Zoopla
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Features
Online and on the ball
Christopher Walkey, CEO of Marketme, looks at some of the trendsetters in social media.
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Latest property news
OTM growth ‘concerns’ Zoopla, says Ian Springett
OnTheMarket (OTM) Chief Executive Ian Springett (left) insists that web traffic to the OTM website has proved “buoyant” in March, despite accusations to the contrary, thanks largely to a multi-million pound advertising campaign that has provided “outstanding results.” Responding to claims by competitor portal Zoopla that web traffic to OTM last week, based on Hitwise data, fell by 25 per cent compared to the previous week, Springett insisted that the data is “inaccurate” and that OTM “stand by every figure we have previously quoted.” “Zoopla’s concerns about the growth of OTM at their expense are apparently increasing,” he said. “On March 6th and 7th, we passed the two million mark of unique users. Contrary to Zoopla’s claims, the traffic levels have remained buoyant throughout March. The results of our multi-million pound marketing campaign are continuing to emerge and the property-seeking public are appreciating the faster, cleaner, fresher search experience which OTM offers.” Lawrence Hall of Zoopla (right) insists that over the past couple of weeks “things have gone from bad to worse for OTM” with traffic falling “notably from an already low base and very low engagement levels per visit”, but Springett remains confident OTM will become the UK’s number…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket traffic dispute goes on
The Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) has issued yet another press release questioning the number of people who are actually visiting the recently launched OnTheMarket (OTM) property portal. OTM report that it has now attracted more than two million unique users to its website since it was launched in late January 2015, but figures from independent web audience monitoring firm comScore, as quoted by Zoopla, claims that total ‘unique visitors’ to OTM during February were 439,000, suggesting that the level of web traffic to the OTM was actually less than two million. Hitwise also claim that OTM has got off to a slower start than is claimed, with its data revealing that the recently launched portal attracted less than 38,000 daily visits in February. Lawrence Hall (left) of ZPG said, “OTM continues to make unsubstantiated and misleading claims about its traffic but its members are easily able to track their enquiries and performance and we urge them to do so. Despite recent attempts to rubbish independent data sources like Hitwise and comScore, these are widely recognised by advertisers worldwide as the most reliable indicators of audience. We believe that OTM will need to come clean to its members about its ability…
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Latest property news
OTM attracts more members but traffic dispute continues
OnTheMarket.com (OTM) announces that it has now attracted more than two million unique users to its website since launched in late January 2015, but data from Hitwise claims that OTM has got off to a much slower start, while research by Home.co.uk suggests that it still ‘has a mountain to climb’ to overtake Zoopla as the second largest website in the property portal market. Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OTM, insists that it “can no longer be questioned” that OTM is now a major property portal as traffic levels to the website continue to grow. He also pointed out that the portal is providing “high quality leads” for its member agents “day in, day out”, which partly explains why it now has close to 5,000 contracted offices – 90 per cent of which have chosen to leave Zoopla, according to Springett. “We are confident in becoming the number two portal within a year to replace Zoopla/PrimeLocation,” said Springett. “We have more than 4,800 contracted offices – 90 per cent of which have chosen to leave Zoopla – and are growing in size as the impact of our multi-million pound advertising campaign hits home and our reputation as a cleaner,…
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Features
On Target?
On 26th January 2015, OnTheMarket.com, a major new UK property portal, finally launched. And the reaction is...
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Agencies & People
Zoopla sees mobile traffic soar
Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) reports that its mobile traffic is up by over 40 per cent so far this year compared with the corresponding period last year as more consumers than ever use the Group’s services to search for properties while on the move. ZPG claims to have delivered a record 45,000 enquiries during the first two months of the year from prospective vendors requesting appraisals to ZPG member agents, supported in part by its appraisal tool which allows homeowners to contact local agents to arrange a valuation of their home. Lawrence Hall (left) of Zoopla Property Group said, “We’re delighted to see that the various product improvements and innovations we are making continue to result in record levels of engagement with our tool sand leads and instructions for our members, reinforcing the exceptional value that we provide.” Rightmove is another portal that has enjoyed growth in web visitors, supported by higher levels of mobile traffic. Over 100 million people visited the Rightmove site in January, a record month for the property portal, helping to boost profits. The company reported that it made an average of £684 per month from each estate agent branch that uses the service, up 13…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket could cost members ‘millions’ in legal battles, says Zoopla
Zoopla Property Group this morning ramped up its attack on OnTheMarket with a further statement that warns OTM members that they could be infringing competition law, leaving themselves open to litigation, fines and compensation costs. Zoopla Property Group’s statement said, “According to advice from top UK law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, if the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ever concluded that Agents’ Mutual Limited’s (AM) arrangements infringe competition law, not only would AM as a corporate entity be subject to fines and possible damages, but each individual member agent would also likely be liable based on their participation in AM. “The advice, provided to Zoopla Property Group plc (ZPG), states that, if the CMA at any time found an infringement of competition law, it could impose fines on each agency of up to 10% of their total annual turnover. In the case of an independent single branch firm the fines could run into the tens of thousands of pounds or for a larger firm such as Savills plc into the tens of millions of pounds. “The advice adds that any of AM’s competitors, including competing portals and excluded online agents and property developers that have suffered losses as a result…
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Agencies & People
Make your move
OnTheMarket.com launches on 26th January, asking agents to make a critical choice. We invited the three players to state their case for your business.
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Agencies & People
Sellers warned to beware of agents who list homes on OTM
Homeowners who want to sell their properties could miss out on potential buyers, as thousands of estate agents continue to stop listing homes on either Rightmove or Zoopla, as a result of OnTheMarket.com’s (OTM) ‘one other portal’ rule requiring their member agents to stop advertising on either website, Zoopla has warned. Various agents have in recent weeks stopped listing properties with Rightmove, but it is Zoopla that has been most affected by the new OnTheMarket website, with a larger share of agents opting to cancel their subscriptions to Zoopla, in accordance with OnTheMarket.com’s strategy. Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OnTheMarket.com, in a press conference recently, said that OnTheMarket “want to keep growing” and get to the “number two position” in the portals market “as quickly as possible” and at the expense of Zoopla. But by preventing their member agents’ from listing homes on both Rightmove and Zoopla, which between them get more than 100 million hits a month, Zoopla argues that OTM is restricting consumer choice and the potential market reach of those vendors and landlords trying to find buyers or tenants for their properties. Lawrence Hall (right) of Zoopla said, “Marketing a property as widely as possible is…
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Latest property news
Zoopla’s counterpunch
Zoopla’s PR machine seemed to go into overdrive last week to deter more agents from defecting to OnTheMarket.com (OTM), as stockbroker, Panmure Gordon, cut its stance on Rightmove to sell from buy and initiated coverage on Zoopla with a sell rating. Citigroup was also downbeat on the two stocks, reducing its price targets for both. But Zoopla insisted that it was unmoved by the launch of the OTM rival site last week, which only allows its member agents to advertise on one or the other of Zoopla and Rightmove, but not both. Just three days after the launch of OTM on Monday 26th January, Zoopla issued a press release stating that OTM had launched with a ‘wimper’ by insisting that the traffic to the new property portal had been ‘anything but exciting’. Making reference to data from independent web monitoring firm Hitwise, Zoopla said that on its first day, the OTM website attracted only 23,000 visits, with many of these coming from industry participants interested in seeing the website for the first time. Since then traffic to OTM had halved daily to 12,000 visits on Tuesday and less than 6,000 visits on Wednesday. This compares to an average of 1.5…
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