Rightmove’s revenues dropped 6% last year as a result of estate agency closures the year before. The 2009 revenue was £74m, compared with £69.4m the year before. This morning, Rightmove shares were trading strongly, at 10% up.
However, a pick-up in agency numbers was seen by April, and by the end of 2009, subscriber numbers had grown back up by 6%, to reach a total of 17,664. Rightmove’s underlying profits grew by just 2% – from £41m to £41.9m – because of stringent cost control and by squeezing more revenue from its member agents.
Almost half (48%) of agents faced with the choice of increased subscriptions for the current year (2010) or purchasing Rightmove’s additional services, went for the latter option.
In 2008, the average monthly spend per agent was £307. Last year, this grew to £308.
Managing director Ed Williams said: “We have continued to invest to give our advertisers an even better proposition, whilst everyone else has been pulling back. The success of our marketing, quality of property presentation, and effectiveness at promoting an advertiser’s brand to a very targeted audience has been complemented by the loyalty of our customers.
“In this challenging property market, we have given our customers a way of spending dramatically less than they used to in traditional media. We are reporting operating margins are up for the year, mainly a result of early action in 2008 to bring down costs in terms of headcount. We have managed to achieve this whilst improving website performance and enhancing the support options to our advertisers through our customer service teams and regional seminars.”
In terms of website performance, 2009 was a record breaking year for Rightmove. The number of email enquiries provided to agents doubled from 5.3m to 10.6m and overall page impressions increased to 6.5bn from 5.3bn.
This performance has continued into 2010, Rightmove said, with its market share amongst the four largest UK property portals now reaching a record high of 83% in the last month.
The company also achieved one million visits in a single day for the first time on January 25.
The Rightmove results came as Nationwide announced this morning that house prices dropped 1% in February – the first fall after nine consecutive months of house price rises. The lender said it was too early to say whether the reverse in prices could be the start of a trend.
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Comments
Sorry I have no suggestions, but agree that RM have us over a barrell they are the most used portal and unless everyone threatened to pull out of this portal there is no leverage. I find it very expensive although it does bring in the most inquiries.
Here's a suggestion, if you don't like them and you don't see a ROI from rightmove, don't use them.
No comments from anybody!
Well done Rightmove you have made a fantastic profit from us agents whilst at the same time getting us to pay you to give you the content that has made that profit.Either they're very clever or we are very stupid,probably both I expect.
When referring to their increase in profit,I fear the sentence, 'by SQUEEZING more revenue from its member agents'.
We will be squeezed next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, until we are bled dry and our only purpose in business is to support RM,by which time they will be taking a percentage of our monthly income,which they will work out as an average,they already have this info' and know how many houses we sell a month (worried! you should be) . With the internet becoming more and more powerful we are becoming more beholding to Rightmove year on year and don't they know it!
I alone can't do anything about this so what can we do except bend over and take it. Any suggestions (not from a RM employee please).