dothomes.co.uk

dothomes.co.uk is a real estate search engine which covers the UK (dothomes.co.uk), South Africa (dothomes.co.za) and the US (dothomes.com). Sales or rental search results link directly through to full property details on real estate agent’s own websites, at no cost to the agent.

dothomes.co.uk aims to be the “Google of real estate”. It offers an alternative to traditional directory websites for real estate search (who charge agents a fee to list properties) and the newer “mashup” websites (which index only the directory websites, rather than the more up-to-date property listings on the sourcing estate agent websites).

Ownership | Market Position | Key Measurements | Market Coverage | Advertising Model | Financials | Site Sections | Technology | Key Management | History | Recent Press | Information Sources

Ownership

dothomes.co.uk is BytePlay’s first consumer-facing product. BytePlay are a London-based search technology company, founded in May 2006 by Artemi Krymski and Douglas de Jager. It is now equity-backed by three of Europe’s leading early-stage venture capital groups, The Accelerator Group (TAG), Arts Alliance and Samos Investment.

Market Position

dothomes.co.uk captures a similar market to globrix.com, another UK real estate search engine.

Since June 2006 dothomes.co.uk claims to have grown to have the largest index of estate agent listings in South Africa and the second largest in the UK after rightmove.co.uk.

In terms of user interface, several features are being promoted by dothomes.co.uk:

• Intelligent one-box search
• User-provided video tours of properties (submitted from PC or mobile)
• Password-less saving functionality
• Street views of every home
• “I’m feeling wealthy” search function

Key Measurements

Unknown

Market Coverage

UK, South Africa and US.

Advertising Model

The displayed listings link to the agents’ websites (at no charge to the agent). dothomes.co.uk generates revenues in the same way Google does: from 3rd party advertising and Google ads.

Financials

Unknown

Site Sections

The key sections of the website are:

• Homes to buy search
• Homes to rent search
• About us (linking to BytePlay blog)

Technology

Underlying dothomes.co.uk’s search mechanism is a proprietary data-mining technology which allows for scalable and accurate indexing (aggregation) of property listings directly from estate agency websites.

Key Management

The key management are:

• Artemi Krymski – joint CEO
• Douglas de Jager – joint CEO
• Anthony Morgan – CTO

History

BytePlay is a London-based search technology company. It was founded in May 2006 by Artemi Krymski and Douglas de Jager, two young alumni of Imperial College London. It is now equity-backed by three of Europe’s leading early-stage venture capital groups: The Accelerator Group (TAG), Arts Alliance and Samos Investment. BytePlay focuses on the development of fast-scaling data-mining technologies for the Web and dothomes.co.uk, a real estate search engine, is the company’s first consumer-facing product. Dothomes.co.uk was was formerly known as Extate.

In June 2007 Artemi was selected by Business Week as one of Europe’s Young Entrepreneurs 2007. In July 2007 dothomes.co.uk was picked out by The Guardian newspaper as one of its Top 10 dotcoms to watch. In November 2007 Esquire magazine short-listed dothomes.co.uk in the Best New Idea category at its Man at the Top Awards 2007. Also in 2007, ex-Imperial College alumni Anthony Morgan joined the company.

After success in the UK and South Africa, a crowded market and the sub-prime slump meant that dothomes.com failed to make much of a mark when it launched in the US in January 2008, despite hitting 2 million listings in April.

In July 2008 dothomes.co.uk won an International Stevie Award for Best Interface Design in The 2008 International Business Awards.

Recent Press

Press releases are listed on the BytePlay Blog.

Information Sources

Site Review
The Telegraph

1. ononemap Bought By dothomes

   Map based UK property search engine ononemap.com has been bought by dothomes.co.uk.

2. News Corp Enters US Online Property Market With globrix.com

   A short announcement on globrix.com’s blog late last week revealed their plans to break into the already crowded US market. globrix.com Chief Technical Officer, Ian Parry, explained the details in a

3. property24.co.za Best Property Website

   South African property portal property24.co.za has been awarded the honour of Best Property Website in the 2008 Jump Shopping e-Commerce award - the first year it hasn't gone to privateproperty.co.za.

4. property24.com

   property24.com is South Africa's most visited online property portal.

5. myroof.co.za Competes in Tough Market

   Property portal myroof.co.za was launched in October 2008 to list private property for sale and rent in South Africa.