Record growth at DPG
The U.K.’s Digital Property Group (DPG) is enjoying a golden patch according to a slew of announcements from the stable.
Firstly the number of visits is up by 20 per cent on last year’s first quarter to 18.2 million.
Next the number of email and phone leads is up over 40 per cent over the same period and the group recently signed its 15,000th member which means a 29 per cent growth compared to last year.
With the DPG/Zoopla merger now given the green light the DPG board can also celebrate the 1,200 new estate and letting agent branches added to Zoopla’s to its website in Q1.
DPG Marketing Director, Sheraz Dar, ascribes the growth to the traditional frenetic media activity seen by U.K. property portals at the start of the year;“Over the past year DPG’s advertising investment accounted for over half of the total among the major portals and both PrimeLocation.com and FindaProperty.com were on TV during the first 3 months of 2012. This has helped create a sustained increase in visits and inquiries that’s been building now for many months and we are delighted our customers are seeing the real, tangible benefits of investing in us.”
Zoopla/DMGT merger gets green light
It’s been a busy day at DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust plc) with the announcements of both the Jobrapido purchase by its job division Evenbase, and the go-ahead from the U.K.’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for the much-discussed proposed merger between the Digital Property Group and Zoopla.
Now that the trade body has ruled that the merger does not reduce competition and so does not need to be approved by the Competition Commission the move is widely expected to be completed within the next few weeks. That should then lead to the creation of what will arguably be the only realistic competition for top-dog Rightmove.
In official statements all concerned applauded the decision. Alex Chesterman, Zoopla Founder and CEO, described the merger as; “pro-competitive and is good news for both our users and customers.” Mark Milner, CEO of the Digital Property Group nodded at Rightmove’s prior dominance when he said that; “this is an important day for the industry, given the long-awaited balance in the market that this deal will deliver. It has been a long time coming and the enhanced value that the combined business will provide will make this deal a clear win for U.K. estate agents, letting agents and housebuilders.” Martin Morgan, Chief Executive of DMGT was equally clear about what the target will be for the merged entity; “we now have the opportunity to challenge the market leader in the online property sector, to the benefit of both consumers and clients”.
Evenbase buys Jobrapido
“We have made no secret about our global ambitions,” says Keith Potts, Jobsite founder and now CEO of the recently-formed Evenbase group in his blog today. “We are aiming to be the market leader in digital talent acquisition globally… this fits into that strategy absolutely perfectly. It gets us into 55 countries, it gets us in fast….we’ve got tens of millions of new candidates in those countries so it really does hit at the heart of that global strategy going forward.” Continue reading
Evenbase launches JobsiteWhite
The JobRapido acquisition may have grabbed the headlines but Evenbase is clearly also muscling up in many other areas.
Evenbase (previously the Jobsite group of companies) has a strong background in software development courtesy of Broadbean, the multi-posting software specialist it owns. Now it is launching a new white label solution with the intriguing promise that not only is it entirely customisable, and free to set up and use but backed by the Jobsite name and network since jobs posted to your site are visible across the Jobsite network.
Talking to CIR Cheryl Morgan, Jobsite’s Brand and Communications Manager explains the reasoning behind the launch in terms of expanding the company;
“JobsiteWhite delivers both revenue and partnership opportunities – two key objectives for the recently launched Evenbase. It also responds to a need in the market as Jobsite have had many approaches from smaller organisations who want to add a job board to their site but aren’t operating on the scale that suits the bespoke solutions that Jobsite build for the likes of the National Health Service and Northcliffe.”
Morgan presents it as a win-win for both sides since it “complements & enhances sites within the Job Boards division of Evenbase through the jobs sharing element. It means a greater number of vacancies for candidates registered with Jobsite, especially in specialist niche markets, and it helps generate more quality applications for Jobsite clients.”
The revenue is set to come from JobsiteWhite partners selling vacancies rather than charging them a fee for the technology itself – a move that may cause ripples amongst some of the more established white label providers not least since Jobsite is pointedly using its reach to enhance the appeal. As Morgan puts it; “Jobs that are posted directly on the JobsiteWhite sites are also made available on Jobsite, and relevant sites in their network, which means access to more candidates and a greater chance of finding the right person for the job.”
Naturally it also helps Jobsite expand its reach into more niche areas by bringing recruiters to its door that might previously have considered the white label approach to be beyond their reach.
JobsiteWhite launches later this month
U.K. online job postings up 9 per cent
The latest Reed Job Index, a benchmark of U.K. recruitment activity shows that Q1 job postings are up 9 per cent year on year with particular growth in construction, engineering, IT, motoring, and purchasing. Indeed compared to the first Reed Job Index back in 2009 total demand for new staff has risen by 42 per cent.
In a statement accompanying the news Martin Warnes, managing director of reed.co.uk, noted that: “The latest ‘Reed Job Index’ shows that job creation has been strong during the first three months of the year.” He tempered that announcement, however, with the warning that ; “the taxation burden of actually employing staff remains high which needs to be addressed by policy makers to assist continued job growth and a sustained job-led recovery.”
