe, where things change slowly, he found a liking for Bangkok's dynamism. Besides its "hot economy", it's halfway between China and India by air.

"I love it," he says. "I'm driven by new things."

In early 2005, Koestler founded Yello Media together with a Thai partner, digital-advertising company New Media. Yello joined with MSN in Thailand to launch its first classified website - www.yello.co.th - in March of the same year.

In August 2005, Singaporean-based holding company Yello was incorporated. Wolfgang Viragh, a former banker and long-time friend of Koestler's, joined the company as chairman and chief financial officer. In the autumn of 2005, the firm successfully completed its first round of financing. Fresh capital enabled Yello to follow its original plan to expand regionally.

In January 2006, more classified sites were launched together with MSN in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. Then at the end of last year, Yello launched a website in India.

Thanks to its vast market, India has quickly succeeded Bangkok as Yello's biggest revenue source. The firm now employs 29 people in India, while the staff in Thailand numbers only 16.

At first, the job and non-job classified ads used the same website, but last year the firm decided to split job classifieds away from the rest and started yellojobs.com, also known as MSN Career.

A few months ago, Koestler decided to change the business model for Yellojobs, making it different from all other job sites in the market. He has begun what he calls "Yello Rewards", a system that pays anyone for finding a successful job candidate for a recruiter.

While other job sites require a posting fee, employers no longer have to pay any upfront fee to Yello for their job ads on the website. Instead, an employer offers a fee to anyone who can find a successful candidate for its vacant position. Only when a successful applicant is appointed - and someone is rewarded for persuading the applicant to apply - does he or she pay a small fee to Yello.

After only a few months, the combined amount of Yello Rewards offered by employers on the website has totalled Bt14.3 million. The highest reward in a single posting was offered by the Minor Group, which promised to pay Bt300,000 for anyone who could find a new human-resources director for the company.

"If you look at every recruitment website, the applicants are all the same people. The referral system opens up the 'passive job market' by using the power of personal referrals in the same way that I was persuaded by a friend to shift to the advertising business," he says.

Koestler expects Yello to break even next year and says the company will focus on "creating a market for bargains and opportunities". The "bargains" market involves non-job classified advertising for items like cars, property and anything else people want to sell. "Opportunities" are created by Yellojobs.

"Whatever fits [the focus] is our business," Koestler says.

"We're looking at a new [business] area. Its like Star Trek - I'm a sci-fi fan - we'll be going to a new galaxy where no man has ever been before."

The Yello CEO declines to reveal any further details of the "new business area". But it's clear the "lawyer gone bad" is not about to get bored again - at least not in the foreseeable future.

Pichaya Changsorn

 The Nation