Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 22nd January 2010
Google to go on property buying spree
Google is about to go on a shopping spree to bolster its up-and-coming property portal offering.
Speaking at the 2010 Inman Real Estate Connect conference in New York, Sam Sebastian, Google’s director of local and business-to-business markets, was quoted as saying “We’re actively looking to acquire one to two small real estate companies a month.”
Understandably, Sebastian did not provide details of the companies on Google’s radar but based on past experience it is likely most of them will be technology firms that can add value to the “real estate experience” as opposed to companies that will provide “scale” in terms of agent accounts and property numbers.
In the past, Google has focused on creating services that are much better for the user than competitors and then aggressively promoting them for free to disrupt the market. It remains to be seen whether Google will change tack and begin buying portals to gain market share and agent volume.
Whatever happens, the news will strike fear into the owners of property portals who already face intense price competition.
Expect casualties and also a few panic buys from larger portals looking to take Google acquisition targets off the market. It could be a very interesting year!
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User Comments
i have a property portal ready and working for sale.
due to a big financial loss unrelated to the portal itself, we are unable to invest in the official launch of our portal hence the website is for sale.
www.homebuyoverseas.com
we will accept reasonable offers only on a first come first serve basis. all the work is done . all the infrastructiure done, set up for credit card payments.. fully editable , content management system, full agent and user accounts enabled. fully automated search facility. all meta tags editable for pages and dynamic content.
I would invite sensible offers for this ground zero website..
wayne ghosh
wayne ghosh,
home buy overseas.com