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Written by rosalind renshaw

The merger between the The Digital Property Group and Zoopla could not have come at a better time for the Digital portals, says guru Simon Baker.

Baker says that while Rightmove still leads the pack, Zoopla has established itself as the clear number two player, whilst FindaProperty and Primelocation have slipped backwards this year.

Baker puts Rightmove in top place in a number of charts which take different measurements – including time on site, traffic, unique visits, frequency of visits and page impressions.

While Rightmove leads the field by a distance, Zoopla comes second in most of the charts – although, surprisingly perhaps, the Foxtons website comes second in the chart for page impressions per visit.

Baker says the most important measure is total time on site. Here, the gap between Rightmove and the rest of the portals illustrates the huge battle that lies ahead for the newly merged Digital Zoopla business.

Rightmove accounts for 66% of the total minutes spent looking at property across the top ten sites. Zoopla is in second place with 12%, FindaProperty has 11% and Primelocation 6%.

An interesting piece is here, written by the man who used to lead Propertyfinder before it was bought by Zoopla:

propertyportalwatch.com

Comments

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    Is Zoopla an estate agency?

    We are not an estate agency. We are a property portal providing details of homes listed for sale/to rent by agents and a resource providing information about current homes values, sold house prices, local statistics and more...

    However it is apparent that Zoopla have mole vision when it comes to enforcing that. One thing that has to be said for RM is that it is a site for Agents even to the extent that smoke and mirror agencies set up and complying with OFT guidelines can not get on there.

    • 20 June 2012 13:38 PM
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    a little rooting through EAT and LAT shows a consistent and fervent support for Zoopla by PropertyHawk so much so that on several occasions has been asked /accused of being on their payroll. so what gives?

    Is there some NLA/RLA -Zoopla arrangement where private landlords are regularly promoting their properties through Zoopla and hence a nonchalant attitude towards the Evening Standard deal, you have probably said as much in one of yours posts so I suppose I ought trawl back though posts which at the time meant very little.

    • 20 June 2012 13:09 PM
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    What makes him a Guru?? Fat and bald?? Or is it like the NAEA no qualification needed, just call yourself it??

    • 20 June 2012 12:51 PM
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    "I run a niche website for residential landlords with an alexa rank of 130000 called propertyhawk, and it hasnt cost us a million pounds to get to that point"

    so not part of The Zoopla DPG machine but someone who is doing all in his power to provide a service to landlords at the expense of agents?

    No wonder you are pro zoopla powering the evening standard's attempt to roger Lettings agents.

    So does it require multi millions to get a sit off the ground or doesn't it?

    • 20 June 2012 12:31 PM
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    Sorry I don't understand, what is a hoover? we have always had a Dyson.

    Who would have thought it? a british no-body, happens to be a bit smarter than a huge American Corporation and in 1/5th of a generation becomes the market leader in an industry that was dominated by one company for best part of 100 years. Mr Dyson didn't have the multi millions required to take on the world's number 1 but he did it and suceeded. I agree PH, couldn't have put it better!

    • 20 June 2012 11:34 AM
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    Sorry mate your posts simply evidence the fact that you are part of the unsavoury goings on and as such anything you say stinks of damage limitation, with a definite and distinctive whiff of Zoopla about it!

    • 20 June 2012 11:22 AM
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    #DerYerTekDSS?

    Fantastic line....could'nt be put any better :-)

    • 20 June 2012 10:48 AM
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    #Ihopeyoudontmindbut Baker is right, the challenge now for the newly enlarged Zoopla business is to build consumer awareness and Zoopla have the on and off line marketing resources to do this via their network with the combined weight of its media partnerships who will leverage their print, web, mobile and social audience.

    #Ihopeyoudontmindbut I understand that Zoopla now have circa 12,000 members with DPG (Findaproperty / Primelocation) a reported 14,000 and this combined Zoopla / DPG membership means they will have circa 85% of GB agents (compared to Rightmove who has a reported 84% GB agents). The volume of response and the quality of response determines if an agency gets its return on the investment of its membership fees…..I guess the increasing membership numbers and stability of membership suggests that ROI is being delivered and agents value their Zoopla membership as part of their marketing mix.

    The greater the content (as delivered by the enlarged Zoopla business) = the greater the audience = more browsing = more enquiries = more viewings = more offers = more sales = more commission revenue for agents

    #Ihopeyoudontmindbut The idea of coming up with a compelling credible alternative property portal run by agents is a nice aspirational idea but the divergence of agency business model in the UK…and corporate and independent competiveness…not forgetting the multi millions required in start up and run on costs means a reality check is required me thinks!

    • 20 June 2012 10:41 AM
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    @marketeer:

    I bought a hoover last week. It was made by Dyson.

    • 20 June 2012 09:58 AM
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    A Guru's opinion is just that an opinion and in this case my opinion is that Simon is wrong. Zoopla is simply a set of King's new clothes that DPG have treated themselves to and like buying a Groovy pair of 70's platform shoes and flaired Jeans it is going to turn out to be one of those things they should have thought a bit more about.

    There is very little substance to Zoopla and as an informed recipient of the stuff it mails through can find nothing about it that warrants any serious time or consideration. However with DPG all too keen to drag this particular Trojan Horse through their gates it is fairly obvious that the chaos has begun and as is the nature of a parasite it will begin to control its host.

    Simon is right about one thing, the timing is near perfect, but it is perfect for Agents rather than the portals. The merger has opened a gap in the market for a next generation offering, probably an Agent centric site that is not out to abuse its customer base and certainly not one that is all to happy to support private vendors and landlords with technology derived and funded from its Agent customer base.

    • 20 June 2012 08:32 AM
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    The OFT report into Zoopla/DPG merger put the DPG share of visits at 17.8% to Zoopla's 11.9%.

    Zoopla in second place - is somebody 'spinning' here?

    Interestingly RM's share of visits was 46.8% hardly the world domination that everyone believes.

    As good as they are, in the real world of 'joe public' RM are not at the 'hoover' stage yet ie when people think online property they don't automatically think RM.

    • 20 June 2012 07:59 AM
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