The heads of Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket have been invited to take part in a Portal Leaders Debate' to discuss the future of the portal sector.
The invitation, from Estate Agent Today publisher Nat Daniels, has been extended to Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, Alex Chesterman, chief executive of Zoopla, and Ian Springett, chief executive of OnTheMarket/Agents' Mutual.
The invitation says: after the heat' of the debate leading to OnTheMarket, we hope this will be an opportunity to spread light' on what remains the major issue in the agency industry. We would like to bill this as an opportunity for each portal's leader to explain how they see the sector developing and what their own portal brings to the industry.
There would be an opportunity for each portal representative to question and debate with the others. At this stage we do not envisage that there would be audience questions, therefore allowing maximum concentrating on the portal leaders themselves to debate key issues.
If the leaders agree, the debate will be staged in central London and would be recorded and posted on Estate Agent Today.
EAT will report back on responses.
Meanwhile Zoopla has repeated its claim that, almost three months after launching, traffic to OnTheMarket has actually been in decline for the last few weeks after peaking in mid-March.
Zoopla spokesman Lawrence Hall says: Far from closing in on market leaders Rightmove and Zoopla, despite the bold predictions from some associated with it, OTM traffic remains well behind the audience levels of PrimeLocation and other UK property websites including Spareroom or Holidaylettings.
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Comments
Don't know about the others, but Springett would be Cameron. Smug, self-satisfied, out of touch, elitist, soundbite heavy and stage managed to within an inch of his life.
Let us have a debate in public - televised debate.
Love it.
Match the Leaders though...
Cameron / Milliband / Farage / Clegg...
Shipside / Chesterman / Springett...
Which is which Debate...
Before we know it Chesterman will be insisting they invite the MD of his PrimeLocation sub business too, before taking part in the debate!
The Rightmove guy will sit there quietly and probably not say too much, Ian Springett will have a smug self-satisfied look on his face the whole time and Alex Chesterman will be stropping and throwing tantrums all the way through.
Should be fun.
I agree, would be a fascinating debate. We've seen how the election debates have captured the public imagination, why not something similar for the property industry
Whether people like it or not, the portal debate is arguably the biggest issue in the property industry and will remain so for quite a while yet. I've never really seen Springett, Chesterman or Shipside talk in public, without their pre-prepared soundbites or PR-managed messages to fall back on, so it would be interesting to see who would put their point across best. Bring it on.
Would be a very interesting watch. Hope they all agree to it.
well I cant wait ! interested to hear their take on how all this has benefited the industry and the consumer, bring it on!
God knows why Simon Shinerock would want to attend a meeting, his not even an estate agent (his own words!) apparently!:D
Simon were you really banned from a meeting I have never heard that before!!!
Ooh I can't wait, oh hand on a mo, Ian Springett will refuse to take part. I don't think a man who banned from a meeting I was invited to because he saw me as a dissenter will want to participate in a public debate, some of his propoganda might get questioned