Are online agents like yours really gaining market share?
Yes, Rightmove figures show the share of online agents has increased from 2.5% in early 2015 to 6.5% today – that’s an increase of more than 100% in two years.
We have data that shows, depending on area, the propensity for people to use an online agent is increasing at a significant rate.
I believe it’s all about tipping point. If you talk to business experts, they believe it’s somewhere around 12% market share. We are rapidly moving towards that.
Where’s this growth coming from?
Look at Countrywide and Foxtons. Their listings and revenues are dropping while the decent online operators such as Purplebricks, Yopa and ourselves are growing our share and numbers in absolute terms in a market that is down by 30%.
Some say it’s all fuelled by investors’ cash
Yes, it is a question of cash but it’s also about proposition and execution – I think there will be two or three winners in this market.
Investors are getting fickler and I know of one online agent which is struggling to raise funding now.
But it’s more about that if there are ten competitors in a new market, a lot of investors will wait and see who the top three or four successful ones are and then back them – while the others will fade and die. No one wants to back horse number five. We’ve just raised £9 million.
Won’t the high street just adopt tech and make online agents pointless?
Well, the Countrywide attempt to launch its own hybrid offering appears to have been a total disaster because in my opinion it was never meant to be serious – and was more of a way to lure in customers to then pay higher fees.
The LSL investment in YOPA is more interesting and was a good thing for them to do in principle. But Martin & Co’s Ewemove acquisition – it just isn’t disruptive; I think they’re merely charging the customer a big fee using a bit of technology via a franchise, whereas we charge the consumer a much lower fee with much better value and performance, service and better accessibility all via technology. That’s disruption.
I think Foxtons, Countrywide and the other ‘verticals’ must embrace the fact that their customers want choice and that technology can reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction. The reason they don’t do that is because they don’t understand tech.
But I think in five years the tech and the high street could become blended and we’ll have the position you have in the travel industry now – same holidays, but delivered via online brands like Trivago.
I think the big verticals like Countrywide are vulnerable to technology-led smaller companies disrupting their markets. Think Blockbuster during the 1990s, which considered itself unassailable and didn’t embrace transformational technology.
Don’t take my word for it – look at the Countrywide share price; down from £6.80p five years ago to £1.20p today – that’s not cyclical, it’s structural.
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