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Zoopla claims second place behind Rightmove

Monday 19th September 2011

Property portal Zoopla is claiming to be in second place behind Rightmove, after the latest data from independent website monitoring firm Nielsen.

It shows that the number of unique visitors to Zoopla grew faster than other UK property portal in August – by 10.6% – placing Zoopla as the second most-visited property website in the UK.

However, it looks as though Zoopla and the Digital portals will continue to slug it out for second place. Nielsen puts Zoopla in second place, recognising it as a single portal, but places FindaProperty and Primelocation in third and fourth place respectively, recognising them as two separate portals.

In fact, if you were to add FindaProperty and Primelocation unique visitor traffic together as one, as some other traffic measures do, Digital would be in second place.

The Nielsen figures for August report Rightmove effortlessly ahead of the competition in any case, with 3.37m visitors – a 1.2% drop on July. It places Zoopla in second place with 1.95m visitors, a rise of 10.6% on July. FindaProperty, with 1.75m visitors is third, with a 6.6% rise on July traffic, and Primelocation comes in fourth with 881,000 unique visitors, an 8.8% drop on July.

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Added by wardy on 2011-09-20 09:52:13

'as it did not appear some of the contributors understood the Zoopla proposition,'

and who's fault is that, do you think? we have all had the Zoopla reps in our offices.

Added by PropertyHawk on 2011-09-20 09:45:46

Hi Agent Orange,

A quick google search shows a news story that Zoopla provided 800,000 buyer, renter and seller leads to its member agents in August, so it appears consumer engagement extends far further than their traffic looking at Home Values.

Hi PbroAgent,

In answer to you question: No I don’t have shares in Zoopla.

Let me make it clear I like rightmove but I love the way that Zoopla is technically and tactically different than RM. RM has been and remains today UK market leader in the portal space but history shows us that things CAN and DO change. Take for instance a time in the not too distant past when MySpace in the US and Friends Reunited in the UK dominated the social media space, I bet their users and execs around the boardroom could not envisage using, in the case of the former or being knocked of their perches, in the case of the latter. Along comes facebook, more intuitive to use and tools that engage, MySpace and Friends Reunited failed to adapt and give consumers what they wanted preferring to continue to give them what they themselves wanted, the result facebook now occupies at the moment a dominant position. We await the next development, perhaps Google+, jury’s out.

I have always thought that the role of a business leader is to keep an eye out for products and services that would deliver value and if possible commercial advantage. Seeing some of the early comments against the context of this story provoked me to what to try to give reasoning and understanding as it did not appear some of the contributors understood the Zoopla proposition, hopefully some will have a little more of an understanding.

One thing is for sure, if the Zoopla business continues to trend increases and its competitors decreases, sooner or later it will take the lead, something perhaps to think about perhaps.

Added by Agent Orange on 2011-09-19 16:52:59

Doesn't most of Zoopla's traffic come from people looking at Sold prices, rather than actively seeking property to buy....?

Added by PbroAgent on 2011-09-19 16:52:46

@PropertyHawk

You clearly have a vested interest in promoting Zoopla. Are you a shareholder?

"...and from scanning a number of stories on EAT it appears that some readers comments corroborate these findings." Well you've clearly not been reading EAT recently because on the recent 150+ post Rightmove thread there were many posts slating Zoopla. Some examples:
"we are on Zoopla (almost forgot as very rare to receive any leads from them)"
"don't use Zoopla though, they were appalling."
"Great portal [RM] delivers high value , miles ahead of other portals , why spend budget on portals where nobody looks"

"with their recently announced strategic partnership with Johnston Press to power its property portal" That'll be the same Johnston Press that agents are leaving in droves is it? Because they provide even worse ROI than Zoopla.

"The Zoopla AVM (automated valuation module) algorithm produces consumers an estimate of value only" Well no wonder Rightmove can't figure out why prices keep going up in a falling market there are clearly too many vendors getting barmy ideas from Zoopla. As a completely random experimant, I've just been on the AVM for two houses I'm selling and one i'm not. It gave an average overestimation of the three properties (in my local expert opinion) of 16.6%. In what way can that possibly help to provide a "quality lead"?

Added by PropertyHawk on 2011-09-19 16:10:12

Hi Wardy,

No, I don’t work for Zoopla.......but I am a big fan.

Whilst I understand that some would think that on-line audience loyalty does not occur as the web is a ‘free’ environment and that consumers will roam everywhere trawling all portals, I suggest in practice what happens is that there is a degree of audience loyalty that portals can command (give customers what they want and they will return again and again, just as I am sure you do with your business, unless you don’t give them or do what they want…then they stray!).

They achieve this by providing consumers with information, content and a market place of properties. If the user is happy with the environment then they don’t stray. Perhaps you could liken brand loyalty to the newspaper industry, its unlikely that a consumer of say the Mail on Sunday would break ranks and buy the Sunday Telegraph…..I was going to say the NOTW because that would have been even more remote of a chance LOL. Consumers of print media, in general, keep to one brand as they like the content and usability and because there is a cost involved there is a higher degree of loyalty.

The figures quoted are from the highly reputable Ukon/MediaTel, who incidentally also report in their July numbers that 64% of Zoopla network visitors did not visit FindaProperty and that 77% did not visit Primelocation.

You yourself may not like potential sellers having the ability to obtain home value estimate and following value trends within their market place but many homeowners do like to know what’s happening with their property value and within their community. You don’t have to be an estate agent to understand that exact property value is only ever realised at the time of completion and that sellers generally realise that an agents roll in understanding the marketing place and reading the other factors that influence pricing to ensure that it attracts attention from suitable buyers at the time of marketing.

As an observer its interesting to watch the traction that Zoopla now clearly have, tactically and strategically they are different and this difference benefits agents and consumers alike…..surely as an agent you want to welcome a positive disrupter in the portal space so you have competition and choice…..I guess its up to you if you want to stand on the sideline, that’s your prerogative.

Added by wardy on 2011-09-19 15:21:08

sorry for the paste error

Added by wardy on 2011-09-19 15:14:01

PropertyHawk.
Who are you? Do you work for zoopla?
If so then monkey tennis is displaying the feelings of many agents that zoopla have NOT signed up yet including myself. If you want to talk about red herrings then let’s start with your stats. 51% of visitors are unique. By unique I assume you mean these visitors do not search for properties by any other means or do you mean they didn’t go straight to RM afterwards? Either way I would suggest that someone who dedicates their search to one portal isn’t the hottest lead to start off with.
The AVM (as you put it) is wrong, Not just slightly out either but completely misleading and is the single reason why I will never use the site.
If you are a zoopla person then take agents comments on board, if not resign yourself to playing second fiddle to Mr Shipside.

If you are a zoopla person then take agents comments on board, if not resign yourself to playing second fiddle to Mr Shipside.

Added by PropertyHawk on 2011-09-19 14:32:39

Hi Monkey Tennis,

So I guess that you’re happy with the quality your rightmove leads? I think your find that if you speak to agents up and down the country since RM introduced the One email to All functionality that lead quality headed south.

I also observe that you wish Zoopla to ditch the voice introduction, cannot see anything wrong with the introduction and it’s a method of reinforcing lead origin employed by the likes of RM, DPG and even PropertyLive…..seems a somewhat red herring of a comment to make.

The Zoopla AVM (automated valuation module) algorithm produces consumers an estimate of value only, these estimates will increase in accuracy over time as more data comes its way. You are right in stating that individual properties can be estimated wide of the mark, over time even these shall change hands and the data improved. The fact is that for the majority of UK housing the Zoopla HomeValues tool is already finding much favour with potential sellers, who incidentally hang around and view members properties available to buy……just as intended!

Added by PropertyHawk on 2011-09-19 14:10:20

Whilst traffic is important I would suggest that for agents it’s the volume of direct response that carries more significance, not forgetting quality of said leads.

There is growing circumstantial evidence that many agents holding Zoopla network membership are receiving numbers equal to, if not more than, their comparable rightmove membership and from scanning a number of stories on EAT it appears that some readers comments corroborate these findings.

It is also interesting to note that stats from Ukom/MediaTel demonstrate that 51%....up from 47% of Zoopla’s audience is unique and does not go to rightmove, which is useful knowledge to any estate or letting agent that might be concerned about lead duplication.

Finally it can also be anticipated that the trend for Zoopla network traffic will maintain its impressive upward tracking with their recently announced strategic partnership with Johnston Press to power its property portal which comes hot on the heels of Archant’s homes24.co.uk joining Zoopla’s network of exclusive on-line partner brands.

Added by Monkey Tennis on 2011-09-19 13:37:01

Zoopla...you need to make some changes.

Firstly get rid of the guy who shouts in my ear every time I get a phone lead, usually the enquiries are not of high quality so why tell me its a quality lead, it just makes you look like a fraud.

Secondly, your computer that works out the value of a house is always way out on any property thats a little bit individual. I have a farmhouse on my books with 10 acres for £1.2m, your ground breaking valuation software values it at £10million ish!

Thirdly, your customer service is poor. I had one of your sales rep's here last christmas, she agreed to keep the membership fees the same for a year, a month later you send me an invoice for double the rate agreed saying that all membership was at a new rate, which is not ideal.

Added by paul on 2011-09-19 12:37:10

The 2 worst performing agents in my area are the only 2 on Zoopla!!!

Added by PbroAgent on 2011-09-19 12:19:15

@Wardy

Perhaps it's a case of first the worst, second the best, third the one with the hairy chest...

Added by wardy on 2011-09-19 09:28:00

Im second best!....... No Im second best!.....No Its me!...

Old Miles Longshanks must be laughing his arse off.

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