Zoopla! - that's smart communication Thursday, September 11, 2008
I received an attention grabbing member email from Zoopla! today which is the property web-site that
- tracks property transactions
- lists properties for sale
- provides guide prices for homes
- allows members to register a "tempt me" price for their own home
- average property price for the area [not so useful in a mixed property area that includes flats and family houses]
- number of transactions in the last year
- turnover since 2000 as a percentage of property stock
- Zoopla's "property index" value for the area and how it has changed over 3months, 6 months, 12 months
As a "pull" email to get you back on the site, I thought it was almost guaranteed to spark the curiosity of anyone receiving it. With property prices declining and the market reportedly drying up, it is particularly interesting to see what activity there is. Had they not sent the email, I doubt I would have checked back with their site, but once alerted, they succeeded in getting me back to the site for more information. Fascinating stuff. The thought that has gone into the site is impressive and has been well executed.
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Labels: property
posted by John Wilson @ 11:17 AM Permanent Link
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2 Comments:
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At 3:58 PM,
said...
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For the UK, Zoopla maybe something new. But in reality there is nothing new or innovative about it. Infact the entire website offering is more a less a mirror of www.zillow.com (long established and successful).
Zillow has - Make Me Move, Zoopla came up with TemptMe
Zillow has - Zestimate, zoopla came up with Zed-Index
etc etc etc
It is clear from my own perspective, that the founders have seen a successful US based web business, have essentially mirrored it's offering with a view to a possible acquisition by Zillow once they IPO.
Whilst there is absolutely nothing wrong with this (in fact I am all for this type of exit strategy), I do find it rather annoying when reading their about section, where they appear to claim to have conceived the concept of Zoopla all by themselves, when it is clear they did not. Richard Barton and Lloyd Frink (founders of Zillow) did. -
At 4:33 PM,
FredDestin said...
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@Anonymous (why?): I don't disagree with the statement that Zillow provided more than inspiration but I would point out that Zoopla has relied on user generated data from the outset (which Zillow did not do at the time) and that the modelling methods for the pricing algorithms are (as far as I know) quite fundamentally different, so it's brought its own twist. You should let founders feel proud of what they create, and history and people in the know will give proper accreditation to the real innovators. We can only aspire to achieve what the founders of Expedia and Zillow have achieved and hopefully they will accept inspiration as a form of flattery.
