PORTALS
Niche marketing
Andrea Kirkby wonders if the small portals still have a place in the world.
N
ow that Rightmove, Zoopla and The Digital Property Group have consolidated their grip on the top three places in the portals universe, you might ask whether there
is any room left for other portals. Jonathan Upton, business development
director of Calnea Analytics (which owns Mouseprice) says smaller portals have certainly had to focus on differentiation. “There’s been a lot of churn in the portal market in the last few years,” he says, “and it’s important to recognise that.” Alex Chesterman, at Zoopla, says,
“Niche could be a polite way of saying tiny.” He believes there is a now a two-tier market, with the three leading portals delivering significant value to agents, and many much smaller players. “Ultimately,” he says, “what estate agents are looking for is exposure, so the smaller players are struggling.” Some have been bought out, others are
falling away or changing the model. That’s given Zoopla interesting opportunities to provide information for distribution partners such as
homes24.co.uk. Trinity Mirror’s experiences in the
portals market appear to bear out Alex’s point about struggling smaller portals. Despite the fact that it bought fish4 at the end of 2010, Jonathan Upton says its portals, including
smartnewhomes.com,
have less traffic than Mouseprice. The fish4 deal appears to have been driven mainly by the profitable recruitment advertising sector; property portals weren’t even mentioned in the last financial results statement. The group recently reorganised its digital
division, shedding a number of executives in the process, so it seems the parent company isn’t happy with the performance of the web portfolio. And Jonathan Upton says even fish4 isn’t what it used to be; “The days when Fish4 provided a useful counterpoint to the big portals are over.”
THE DEFINITION OF ‘NICHE’ Perhaps we need to look at our definitions of what a portal is. After all, Trinity Mirror’s property portals are all first generation portals, competing directly with the big three. Most of the first generation portals that are left are adjuncts to print media (homes24 is part of regional newspaper group Archant) or to trade associations (such as NFOPP’s Propertylive – which Mark Milner of TDPG points out has 0.13 per cent share of visits according to Hitwise, against 24 per cent for TDPG). The niche portals that seem to be carving out territory for themselves are adopting rather different business models: private sales, price data, niche markets such as investment sales, vertical search. James Cole, of The Big Property List,
There’s been a lot of churn in the portal market in the last few years, and it’s important to
recognise that.’ JONATHAN UPTON CALNEA ANALYTICS
says the portals’ strategies need a rethink as the internet matures. “We’re leaving the old classifieds model behind as portals look to engage consumers in a more holistic sense and to take advantage of advances in technology.” That creates opportunities for smaller players, as some portals, like Zoopla, make their data available for republishing, increasing the reach and the number of leads. He believes Rightmove’s decision to hold its data closely “serves only to protect the interest of the portal, which is afraid of losing importance in the eyes of the subscription-paying estate agents”; longterm, it’s not good for the agent.
PROPERTYdrum MAY 2011 13
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