Online housing marketplace Zoopla (LON:ZPLA) announced record first half revenues despite increasing competition from new-boy Agents’ Mutual.
Zoopla, the smaller rival of Rightmove (LON:RMV) said it had experienced UK Agency membership slide in the period due to increased competition, notably from the launch of Agents' Mutual website OnTheMarket.com
The website has a restrictive 'only one-other portal' rule which only means agencies using the site to advertise its listings must choose between Zoopla and Rightmove as its second portal.
Zoopla lost more than 3,000 estate agency branches, new home developers, and commercial agents paying subscription fees to advertise their listings over the first half of the year.
The Group said however that revenue rose 10% to £42mln in the six months to 31 March, with average revenue per advertiser (ARPA) rising 13%.
Profits were also higher, up 12% to £18.2mln.
Alex Chesterman, Founder & chief executive of Zoopla Property Group Plc said, “We had a strong first half with both revenues and profits seeing double-digit increases and ARPA at record levels despite the reduction in members during the period.”
The number of people visiting the site reached 44mln per month, an 11% rise, with more than half using mobile devices to browse the site.
The results come weeks after the company announced the acquisition of energy price comparison site uSwitch which is expected to be completed in June.
Chesterman said: “We have always led innovation in our sector and the recently announced proposed acquisition of uSwitch is a natural next step in our towards being the UK's most useful resource for consumers and most effective lead generation engine for professionals in the property space.”