ACT BLOG: Rightmove and NAEA, adapt or die
The days of property portals that charge are coming to an end. The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is launching a website that will allow their 10,000 members to post up property adverts for free. The announcement saw Rightmove’s shares drop by 14 ¼p yesterday. Rightmove, who charge £495 a month for their service played down the new portal.
NAEA are not the first free on-line property portal but they could prove powerful, as they have an instant user base and a good name behind themselves. The right move for Rightmove would be to instantly abolish fees and make the service free, looking to other revenue streams.
Rightmove is currently the number one property portal in the UK and to stay that way it will need to adapt. It cannot rely on being the market leader as its USP. The desperate clinging on to subscriptions has proved the un-doing of many an internet company. Anyone remember Friends Reunited? Leave it too late and people will move on.
So am I saying that if Rightmove stick stubbornly to their business model the Nada’s effort will be an unmitigated success? No, and I will tell you for why.
Firstly there are other free portals on-line, one owned by Fox, for example. As hateful as Fox are, they have the money and experience to make the NAEA’s 10,000 potential users look like a drop in the ocean.
The main problem lies in the fundamental purpose of portals and indeed the internet as a whole which, if you are an idealist, is to grant power to the people. The portal was set up in order to bypass the agent. The NAEA is offering this service to its members and not the public (why would it further provide the public with a way to market its property for free).
As mentioned earlier there are other portals out there that offer a free service but to the public as well. Unrestricted sites are always more successful than those that put stipulations on membership criteria (as in being a member of the NAEA). More successful means we have the snowball effect that Rightmove experienced (Place your ad with us as we are the market leaders…and so on it goes).
Protectionalism will kill this new venture. Estate agents need to go back to the drawing board when it comes to radically changing the business model, stop staring out the window waiting for the market to go back to how it was before. Things have changed and so should you if you want to survive.
As for Rightmove, it is time to do as I say and abolish fees. You need alternative revenue streams pronto. You are currently the market leader but there are some big slavering beasts on your trail waiting for you to slip up, the NAEA they may not be but Murdoch is in with a chance.
Evolution favours the adaptable.
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