Leading industry figure Ed Mead has criticised Rightmove and Zoopla as being “only interested” in making money.
Mead is an executive director at London agents Douglas & Gordon and is a non-executive director of Agents’ Mutual, parent company of portal OnTheMarket.
Mead said: “The portals which have divided and conquered, such as Rightmove and Zoopla, and even those that failed, have merely been interested in making money.
“The biggest latent value for the incumbent duopoly is data which we are paying them to collect from us – how daft is that?”
In the latest of a series of testimonials issued by OTM, Mead repeated a previous call to action: “Imagine if all agents could reach all buyers via one website, run for consumers, which had an excellent property search facility and no third party advertising at all.
“Well, you don’t have to imagine it, the opportunity is here in the form of OTM, and if all agents joined, the public would be perfectly served, and jobs, best practice and service would be maintained.”
Mead said: “Clearly an alternative cannot be built in just a year but what has been delivered in such a short time is brilliant.
“It’s a quick and easy to use website which is automatically optimised for viewing on any device so the property always looks its best.
“The membership base is growing all the time and it has achieved an impressive set of traffic figures. No other property website has achieved so much so quickly.”
Mead ended his message, saying: “Together we can offer an alternative that serves the property buying public with just that – property – at a cost that means the survival of those agents keen to continue to offer what the internet can’t, namely a personal service.”
Comments (8)
Who are these people commenting on here today! Apart from an obvious envy of Ed Mead – who I think is a wonderful ambassador for our business (LBC) – these constant anti OTM comments are depressing. How many times do agents need to be told that if they support their own portal, then we won’t be held to ransom by the likes of RM and Z. It is agents and their unfounded fears who have made them so powerful and this constant mud slinging is totally destructive to what the whole point of OTM is about. It wasn’t very long ago RM and Z were new players, with basic websites and cheap fees, remember! OTM should charge all their members £50 per month for one year. This would encourage others very quickly to join. I would then hope to see all agents uniformly renegotiating their fees with the portals before agreeing to relist. For god sake grow a pair you lot. As others have said in other posts, get off your backsides and be inventive in your marketing. If you are relying on RM and Z for your business then you seriously need to do some forward planning – now. Grow the OTM membership, grow the site, stand out from RM and Z and offer the bespoke service customers expect from good estate agency. RM have us by the proverbials its like catnip for some of you with all that data of yours and Countrywide poised to announce big changes!! Think about it!
To be fair, since OTM came along zoopla seem to be less inclined to make money and more inclined to retain your business… The thing that gets me is that OTM has only made Rightmove stronger. They’re a beast with no signs of slowing and I’m waiting for my next price increase any day now… If these OTM directors really believed in what they are selling and what they stand for they would drop Rightmove & Zoopla for their own businesses.
This would show RM & Z that they meant business and I honestly believe that more independent agents would grow confidence in OTM and possibly jump ship. I would consider it for sure.
I’m sure they won’t do that though… Because as long as they’re on RM their business won’t suffer and they know that.
I could not agree more.
Would the likes of Paul Smith pull the Spicer Haart group off Rightmove as a sign of defiance ( not on your or anybody else’s life) that’s why Right move will always have the upper hand have the courage of your convictions as Aaron rightly says above.
Only interested in making money …. scurrilous……
PiE is on fire today with amazing stories about the bleeding obvious! Who’d have thought that plc’s wanted to make money?
Oh Edward. You’ve been quiet for such a long time we all thought you’d come to your senses and were focusing on a “personal service”. There was concern as to your whereabouts…and then you rock up on your motorbike in your leathers (’tis true everyone) and come out with this. Oh dear.