MoneyTalk

 

The Secret Behind Rightmove's Success

20 May 2010
In this week’s episode:

David Kuo is joined by Miles Shipside, the commercial director of Rightmove, in this week's MoneyTalk podcast. David finds out how Rightmove fits into the property supply chain, how it makes money, what are its opportunities and threats and how a Lib/Con coalition government might affect the property business. A transcript of this podcast is also available.

Miles and David
Miles and David

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Comments

The opinions expressed here are those of the individual writers and are not representative of The Motley Fool. If you spot any comments that are unsuitable hit the flag to alert our moderators.

UncleEbenezer 22 May 2010 , 2:12am

Why didn't you confront him with the nightmare scenario: google moving in on his turf? Or ebay, amazon, ... ? Either build it themselves (rightmove's technology platform is nothing special) or buy up one of the sub-rightmove sites like zoopla or globrix?

====

Shipside tells us the market needs more first-time buyers. He fails to draw the inference, therefore prices need to fall relative to what those FTBs earn (and pay outrageous rates of tax on). The conclusion is therefore we're moving back to an era where (a handful of investment bankers and media celebrities aside) only those with inherited/family wealth can expect to own their homes.

Our new government may find this unacceptable, and seek to remedy the situation. Capital gains tax could be seen as a straw in the wind. I look forward to the day they grasp the nettle of empty properties, and use the tax system to encourage owners to bring them into use: either sell or let them! Most developed countries (including the beloved USA) have far higher property taxes, so hoarders get to pay for the privilege.

BerkoBob 26 May 2010 , 12:33pm

Well there's twenty minutes I'll never get back. What has this got to do with investing? There was one scant mention of a balanced portfolio and that was it!

I don't want to be overly cynical but how much does one have to pay for one of these "advertorials"?

TMFDragon 26 May 2010 , 3:00pm

Hi UncleEbenezer

We touched on competitive threats in general. Miles addressed it when I asked him about the possible dangers to his business if Yell moved in on their territory.

Miles also covered the outlook for house prices in terms of how it could affect the online estate agency business. He said there could be lots of local market falls and rises, depending upon the wealth and the mortgage ability of purchasers in that area.

Best regards

David

TMFDragon 26 May 2010 , 5:32pm

Hi BerkoBob

Rightmove is a £750m, FTSE 250 company. Consequently, I was delighted that Miles Shipside could take time to come in and talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the business, and identify the opportunities and threats that it faces. I am sorry if you knew it all already.

Please note that Money Talk is not an advertorial platform. We only ask that our guests are insightful, interesting and informative. So I look forward to hearing about your specialist subject.

You can email me at moneytalk@fool.co.uk. If it is insightful, interesting and informative enough, then you could be our next guest. And in answer to your question, you can’t pay to come on - you just have to be good enough.

Best regards

David

callawayshove 08 Jun 2010 , 10:47am

This just shows why Rightmove are number one, and why every estate agent and letting agent needs to be with them. There brand is massive and introducing extras like this just shows how creative marketing can forward your company. Shame though for all the agencies as its not cheap to be on property portals and property portals also seem to be killing the private seller as its not possible for private sellers to use rightmove (good news for agents though).
http://www.callaways.co.uk

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MoneyTalk is a podcast from The Motley Fool (UK). Hosted by David Kuo, it’s a lively roundtable discussion where Fool writers and guests from the world of money thrash out the financial issues of the day.

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David Kuo is The Motley Fool’s media personality. He can be heard on BBC London’s (94.9FM) Breakfast Show where he arouses listeners every weekday morning with his unique brand of financial news. He is also a regular commentator on national news programmes including CNBC, BBC News, and Sky News.

David stumbled into the world of broadcasting at the turn of the Millennium when he was invited to comment on the stock market crash. He says, “I think I stunned Londoners speechless when I said the good thing about the crash is that shares are now more affordable for people who want to invest in the stock market!”

His attitude to investing has never wavered, as he always sees downturns in the market as a buying opportunity for long-term investors.