Google Maps Missing the Mark
July 21, 2010 by Alice Allan · 5 Comments
In this guest post, homethinking.com founder Niki Scevak shares his thoughts on what Google needs to do to make its mark on real estate search:
Google Real Estate One Year On – Some Results
July 11, 2010 by Simon Baker · 7 Comments
It has been a year since Google entered the Australian real estate market with the launch of listings on Google Maps. In that time there has been much conjecture on whether real esate on Google Maps would be successful. Most of this conjecture has been hopeful or experiential rather than fact based. One analyst recently even went as far as downgrading their recommendation on the REA Group to a sell based on the potential impact of Google.
Google Real Estate in Europe – What is All the Fuss About? Lessons from Australia
December 4, 2009 by Simon Baker · 11 Comments
The news yesterday that Google was “entering” the UK/European market sent the share prices of Rightmove and Seloger into a tailspin. The Seloger share price closed down 5.7% at €23.50 while the Rightmove share price was hammered a whopping 10.3% to 499.9p.
So let’s look at what happened. An article by the Financial Times (Dec 2 titled “Google set to enter UK property market”) seems to have set the cat amongst the pigeons. The article stated that Google is in talks with British estate agents and that “experts” say that an entry by them to the market could pose a serious threat to existing property websites. The article didn’t talk about what Google was going to do and Google didn’t comment. So there is really not much to go on. So the only guide we really have as to what Google may do in the UK and Europe is what they have done in Australia.
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It’s All About the Leads
October 14, 2009 by Simon Baker · 4 Comments
Property portals around the world are famous for talking up their numbers. Almost every week we receive press releases claiming one of two things – a portal is bigger or faster than everyone else in their market. The bigger claim is almost always followed by a Unique Browser, page view or visitor number while the faster claim is followed by some percentage growth between two arbitrary dates. This approach is reminiscent of newspapers touting circulation and readership.
While these are interesting, they are not that relevant outside of the industry and probably not that relevant to the people that matter most, the advertiser. They are measuring the inputs and not the outputs. What portals should be talking about is the number of leads they generate for the advertiser. This is the true measure of effectiveness. The problem is most portal sites just don’t know how many leads they really generate.
How Zoopla Helps Rightmove and Did DMGT Get it Wrong?
August 16, 2009 by Simon Baker · 5 Comments
Over the last month Zoopla has clearly signalled to the market its intent to be a major player in the UK property portal market. It has snapped up Thinkproperty and Propertyfinder to clearly position itself in the top three UK portal businesses behind market leader Rightmove and DMGT’s The Digital Property Group.
In the process there have been some winners and some losers. However, it is Rightmove who is likely to gain the most from this move while questions have to be asked if DMGT truly missed a game changing opportunity.
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The Challenges for Google Real Estate
July 14, 2009 by Simon Baker · 19 Comments
The launch of Google Real Estate search on Google Maps in Australia, the US and New Zealand has shaken the property portal world. It is expected that Google Real Estate will make an appearance in the UK and German markets shortly.
Last week we published our initial thoughts on what the launch of Google Real Estate will mean for the existing portal sites in Australia. These thoughts are equally applicable for portal sites around the world.
Having followed the debate about Google Real Estate and its potential impact on portal sites, we thought it would be good to outline what we believe has to fall into place for Google to truly impact the property portal market leaders around the world.
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Is Google Beginning to Lose Its Grip?
July 8, 2009 by Emma Sorensen · 2 Comments
propertyportalwatch.com welcomes a guest opinion post from Nick Alexandrou of estateagents123.com on Microsoft’s new search engine bing.com. While Google has been busy introducing real estate search for Google Maps, Microsoft’s new search engine is growing in popularity. What does it mean for the property industry – portals and agents?
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Real Estate Added to Google Maps – What it Means for Australian Property Portals
July 7, 2009 by Simon Baker · 38 Comments
In Australia and the US, Google has added properties for sale to its mapping site – maps.google.com. Users of Google Maps are now able to see a selection of homes for sale and rent plotted on the maps. These homes for sale seem to be sourced from Google Base – Google’s classifieds engine. It is free for anyone to upload a listing and this can be done through an online interface or through an XML data feed.
The inclusion of property listings from Google Base onto Google Maps has some parts of the Australia real estate world abuzz with thoughts of the end of market leaders’ realestate.com.au and domain.com.au.
However, while this launch is new and innovative in the Australian market, a lot has to fall in place before realestate.com.au and domain.com.au are truly affected by the “entry” of Google into the Australian real estate advertising scene.
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Zoopla Confirmed as Potential Propertyfinder Buyer
July 1, 2009 by Simon Baker · 7 Comments
Last week it was revealed that the Propertyfinder’s management buy out attempt had failed and that the REA Group and News International had entered into a heads of agreement with a mystery party. This mystery party has now been confirmed as being Zoopla.
Zoopla is a relatively new entrant to the UK online real estate market having initially launched a site around home prices and more recently moving into advertising homes for sale in the UK using the pay per lead model. Earlier this year Zoopla closed out a £3.75m capital raising. Check out our coverage of Zoopla over the last year.
On reflection, this deal makes sense by providing Zoopla with a boost into being a serious competitor in the market and it gives propertyfinder.com and its team a new lease on life.
Propertyfinder MBO Fails But …
June 26, 2009 by Simon Baker · 8 Comments
The much talked about management buyout of propertfinder.com in the UK has failed however a new mystery buyer has emerged. In a late announcement on the ASX, the REA Group & News International have entered into a non-binding heads of agreement for the potential sale of their UK online business.
Internal sources say there were three “very detailed and strong bids” however the while the existing management put in a “very impressive bid”, they were not the preferred option.
A period of exclusivity has been entered with the preferred bidder so that they can undertake due diligence and the identity of the preferred bidder might be revealed as soon as the end of next week. Given the comment in the ASX release that “if this transaction successfully proceeds to completion, it is unlikely to have any impact on the guidance (already) provided”, the offer being considered is likely to be small.
The REA Group and News International have also kept the door open to close the business or just sell the assets to the preferred bidder as they continue the consultation process with staff – a prelude to closure.
So who is the mystery bidder?
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