PORTALS Web warriors

After just four weeks in business, OnTheMarket has inflicted some serious wounds on Zoopla, while Rightmove’s fortress proves to be largely impregnable. A few weeks ago, few people outside the property industry had heard of OnTheMarket (OTM); a substantial number of those within the industry had heard of it either but weren’t too interested; and 20 per cent of agency branches actually bit the bullet and signed up to membership of the UK’s newest property portal. All fairly normal with a new venture, profile and credibility take time to establish, reputation takes longer, but who’d have thought that the arrival of another property portal would cause such a ruckus? Ruckus is definitely the right word here – dictionary definitions vary but include ‘a row or commotion’, a ‘rugby scrum’ and, ‘the main body of competitors not likely to overtake the leaders.’ Well, OnTheMarket’s stated aim was to disrupt the market and it is certainly doing so, at least it is disrupting the daily business of estate agents who seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time on forums, sniping and snarling about who’s bright enough to make the move and who is too daft to do so. But recent…

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