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TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

OnTheMarket isn’t just limping along insists new chief executive

OnTheMarket has hit out at a newspaper claim that it is just “limping along.”

Patrick Hosking, a prominent financial columnist at The Times, accused OTM of failing to deliver on early promises after being launched on the back of agents' frustrations about Rightmove.

He says OTM - which launched with claims to become number one portal within a short period - is now just “limping along” in third place. And he rubs salt in the wound by saying OTM's share price is “drifting lower” too.

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Now Jason Tebb, the ex-Foxtons estate agent who is the new chief executive of OnTheMarket, is rejecting the accusation.

Repeating figures already produced by the portal he says: “OnTheMarket isn’t ‘limping'; indeed, we had a robust and strong start to the year with more than 1.8m leads generated in January, which is an average of 146 per advertiser. Visits to the site in the month were 28 million and weekly site visits exceeded six million every week since the start of February 2021.”

Admitting that “there is much more we can do” Tebb promises improvements.

“I’ll shortly be unveiling our forward-looking strategy in the next few weeks and I’m really excited about sharing those details with our community of agents. In the meantime, my personal engagement with our customers will pick up pace as I continue to listen, understand and learn about what they need and want from a portal and what they feel would add value to their businesses. Their support so far has been overwhelming” he claims.

He continues: “We’re here to serve agents and safeguard their best interest and as the only portal which is majority agent-owned, we are best placed to do just that. But equally as important is providing the consumer with a reason to visit the site time and time again.

“We are already building momentum, with new agents choosing to list with OnTheMarket for the first time, as well as expanding our product and service offering to existing customers to make it easier, quicker and more cost effective for agents to sell and let their listings."

  • The  Duchess

    I love OTM and I feel I am in the minority but from day one the leads may be less than RM but they are solid and substantial . Just this week put a house on New and Exclusive for 48 hours before RM and sold on day one. Why do we always have to knock everyone and everything. I like RM too we need them just like they need us. Be kind everyone

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    Try avoiding portals first use a solid crm strategy for buyers and hyperlocal social .
    Three or more portal subscriptions is a killer

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    I’m sorry but a platform launched 6 years ago shouldn’t be releasing a press statement saying that they are “already building momentum”. OTM was a missed opportunity for the industry, too few early adopters and those of us that did join got f****d with late adopters paying nothing off the backs of the original supporters.

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    The missed opportunity was the founding teams focus on the negative side over the positive potential.
    All their early comms were confrontational and argumentative.
    Put a lot of people off.

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    OTM isn't in 3rd position, It doesn't have the legacy issues ZPG has to contend with and it hasn't irked the connectors and influencers who will be hard pressed to forgive ZPG getting involved in the skirmish between OTM and Connells.

    Not sure who fed Mr. Hosking his insight but it fails to consider the full landscape of the industry and the innovation OTM is able to avalanche into the sector.

    Mr. Tebb has every opportunity of strategic alliance that could devastate both Rightmove and Zoopla

    Algarve  Investor

    That's what was said 6 years ago, though, and it never happened.

    Are you suggesting a strategic alliance between OTM and Boomin, as has been speculated?

    That is the only way they'll have the brand power and financial might to take the fight to Rightmove and Zoopla, but I still think it's doomed to failure because of the brand awareness of the big two, which are synonymous with property and the most famous brand names in the sector. Ask the average man or woman on the street to name two property brands and I'd bet my bottom dollar that 99.9% of them would come back with RM and Zoopla.

    While that is the case, I can't see them ever being devastated as you say.

     
  • Hit Man

    Many agents took advantage of the free period, did nothing to help in that time just expected miracles, typically of many agents that just sit back on a freebie and when asked to pay don't then make up excuses because they were removed from the site. They won't eat humble pie and sign back up they would rather slate the company and continue to be ripped off by ZPG and RM.

  • Algarve  Investor

    In my eyes, OTM is very much the third portal and has been treading water for a long time. It's not been a total disaster, as it seemed it might be for a while after it first launched, but neither has it reinvented the wheel or made the impact it said it would.

    All sorts of bold claims were made by Springer and others which never came to fruition. OTM made Rightmove stronger and Zoopla has bounced back remarkably after a period when it looked in some trouble.

    Now there are a load of new portals on the scene, with Boomin the most high-profile, which will further crowd the market and make it harder for OTM to get heard/have any presence. Maybe they need a house price index or something to get their name out there. Despite many high-profile advertising campaigns, they haven't cut through in any way.

    You don't hear people, when talking about buying or selling a property, saying "Oh yeah, I search on Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket", they stop after the first two.

    OTM launched with the express aim of becoming the number 1 portal. In that it's clearly failed. It seems to have become a solid number 3, and will be interesting to see if Boomin eats away at that share when (if) it finally launches, or whether they collaborate in some way as rumoured.

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    “The fact is, this is about us identifying what we do best and finding more ways of doing less of it better,”

  • Dharmesh Mistry

    A home owner doesn't move very often, so AD Spend is a key factor in keeping the brand alive. People recognise RM and ZPG because they spend move then all the portals put together. That being said, executing well on Digital Marketing is more cost effective and now the modern way to get at customers. They ALL could do better, but at the moment OTM seemed to have at least levelled with the much bigger players. However as said above, supporting agencies full technology needs from listings to CRM and Sales Progression, its seems ZPG have the edge? Be interested to hear what others think on this point.

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