Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 1st December 2009
Christmas comes early for Rightmove
You could forgive the senior management team at Rightmove for tucking into a few extra mince pies this Christmas. Not only has their share price nearly tripled over the past 12 months, the latest ComScore figures
reveal competitors seem to be slipping further behind in terms of traffic numbers.
Furthermore and perhaps more significantly, the Rightmove team will be cheered by yesterday’s announcement that the once proclaimed “Rightmove killer” Globrix has been sold back to its owners by Rupert Murdoch’s News International.
In a statement on the Globrix website, founder Dan Lee says: "We are delighted we have had the opportunity to buy News International's stake in the business. This move means they can focus on their core activities and that we can continue to progress Globrix as a technology business and a growing UK property portal”.
So in the near future, there will be no more free (or at least heavily discounted) Globrix adverts in the powerful British newspapers, The Sun, News Of the World , The Times and Sunday Times.
Agents will still be able to list for free on Globrix but may be less willing to pay for premium upgrades now the portal has lost the backing of the UK’s biggest national newspaper group. Some of this money will no doubt be spent with Rightmove who have
continued to sign up agents despite the down turn.
In difficult trading conditions, if you are not number one or number two in your market, you are in serious trouble. The
portal market is changing and like it or not, Rightmove will be one of the winners.
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