We are founder members, gold members in fact, of the new homes portal, On The Market.com. What does this mean? That we get a key to the Executive Washroom? Well, yes, but more than this, it shows we have thrown ourselves, heart, soul, and wallet, into the new platform.
Here is a link to a description of On The Market that it posted on its launch day on 23rd January 2015 – http://blog.onthemarket.com/content/welcome-onthemarket-com-new-simple-way-search-property/.
Many estate agents have
stayed out of On The Market.com for a variety of reasons, including
waiting to see how it does before taking the plunge. Of course, if
too may did that it would be unsustainable. Yet if you go around
London you will see other estate agents, others as ambitious and
forward-looking as Edward Ashdale (well, almost), with their windows
plastered with On The Market.com stickers.
So, what has the
reception been since the launch? We embraced it, obviously, so much
so that we have a video telling people about it –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v4vpcM9tac.
Talking of videos, you
can see On The Market.com's 30 second TV advert here -
http://youtu.be/21BRn5dfupc
– and we've added it to our own You Tube playlist, appropriately named
Friends Videos.
Once On The Market.com went live, Zoopla experienced an
early 11% reduction in advertising from estate agents, but commented that
the real test for On The Market.com is interest from consumers –
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/zoopla-affected-by-onthemarket-launch-as-advertising-members-fall-10040861.html.
Of course, consumers need something to consume and not only is the On
The Market.com website customer-friendly, it has interesting news and
blog pages, a draw by themselves. It took just three weeks to clock
up one million unique visitors to the site –
http://www.cityam.com/209726/estate-agent-wars-onthemarket-hits-one-million-mark-unique-users-its-battle-against-rivals.
An early Guardian
newspaper report compared availablity of properties on Rightmove,
Zoopla and On The Market.com, and even at that early stage, the site was
a contender with significant listings –
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jan/26/property-site-onthemarket-rightmove-zoopla-selling-houses.
Another early report,
this time from City A.M., warned that On The Market.com was lagging
behind its rivals in Google local property searches. However, we
believe that On The Market.com, itself run by Agents Mutual, is there for
the long term and in the long term becoming a bigger player on
property searches is a very strong likelihood. Article here -
http://www.cityam.com/208155/onthemarket-will-need-win-google-battle-it-can-really-challenge-zoopla-and-rightmove.
So, almost a month in
and the jury is out on the impact of On The Market.com. Certainly, there
is already an impact. What is most surprising is that those early
reports seem to want to conclude on the success or failure of On The
Market.com when it has hardly begun. Give it twelve months and then the
judge can don his or her black cap, or not.
