AUGUST 2010 |
www.opp.org.uk
INDUSTRY Trio signs up to join Zoopla By Adam Hill
IN a move illustrating the gravitational pull of property portals,
Zoopla.co.uk has signed what it calls “long term strategic partnerships” which will see Countrywide, LSL Property Services and Connells Group all advertise their properties on the site. The three UK groups will also
provide marketing support and advice as part of the deal, while their CEOs (Grenville Turner, Simon Embley and David Livesey respectively) have been made non-executive directors of Zoopla. “These partnerships will help us to
better serve the needs of our website users, all of our agent members and the industry as a whole,” said Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman. For the three companies, the appeal
is obvious as they seek to bolster their own online opportunities. “With the vast majority of consumers
searching for properties and related information online, this partnership further enhances our online strategy and will serve to maximise the benefi ts for each of our brands online,” says
MEDIA News | 21
TripAdvisor takes over Holiday Lettings
Alex Chesterman | The new partnerships will “better serve” property agents
Countrywide’s chief executive Grenville Turner. Simon Embley at LSL says Zoopla
“now accounts for a signifi cant share of the enquiries we get from both house hunters and sellers”. Zoopla sees itself as embodying a
dual role: a helpful search facilitator for consumers and a forward-thinking marketing partner for estate agents. It displays property listings along with value and price trend information and gives users the opportunity to engage with professionals via tools like AskMe!
The estate agent chains operate
2,000 high street branches under brands such as Hamptons International, Your Move, William H Brown and Barnard Marcus. Launched two years ago, Zoopla is now the UK’s second most-visited property website, with 5 million visitors per month, according to fi gures from Nielsen/UKOM. Chesterman hailed the deal, which
he said was a ringing endorsement for Zoopla, and a “great testament to what we have achieved over the last two years and the innovation that we bring to the market”.
Russian agents are hot property
LEADING overseas property portal entrepreneur Dan Johnson was recently engulfed in the global media storm that greeted July’s Cold War- style US-Russia spy swap, in which ten Russian agents were exchanged for four US ones. The owner of TheMoveChannel.
com found himself swamped with attention following the revelation that his LinkedIn profi le connects him to Anna Chapman, a leading member of the New York spy ring which admitted
attempting to supply intelligence to the Russian government. Johnson found himself caught in
the middle of a tabloid frenzy with headlines about “sexy spies” and “a fl ame-haired femme fatale.” The papers characterised Chapman
as a “Bond girl” with “poised good looks” and “lush red hair”, who was widely reported to have worked for 5 years in London, at one point as “a real estate entrepreneur.” Johnson is understood to have met
her in October 2009 when his site agreed to list Russian properties from Chapman’s portal
Domdot.ru. On her LinkedIn profi le Chapman is
listed as CEO for PropertyFinder Ltd, which runs a real estate search engine for Russian speakers called
Domdot.ru (English version at
Domdot.net). Johnson recommends her as
an ambitious, forward-thinking professional, who has totally embraced the open, collaborative way of working that has evolved in the web industries.
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Independent holiday home website
Holidaylettings.co.uk has been acquired by Expedia’s TripAdvisor Media Network. The companies say it is a natural fi t, with growth in demand for holiday home rentals dovetailing with TripAdvisor’s audience of travellers. “This combination is certain to benefi t both our advertisers – second home owners and property managers - and those seeking alternatives to hotel accommodation,” said a Holiday Lettings spokeswoman. Holiday Lettings MD Ross Elder
and Andy Firth, technical director, will “remain at the helm and will continue to run the business with the existing management team”, she added. The company will still be run as an independent brand from its offi ces in Oxford. The world’s largest travel website, TripAdvisor is based in Newton, Massachussetts. The move continues TripAdvisor’s
expansion into the holiday home space following the purchase of a majority stake in US site FlipKey. com in 2008 and the launch of vacation rentals on TripAdvisor last year. Holiday Lettings was established in 1999 and currently advertises more than 40,000 holiday homes in more than 100 countries on behalf of private owners, property managers and letting agents. With the new addition, TripAdvisor now includes 17 travel brands and attracts 46 million unique monthly visitors.
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