In line with the industry’s expectations, Rightmove has announced its results declaring a record performance by almost every measure.
There were a record 1.3 billion visits to the portal in 2015, a rise of 18 per cent or 200m over 2014.
A record 49.8m leads were generated for advertisers - mostly agents of course - compared with 42.8m the year before, representing a rise of 16 per cent.
Much of this extra business was down to the arrival of OnTheMarket; most of its member agents ‘dropped’ Zoopla making Rightmove the go-to portal for the house buying and renting public.
This morning Rightmove recognised that fact by issuing a statement saying “Rightmove is the only place where home-movers can search and research virtually the whole UK property market. This, along with Rightmove’s brand strength and culture of restless innovation, has helped to make the site even more compelling for both home-movers and customers.”
The portal also describes itself as “by far the biggest source of buyer, seller, tenant and landlord opportunities” with a claim that Rightmove leads “convert to over four times as many sales and lets for our agency customers than through any other portal.”
Average revenue per advertiser is up 10 per cent on the same period last year to £754 per month.
This helped Rightmove to grow its revenue by 15 per cent to £192.1m (2014: £167.0m) with underlying operating profit increasing by 16 per cent to £144.3m (2014: £124.6m).
“Our property stock advantage coupled with our brand strength and innovation have substantially increased our audience size and engagement this year. We help our customers succeed by delivering great value marketing and by helping drive business efficiencies. We have grown our customer base by two per cent during 2015 to a record high and continue to build broader relationships to support customers’ ambitions” says Nick McKittrick, chief executive officer.
Yesterday we reported Zoopla’s announcement that it attracted 47m average monthly visits to its websites and mobile apps during the four months from October to January inclusive, and a record audience of over 58m visits in January.
January marked the ninth consecutive month of growth in the number of Zoopla’s UK agency members to 12,841.
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On the market really showing them what's what
Indeed!
They are an absolute behemoth in the property world. You can dislike them as much as you like, but it's hard not to admire their business model or the way they conduct themselves. You very rarely hear of RM getting into spats or coming under pressure as a result of PR disasters. It's a pretty steady ship, for the most part.
Of course, criticism of their fees and pricing structure is valid, but RM have now transcended the property world. They are a massive brand in their own right. People intuitively associate property with RM and, to a lesser extent, Zoopla. Their brand awareness is superb. They are now the go-to place for people browsing for property.
I know people like to bash them, but I find it hard to see how they're doing too much wrong. Stats and figures can be misleading, but in the instance of the above the findings are pretty hard to dismiss.
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