Zoopla Property Group (ZPLA) portal CEO Alex Chesterman admitted that some 2, 000 real estate agents (or 11 percent of his workforce) have deserted him, opting to join the new, rival portal OnTheMarket, launched by Agents’ Mutual.
Zoopla is a British property website covering the residential property market, partially owned by Daily Mail and General Trust and estate agent Countrywide. It is the second biggest property website in the UK, ad its larger rival is Rightmove.
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The portal focuses on providing users with access to information such as sold house prices, area trends & statistics and current value estimates for domestic properties in the UK.
Cityam.com’s Oliver Smith reported that OnTheMarket was set up by real estate agents who were frustrated by the “duopoly” of Rightmove and Zoopla. They argued that the two portals were driving up advertising costs, while not investing in improving the online connectivity.
A third player, young and eager, would bring down costs and improve services, the argument went. But, so far, the jury is out on the success of this venture.
Cityam.com’s Oliver Smith suggested this was actually a smaller than expected talent flight.
Chesterman stated: “We believe that Agents’ Mutual remains a short-term event and that its success will be determined by whether consumers engage with it. So far it appears to have got off to a very slow start with consumers.”
“We continue to benefit from the shift to mobile and have now passed the significant milestone of over 5 million app downloads as consumers increasingly use our services to search and research the property market at work, home and on the move, ” Chesterman added.
