Zoopla has issued an outspoken criticism on the alleged salary of the chief executive of the new OnTheMarket portal.
Lawrence Hall, communications head at Zoopla Property Group, says in a press release sent to the media: So far the only beneficiaries from OTM appear to be Ian Springett, who is reportedly pocketing a significant six-figure pay cheque, traditional media like The Sunday Times and Country Life where he is visibly splashing cash (unlikely to benefit the majority of his members) and agents NOT involved with OTM who are winning instructions from those involved.
Hall continues: In view of Mr Springett's promises that he will 'catch the existing portals and fast', he had better hurry up before he does irreparable damage to some of the businesses he appears to have forced to give up their most effective marketing channels to fund his salary and ambitions.
The attack comes in a release renewing Zoopla's claims that OTM is receiving only modest numbers of visits. Zoopla claims that in OTM's first full week it received 58,000 visits according to independent web monitoring firm, Hitwise.
But OTM has hit back saying the figures quoted about the new portal's traffic are simply inaccurate and aim to mislead and intimidate agents who have chosen to remove all of their properties and their corresponding advertising expenditure from them [Zoopla.]
Ian Springett told EAT: "The tactics being employed by ZPG smack increasingly of a business running scared in the face of a huge loss of support from independent agents. In their annual report dated September 30 2014, their claimed property listings were 1.1m. ... According to the figure published [on] February 3 2015, on the Zoopla homepage, this number has dropped to 815,204.
He adds: Many of our member agents are questioning whether ZPG really has the claimed 815,204 UK properties 'being advertised for sale or to let' (i.e. available to buy or to rent) and believe that the true figure for available properties in England, Scotland and Wales has fallen to below 460,000."
Springett - who did not respond to Zoopla's remarks about his salary - describes the early results following the first days of the portal's national advertising campaign as very encouraging.
Meanwhile City analyst consultancy Numis has reiterated its 'add' stance on Zoopla - a generally positive status - but has lowered its forecasts following the launch of OnTheMarket last month.
"Whilst we remain sceptical of the long-term impact from this launch by Agents' Mutual, near-term press commentary and estate agent statements suggest that Zoopla has faced the lions share of leavers, with market leader Rightmove proving significantly more resilient" Numis said.
The next trading statement from Zoopla is scheduled for February 12.
Comments
Paxman/Shinerock...How are you doing today and more importantly how much are you being paid by Zoopla
Yes but what is Springett really yearning
Come on......think we need to know...
This is a storm in a teacup
In two years time OTM will still be a minor player.
Agents will still be listing and selling properties.
The only winners will be the benficiaries of hugely ramped media spends
"I have already heard of cases where OTM membership is being cited as one reason to change employer"
ATTENTION...ATTENTION... weak neg needs a big-name crutch to help them hobble along.
Good negs sell in a powercut.
Richard, only you know if you are exaggerating, anyway, as you are anonymous it hardly matters does it I am certainly not saying that all OTM agents will suffer, or all non OTM agents will prosper but it is helping us at the moment, of that I am certain and overall it will favour non OTM agents. I have said this too many times now but OTM agents have missed the point. It doesn't matter whether or not Zoopla adds value in their opinion. What matters is what the public think and they will be persuaded that it is in their interests to be on Zoopla as well as Rightmove if the issue arises, which means an OTM agent will be on their back foot. When I read stuff that Ed Mead has said about how OTM was conceived it's a total farce anyway, just look at the advertising that's being done, the only thing OTM will be known for the way they are going is farmland, well done! I have taken a lot of flack over this issue which I now realise was ironic because OTM is providing me with a bit of an edge. In any event, I am now much more interested in trying to protect the PRS from being destroyed by political meddling, so if you have not done do already Richard, please sign my petition. By the way, good luck with this year, I really mean that, in the greater scheme of things OTM is a small, petty, little issue
@simon shinerock. Isn't it a little rude of you to basically accuse me of lying Not to mention incredibly hypocritical for you to state that you have a lethal (and by implication successful) weapon to use against the market leaders and yet are unable to accept that in my area the exact reverse is true. I also fail to see why the burden of proof falls upon me to demonstrate anything to you when you in turn have made your statement without any such evidence!! No I wasn't a founder of the site in fact I was an undecided until probably September of last year. It is also I might add a little arrogant of you to assume that my staff were mistaken or misleading with regard to their findings, I went to them with the proposition and like any business I listened to what they were saying and only then made a decision. The fact that it has proved successful so far should be applauded should it not
OTM has already succeeded in my opinion - agents have won back control. Buyers can not rely on any single site to see everything available, which i think some were, even though it wasn't the case. Serious buyers will now look at them all - that means soon we may only have to be on one. And best of all OTM is the only one that lets people through to your own website - that denial i always thought scandalous for the money we paid. So OTM members should get more traffic.
@Simon Shinerock.
You and this publications scare tactics are becoming boring and very predictable, the only people listening are those gullable to do so.
@Richard Head With the greatest respect you sound like you are telling a bit of a story and without evidence to the contrary, which you are welcome to present, I will assume your optimism for OTM has got the better of you. If it wasn't for the reference to bigger instructions I would even suspect you were a one of the founders but clearly that can't be so. As someone who is the principal and the decision maker be sure your people are bring straight with you. I have already heard of cases where OTM membership is being cited as one reason to change employer
In my experience someone who goes off on this sort of tirade is generally worried about what the competition are doing to their own business!!!
Phil Spencers mate makes a really valid point. Before we dumped Zoopla we got all of our front line staff together and asked them whether they could remember sales via portal introductions.(we had also carried out slightly more scientific reporting too!) Many of them remembered RM intros that lead to offers but none of them could remember a Zoopla one that did! They also reported that the cross over of applicants was huge and the quality of leads through Zoopla was noticeably lower. I liked the reps at Z but one has to say it was probably the biggest sham ever in terms of results it delivered. I suspect many of those that have moved to OTM are already finding as we have that the leads are a little fewer but the quality is 10x better!
I think what is narking off Zoopla the most, is that agents who are OnTheMarket are just charging on like it's business as usual. Probably because there all realising that they never needed to be on it in the first place.
Springett speaks to EAT - that's got to be a first!
Isn't also interesting that Zoopla bring up Ian Springetts salary when in their own share prospectus the Directors of Zoopla take a 35-40% dividend in February of this year based on results from 2014 business, what's that a nice 22M!!!
You know your in trouble when you have to raise the issue of your competitors salary. It is Zoopla who seem to be doing all the shouting.
OTM is great for my estate agency too. Since marketing that we would be going the site at the end of last year we have just finished January a massive amount up on last years business for the same period. A huge amount in the last 10 days of the month! The adverts have not only given a fabulous USP, now with tv advertising, to align with on valuations, but sellers love the site particually for its clarity of images. One fabulous by product I hadn't foreseen was that aligning our company name alongside some higher end names in the business has actually seen the average price of instructions of the last week or so significantly higher too. This in turn has allowed me some latitude of our targets for this quarter. The site may well look like Primelocation did but I have to say Springett you did deliver!
"...it has enlivened our efforts to ramp up Home Sales in all our branches and given us a real weapon to attack the local market leaders."
Pity, then, that in order to try to differentiate your service you can ONLY claim to be on a different portal or two from what you admit to be "the local market leaders".
They are LEADERS for a reason, Mr Shinerock - and t'interweb ain't it. Go figure.
OTM is great for my agency, it has enlivened our efforts to ramp up Home Sales in all our branches and given us a real weapon to attack the local market leaders. My conscience is of course clear as I was as vociferous as anyone could be in warning agents about the folly of joining this doomed enterprise. If only OTM would drop their regressive exclusivity rule IT could stand a chance, if only pigs had wings they could fly.
I can assure you that Springett is barking up the wrong tree here. To think that this battle will be won with who has the most listings is a huge error. Rightmove now have a completely dominant position in the market. Whichever secondary site consumer choose to use will be the one with the most unique listings. As Zoopla have many house builders and smaller indies that Rightmove do not, they will win. OTM genuinely doesn't have a chance and I believe that Springett will continue to bang the 'number of listings drum' for the next few week before those agents who have invested and risked so much to bring his Phoenix fantasy to life will start distancing himself from him.
I was involved in the early days of Fastcrop/Primelocation. I see so many parallels between his approach then and now - which is why I didn't get involved. We are operating in the big boy world now where you actually have to prove results - not the illusion of them. Ultimately it didn't work then (they all crowed about their 48m payday, but with Rightmove topping at 3bn they all looked a bit stupid), and it won't work now. In the meantime, I am winning the odd 50k plus fee and they are convincing themselves its all going to be alright.
You'll be amazed at how easily they can get 90% of their members to vote for a sale to Zoopla. You betcha'.
Notice that 'the other site' hasn't run this story! Is the stat being given by Zoopla misleading, or does Springett just not like it Surely the correct response to accusing Zoopla's statement is to clarify EXACTLY what the traffic is - not start making comments about how many properties Zoopla have
I don't get Springer's point at all. Surely what matters is the number of people who see my advert