Investors Chronicle says the creation of OnTheMarket was a logical step in the light of the Rightmove-Zoopla dupooly - but the timing was off and the only-one-other-portal rule has turned out to be a major flaw.
The publication says Rightmove and Zoopla are likely to continue expanding, assuming the housing sector remains buoyant, as portal revenue will increase as agents increasingly move away from print advertising.
In 2007, 85 per cent of property advertising was in print; this is now closer to 50 per cent, says Investors Chronicle. A recent survey by [investment bank] Berenberg suggests that there could be a further £195m of revenue set to move from print to online.
Berenberg claims that Agents' Mutual, the parent company of OnTheMarket, has around £8m to spend on marketing in its first year, half of which has already gone on the advertising campaign at the time of the launch.
It concedes that overall spending will be higher as member agents spread the word about OnTheMarket, but it says £8m is only the same as Rightmove spent n 2014 and is sizably less than the £20m spent by Zoopla.
The threat from OnTheMarket may prove to be less than feared, and certainly less than the threat from increased activity in online-only agents and developers to the traditional estate agent claims Investors Chronicle.
The publication ends by saying that as the most established brand, Rightmove is likely to deliver further growth through higher prices to agents and an increase in premium advertising products.
The derating in Zoopla's shares - down 30 per cent since last August - following the migration from Zoopla to OnTheMarket, looks overdone. It also has more developer members than Rightmove, so greater exposure to the vibrant new-build market says IC, although it describes Zoopla Property Group shares as hardly cheap.
In the past week Zoopla has had its overweight' rating reaffirmed by analysts at Barclays while rival analysts at Canaccord have increased its price target for the portal and its status has changed to buy'. Deutsche Bank has reaffirmed its hold' status.
%20-%20IMAGE%20Client%20Accounting%20%E2%80%93%20what%20are%20your%20options.jpg)
.png)
Comments
whenever i think of a mutual or cooperative (coop) i just think Scargill..........and we know he had some terrible ideas
Actually, they don't appear if you type in property for sale in big cities like B'ham, Norwich, Leeds, Cardiff, Liverpool, Newcastle, Brighton, Southampton, Reading, Bristol, Bath, Plymouth, etc, etc. So in all of these places, unless you're specifically targeting OTM, you won't see them for dust.
Well, I've just typed in Birmingham, which I assume would be a fairly popular search for people looking at property. OTM don't appear. A search for Liverpool brings the same. And Bradford. And Leeds. And Cardiff. And Norwich.And...
Granted, OTM do appear at the top of the search menu for some locations, but far from all. And, even when they do, they're still competing with Zoopla, RM and PrimeLocation on most. Besides, being on the first page of a search engine is only half the battle. If the wider public still don't know who you are, they're more likely to head to the established brands. That's OTM's biggest issue.
Do you know the search volumes for what you are all typing in What you think is a popular search may not be So perhaps other portals such as OTM are hitting the right searches Just a thought...
@James - if you type in property for sale for my area, no OTM results come up. It's the same for plenty of other areas.
Bigger cities, and places in and around London, have OTM on the first results page, but far from every location does. By contrast, Zoopla and RM are on every single one.
Can anyone explain why it was 'bad timing'
Just tried it in a few other areas. Same result.
Harree above would suggest otherwise.
I've just typed in PROPERTY FOR SALE IN (my area) and, lo and behold, OTM are nowhere to be seen. RM, Zoopla and PrimeLocation all are.
Hear, hear, Ray!
OTM aren't flying up the natural listings - the using PPC to get the number 1 spots. Nowhere the be seen on any property for sale search in the natural listings in my area.
Yep, quite refreshing to see a more balanced analysis of the current portal situation. Beats Zoopla and OTM slagging each other off like schoolchildren.
I think it's fairly accurate, too. RM and Zoopla in control, although RM are still well ahead, with OTM challenging initially and then falling away (as expected). As they say, OTM wasn't necessarily an illogical decision, but the timing was poor.
An interesting point on property advertising as well. Many people are still very anti-online agency, but the importance of the internet itself can't be understated.
@Rob Davies....No I typed in PROPERTY FOR SALE IN ......(my area) not OnTheMarket. Under property for sale OTM is on page 1 already!
OTM are flying up the search rankings.
Agree with most of what Investors Chronicle have said. I think they have got most of their points pretty spot-on, and it's quite balanced too. Not laying into OTM completely, but also suggesting it hasn't had the impact it would have expected (which I think most would agree with).
Also interesting, if true, that OTM have spent half of their budget on that TV advert. Make of that what you will.
But if you type it as on the market rather than OnTheMarket, the results are less good. OnTheMarket is still the top result, fair enough, but in the sidebar is an advertisement for Grill on the Market. The stories underneath have nothing to do with OTM. That's the problem with having a name that could easily mean a number of different things, it's not exclusive to OTM and never will be.
So, if people are typing in OnTheMarket, all is well. If they type in any other variation, things become less good. Zoopla and Rightmove, whatever you think of them, don't have this problem.
Don't you just love the way these people suddenly become experts for the property market also the way that Graham Norton seems to back perceived negative aspects, especially those about OTM.
BTW, a personal view, local newspaper advertising is a very important part of the overall marketing mix and will continue as long as the publications exist.
@Simon... I've just done a quick search on the wife's I phone, still page 1. I guess this is the benefit of having 5000 branches push a portal.
For you that may be true James but the way Google works is on a personalised basis, which means that once you have visited a site, it will automatically rate higher in related searches you make. In order to see where OTM really ranks you would need to use a specialist tool, or do the same search on a new computer.
After only 3 months on the market is already on page 1 of the google natural listings in my area and the number of leads received are going up.
#fact