As cars get smarter, so do buyers and sellers

Transcription

Page
Vol. 17 No. 1
Classified Intelligence Report
Consulting Services for Interactive Media and Classified Advertising
Vol. 17 No. 1 Jan. 18, 2016
AIM Group 2015-16 Automotive Advertising Annual
As cars get smarter,
so do buyers and sellers
Who’s winning the U.K.’s property portal war?, Page 82
© 2016 Advanced Interactive Media Group LLC
info@aimgroup.com +1-407-788-2780
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Executive summary
No-hassle buying, no-hassle selling, no-hassle owning, too
If a car sold today is smart enough to know when something’s wrong with it (onboard
computer diagnostics), smart enough to know how far away it is from the nearest gas station
or repair shop (GPS), smart enough to know it might need a tow (OnStar) and smart enough
to access the Internet (Wifi), how much longer will it be before it can put all that information together to find time in its owner’s calendar and book its own repair shop appointment? Or order its own needed replacement parts? Or track the tipping point at which
maintenance costs outweigh its value? Or monitor its trade-in demand?
If it could do all that, why couldn’t it negotiate its own sale? It’s only data, after all. We suspect it takes a whole lot less computer processing than,
say, a car that drives itself. And if car drivers are willing to take themselves
out of the equation of actually driving, doesn’t it follow that private car
sellers and car buyers are willing to take themselves out of the equation of
selling and buying?
In growing numbers, consumers are doing just that: They’re willing to
buy and sell online without ever meeting their counterparts in the transaction. Leave the details, and the detailing, to third parties. Money-back guarantees, no less.
Some companies in that category: Carvana, Vroom, Beepi and Shift. (We cover them in detail.)
Consumers everywhere would seem to want pain-free buying and selling experiences.
That’s evident by the measures automotive portals are taking to provide. In Sweden, sellers
leave the traction to auto auction house KVD; they drop their car off for cleanup and inspection, set the lowest acceptable price, and leave the rest to KVD. KVD’s inspections and are so
well regarded, buyers seldom check the car personally. In Germany, Carzada and Karosso
have similar no-hassle selling models. In Spain, Vento.tv provides video-chat services between buyers and sellers to build trust and minimize risk.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
classifiedintelligence report
Peter M. Zollman, Founder, Executive Editor
peterz@aimgroup.com
Katja Riefler, Principal, Managing Director
katjar@aimgroup.com
Rob Paterson, Principal, Director-Consulting
robp@aimgroup.com
Jim Townsend, Principal, Editorial Director
jimt@aimgroup.com
Christoffel Volschenk, Editor EMEA
christov@aimgroup.com
Léo Siqueira, director of Latin America
Senior Consultants
Konstantin Kalabin
Gareth Lloyd
Western Europe
Alessandra Ritondo
Cila Warncke
Cristina de Barros
Gérard Esteve
Anastasia Gnezditskaia
Lisa Walls-Hester
Eastern Europe
Andrzej Sowula
Pavel Marceux
Senior Analysts
Lars Herlin (Scandinavia)
China
Don Gasper
India
Radhika Sachdev
Shilpa Shree
Africa
Mamello Masote
Adegoke Seun
Turkey
Emre Dalkilic
Asia
Marco Bouwer
Southeast Asia
Marian Jacob
Middle East
Talal Abu Issa
Australia
Kate Lyons
Mary Biddle, sales— Americas, Australia, Asia
maryb@aimgroup.com
Diana Neatu, sales / marketing EMEA
dianan@aimgroup.com
Suzanne Lander, finance director
suzannel@aimgroup.com
Robin Monti, client services manager
robinm@aimgroup.com
Luke J. Smith, marketing
lukes@aimgroup.com
Michael T. Gaffey, production editor
Published twice monthly, except once in December, by Advanced Interactive
Media Group LLC. This publication may not be reproduced in any form, in
whole or in part, except by licensed clients.
Classified Intelligence Report occasionally covers companies that are clients
of the AIM Group. We make every effort to ensure that our editorial content is
objective and is not compromised by any client relationship.
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Table of Contents
Page 5. Four companies that hope to disrupt the used
car buying process by moving it entirely online.
Page 9. Kelly Blue Book launches a new program to
offer targeted incentives based on Big Data.
Page 11. A new Cars.com feature lets car owners sell
their used vehicles without a trade-in.
Page 13. TrueCar’s new CEO Chip Perry faces a big
challenge in reviving the struggling site.
Page 15. Automotive verticals using social content
capture a larger audience than traditional sites.
Page 17. A new vertical search engine is hoping to disrupt the U.K.’s auto buying market.
Page 19. Private owners turn to Swedish online auction
house KVD.
Page 20. Car buyers, sellers chat on Vento.TV.
Page 22. Australia’s CarSales expands, eyes China.
Page 23. LatAm Autos has big plans for Latin America.
Page 27. EBay shutters Garage site.
Page 29. Mobilotoservis mechanics make house calls.
Page 30. Service-focused sites start in Germany.
Page 32. Dutch portals add repair service.
Page 34. Online classifieds catch on in Pakistan.
Page 38. Motors.co.uk vows to shake up industry.
Page 40. Brazil’s WebMotors thrives in tough times.
Page 43. L’Argus rescues AutoReflex.
Page 45. Trovocamion keeps on trucking.
Page 47. Spanish sites see heavy-equipment sales rise.
Pages 49-81. Country snapshots
Pages 82-86. Other stories from Classified Intelligence
Report.
Automotive Annual 2015-2016 contributors
Alessandra Ritondo
Anastasia Gnezditskaia
Andrzej Sowula
Christoffel Volschenk
Cila Warncke
Cristina de Barros
Don Gasper
Emre Dalkilic
Kate Lyons
Lars Herlin
Léo Siqueira
Lisa Walls-Hester
Marco Bouwer
Marian Jacob
Michael T. Gaffey
Pavel Marceux
Robin Monti
Southeast Asia
Talal Abu Issa
Tariq Saeedi
Robert Dibrell,
cover illustration
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Companies mentioned in Automotive Advertising Annual
Vroom, Carvana, Texas Direct Auto,
Navent, EBay, Pinterest, EBay Motors,
Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, Beepi, Shift,
Mobilotoservis.com, Yemeksepeti.com,
AutoTrader, EBay Motors, Forbes, DriveTime,
Delivery Hero, Aslanoba Investment,
CarGurus, Google, Cox Automotive Media
Carzada.de, Karosso.de, Carspring, Rocket
Group, Kelly Blue Book, Google, TrueCar,
Internet, Carmudi, AutoScout24.nl,
GEICO Insurance, Cars.com, CarMax, TrueCar, AutoTrack.nl , MijnGarage.nl, Fixico,
Bloomberg News, Cox Enterprises, Landmark
Marktplaats.nl, Pakwheels.com, OLX.com.pk,
Communications, Nissan, RentPath,
Apnigari.com, Driven.pk, Sastigari.com,
AutoNews.com, Haymarket Automotive
Gari.pk., Autogenie.pk, Frontier Digital
Group, PistonHeads, Redalpine, Passion
Ventures, Motors.co.uk., Carmony.co.uk,
Capital, Facebook, Katana Capital, Adrian
Honest John, Parkers.co.uk, Carsite.co.uk,
Aoun, CarSnip, Microsoft, DWNLD, Peers Har-
SunMotors.co.uk, Driving.co.uk, Desperate
dy Group, KVD.se, Ratos, Schibsted, Block-
Seller, WebMotors, MeuCarango, CompreAuto,
et.se, Bytbil.com., Bilpriser.se, Netbil, Gar-
AutoReflex, Axel Springer, L’Argus, Cardiff
antibil, Vento.TV, Audi Motor Gómez, Grupo
Planet, LaCentrale, Trovocamion.it, Live
Motor Gómez, Coches.com, YouTube, Mitula
Shape LLC, DailyMotio, Vocento,
Group, CarSales, SK Encar, SoLo Autos, iCar
Autocasion.com, Mascus.es, Mascus,
Asia, Catcha Group, iProperty, WebMotors,
Milanuncios.com, Vibbo.com, Motor-
LatAm Autos, WebMotors, AutoFoco,
ing.com.au, Bikesales.com.au,
PatioTuerca.com , SemiNuevos y DeMotores,
Boatsales.com.au, RedBook.com.au, Willhaben,
TodoAutos.pe, AlaMaula, TodoAca,
GmbH & Co KG, Styria Media Group,
SimilarWeb, DeMotores, MercadoLibre,
Carsales.com Ltd, CarsGuide, Gebraucht-
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Four upstarts are driven to disrupt
Websites shift car-buying experience entirely online
We look at four companies that hope to disrupt the used car buying process by moving
it entirely online. Vroom is a virtual dealer that buys cars and resells them on its website and
other classified sites. Beepi and Shift are peer-to-peer marketplaces that merely facilitate a
transaction rather than own the cars. Carvana has the backing of used car dealership and badcredit financer DriveTime and has built a giant automotive vending machine as a gimmick. All
four offer guaranteed no-haggle prices, generous money-back guarantees and door-to-door
delivery. Will Millennials flock to the new models?
When Allon Bloch decided his next big tech opportunity would be to transform the car
buying process in the U.S.
into something less horrible
than “having a root canal,”
he knew he’d need a catchier
name than AutoAmerica, the
company he joined in
Vroom has raised just under $170 million in two years.
November 2014. He quickly
rechristened the business
“Vroom” and business has been, well, vrooming ever since. Investors seem to agree: The
company has raised just under $170 million in two years, including a $95 million round in
December 2015 that enabled the company to buy one of its major competitors, Texas Direct
Auto.
Vroom is one of a growing number of automotive websites that allow car shoppers to
buy vehicles entirely online, with everything from financing to delivery done with the same
ease as a click at Zappos for a pair of shoes. (To emphasize the point, Vroom just hired
Michael Akrop, former vice president of finance at Zappos.) And with no-haggle fixed prices,
money back guarantees, and gimmicks like Vroom competitor Carvana’s giant automotive
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“vending machine” in Nashville, you might imagine buying a car was on the verge of a long
awaited customer-friendly revolution.
Hardly. Vroom and Texas Direct Auto together, for example, predicted sales of just
30,000 cars in 2015 with a combined annual revenue of $900 million. “Nine-hundred million is
by no means a small business,” Bloch said. “But in the context of the $500 billion used car
industry, we are two tiny specks of dust on the back of an elephant.”
Bloch may be projecting a certain deceptive modesty. As co-CEO of Wix, he built the
website-building company (it competes with Squarespace and Weebly) into a publicly traded
powerhouse with 72 million users and a valuation of just under $1 billion, all from its Tel Aviv
base. Vroom has similar Israeli roots: A small R&D team is in Israel while headquarters is in
New York, which is where Bloch sits.
(We’re not sure what it is about Israel and cars, but one of Vroom’s main competitors,
Beepi, was also co-founded by an Israeli, Owen Savir. Beepi has raised a similar amount of
mone — just under $150 million — in similar amount of time.)
At both Vroom and Beepi – as well as at other direct sale automotive sites Carvana and
Shift — car shoppers can search listings of used vehicles in the way they can at more
traditional automotive classified sites. What’s different is there’s no need to visit a dealer in
person. The price at all the sites we looked at is fixed and the transaction can be completed
(almost) entirely online. (Vroom, for example, can’t finish the financing paperwork without a
FedEx signature, although Bloch says they’re working on that for 2016.)
Once the purchase is closed, each of the online upstarts arrange for delivery to the
buyer’s door (even if the car is halfway across the continent), often at no extra cost and, if
the buyer isn’t satisfied within a time period ranging from seven to 10 days depending on the
company, there’s free pick up for the return.
From there, the models diverge. Vroom acts as a virtual licensed dealer — you can find
its cars listed on AutoTrader and EBay Motors, for example. Vroom actually purchases its cars
from individual sellers. “We figured out a process of how to buy cars sight unseen,” Bloch
told the AIM Group. “You just need a VIN, you upload eight pictures with your iPhone, and
answer several questions while we connect to our database.” Vroom then checks what similar
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cars are worth, as well as any accident and repair data for the specific vehicle being sold.
“We can infer a lot from the data out there,” Bloch says.
A Vroom staffer comes to pick up the car and it’s taken to a Vroom reconditioning plant
in either Dallas or Houston (the state-of-the facility in the latter, with homegrown RFID
technology to streamline the refurbishing process was one of the main reasons Vroom
acquired Texas Direct Auto). A new plant in Indianapolis is in the works for 2016. When a
buyer is found, a trade-in can be arranged at the same time. Vroom aims for delivery within
48 hours.
Like Vroom, Beepi is also a licensed dealer in the locations in which it operates, but
president Savir told the AIM Group he’d rather we call it “a peer-to-peer marketplace.”
Instead of buying the car outright, Beepi sends one of its 100+ inspectors to the seller. There,
they run a 240-point two-hour evaluation. “Our inspectors are all trained in the Beepi way,”
explained Beepi VP of communications Lisa Broock. “They’re flown to California for a three
month training in our certification process. Our lead inspector came from BMW.”
For Beepi to take on a car, it has to be “in excellent mechanical condition” with only
minor cosmetic defects and no accidents. Most importantly, it can’t be more than six years
old or have more than 60,000 miles.
If the car passes, the inspector offers the seller “a range of potential prices” and the
car goes up on the Beepi site. Once it’s bought, the money is transferred to the seller and
another Beepi employee comes back to pick up the car and deliver it to the buyer. If the car
doesn’t sell in 30 days, Beepi buys it themselves, and continues to list it until it sells. Beepi
has the most generous money-back return policy of the companies we looked at — 10 days
(“only 1.3 percent of buyers have ever taken us up on it,” said Broock) — and a three-month,
3,000-mile warranty. Cars are delivered with a colorful bow on top — a gimmick to be sure,
but cute nonetheless. Slightly less gimmicky: Beepi will even accept Bitcoin.
Forbes put Beepi on its list of the 10 hottest e-commerce startups of 2015 and pegged
its valuation at $546 million. (Vroom is also on the Forbes list, with a valuation of $218
million.) Beepi CEO Alejandro Resnik told the AIM Group in 2015 that the company expected
to report $100 million for the year. Beepi raised its seed funding from OLX (including LetGo
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founder Alec Oxenford). In 2014, former TrueCar and EBay analytics executive Tom Tang
joined the company as its VP of digital growth.
If you Google Carvana, you’ll immediately be presented with the colorful photo of a
giant jukebox; a five-story high vending machine that Carvana built in Nashville, Tenn., to
make the pickup process an “experience” for buyers. Plop in a (fake) token and the machine
whirs and spins while a robot brings your car down from the carousel. You can still get your
car delivered to your door, but if you want the full-on jukebox experience, Carvana will front
you $200 for airfare. Carvana didn’t come up with the car vending machine idea on its own;
that honor goes to Volkswagen, which has had its own version up and running outside of Berlin
since 2012.
Carvana is not a startup in the same way as Vroom and Beepi; launched in 2013, it’s a
well-funded sister company to Phoenix-based DriveTime, which offers automotive loans to
buyers with poor credit through its 128 U.S. used car dealerships. (Carvana’s Ernie Garcia was
the treasurer and head of analytics at DriveTime before founding Carvana.)
Carvana’s DriveTime connection is also an advantage: Carvana is the only site we
looked at that can complete a financing offer entirely online including signature. Carvana’s
money back guarantee is seven days and there’s a 100-day warranty. The company claims its
cars cost an average of $1,681 less than the suggested retail price at Kelley Blue Book. Garcia
says that comes by cutting out “the 15-20 hours of labor at a dealership going into the sale of
a car.”
Carvana doesn’t buy cars from private sellers, except as trade-in’s at the time of a
purchase, nor does it poach them from DriveTime; the majority come from used car auctions.
Carvana developed its own 360-degree photo technology that twirls the car on a turntable,
then stiches the photos together, resulting in a virtual test drive where shoppers can click to
open the doors, hood and trunk of a vehicle or zoom inside. Carvana keeps about 1,500 cars in
inventory, around the same as Vroom, but double that of Beepi.
Shift is the smallest of the direct-to-consumer online car companies we looked at. The
model is mostly the same: Shift sends a trained “car enthusiast” to your door who, after a
brief inspection, will give you an algorithm-generated “expected price range” with a
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KBB uses Big Data for incentives
Program targets GM customers on a wide scale
Kelly Blue Book launched a new program to offer targeted incentives based on Big Data
from Cox Automotive properties (KBB.com for now and soon AutoTrader). The incentives,
which can range from a $50 gift certificate to a $2,000 deep discount on a new car, are for
General Motors, the initiative’s first client, although a second is reportedly in the works.
With 67 percent of all car buyers visiting either AutoTrader or KBB.com at some point in
their shopping process, Cox has the eyeballs and data. Can it deliver?
When is a $50 gift card more valuable
than a $1,000 discount off the sticker
price of a new car? For General Motors,
it’s when the less-expensive incentive
is delivered to a consumer who was
going to buy the car anyway.
Let’s say a customer has
purchased nothing but Ford F-150
pickups for the last 20 years. “Whether
he gets another $1,000 or not, he’s
[still] buying another F-150. So let’s
not overpay for that consumer,”
explained Jared Rowe, president of
Cox Automotive Media Group, which
In November 2015, KBB.com announced it had
launched a program of targeted incentives with GM as
its first client.
owns both Kelly Blue Book (KBB.com)
and AutoTrader in the U.S.
In November 2015, KBB.com
announced it had launched a program of exactly this sort of targeted incentives with GM as its
first client. GM has been testing the system since early 2015 and began paying for the service
in September.
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Targeted incentives are nothing new in the automotive business. They’re given out all
the time in dealerships. In 2014, automotive classified site TrueCar teamed up with GEICO
Insurance to offer shoppers whose previous vehicles had suffered a “total loss” a $1,000
incentive on new Chrysler vehicles. Cox Automotive now wants to ratchet the concept up a
notch.
“We’ve got eyeballs; we’ve got consumers,” Rowe told Automotive News.
Using the power of Big Data, which a juggernaut combo like KBB.com (with 20 million
monthly unique visitors) and AutoTrader (with 18 million) certainly has, Rowe hopes to take
the promise of targeted incentives to an entirely new level: large scale and precisely
targeted.
Cox Automotive says that some 67 percent of all car shoppers visit AutoTrader.com or
KBB.com at some point during their car shopping process.
Rowe told Auto Remarketing that consumers spend approximately 17 hours shopping for
vehicles and that 75 percent of that time is online. Moreover, they visit 9.3 websites (up from
8.8 a year ago).
“What they’re doing is triangulating information and narrowing their selection — not
just of vehicles but of dealers they want to buy from.”
Rowe sees targeted incentives working as a kind of funnel. Consumers start on KBB.com
to check their options and, primarily, prices. (Rowe says that 64 percent of KBB.com’s visitors
are open to buying a new vehicle.) Then they’re off to AutoTrader to compare vehicles. The
targeted incentives currently only appear on KBB.com, but Rowe says that will be extended to
AutoTrader shortly.
Rowe emphasizes that the funnel isn’t limited to specific dealers that do business with
KBB.com or AutoTrader. “It delivers an incentive that the OEM then decides who can redeem.
That’s a key point of differentiation.”
Repeat visitors to KBB.com are also important: Knowing what car a shopper already
owns makes creating the right incentive easier and more effective.
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Cars.com veers into sell and trade
Consumers can obtain dealers’ bids without trade-in
Most consumers aren’t aware that the car dealer down the street is “willing to buy
their vehicle for cash without any obligation to buy another car,” says Cars.com’s Joe Oliveri,
the company’s senior director of product management. Rather, consumers only think of
dealers in the context of a trade-in. But dealers want — and need — more used cars to sell.
“Profitability has shrunk over the years at the dealership” except in the used car department,
Oliveri told Auto Remarketing in 2015. So “anything we can do to help them acquire more
used vehicles, the better.”
That was the reasoning that
led Cars.com to begin quietly trialing
a significant new feature on its
automotive classified website.
Dubbed “Sell & Trade,” the company
began testing it in early 2015. A full
nationwide rollout is planned for the
end of March 2016, in conjunction
with the National Automobile Dealers
Association (NADA) conference in Las
Cars.com began testing “Sell & Trade” in early 2015. A
full nationwide rollout is planned for the end of March.
Vegas.
We’ll have a full interview with Oliveri when the product formally launches, but in the
meantime, here is an overview of what we already know.
Cars.com conducted a survey along with C+R Research in 2014 called “Establishing
Credibility Through Online Sell an Trade.” It found that when consumers think about selling
their vehicle to a retailer, the only one that comes up is CarMax. That led Cars.com to
conclude that it could jump in with a product that would be “a natural extension for us on the
consumer side,” says Oliveri.
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Sell & Trade to a certain extent also competes with online upstarts like Beepi and Carvana.
Consumers have had the ability to sell a vehicle through Cars.com since the beginning
of the site, of course. But to connect directly to a dealer — that’s what’s new. An important
component of Sell & Trade is a feature called QuickOffer, where consumers can punch in
detailed information on the vehicle, enter a VIN and post up to 12 photos. QuickOffer provides
the consumer a Black Book value, which helps “set the expectation,” Oliveri adds. It was
something dealers asked for in Cars.com’s research.
The car is then submitted to up to four dealers who can respond with a bid online. The
transaction is concluded in person. Cars.com says it takes just a day or two to sell this way
using QuickOffer, which has its own mobile app for iPhone and Android, including a VIN
scanner. Sixty percent of traffic for the product in its trial phase has come via mobile.
Sell & Trade to a certain extent also competes with online upstarts like Beepi and
Carvana (see our report elsewhere in this issue), both of which buy cars from consumers via
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CEO must reverse TrueCar troubles
Perry’s first goal is to regain trust of miffed dealers
New TrueCar CEO Chip Perry has his work cut out for him. The company he joined at
the end of last year has seen dealers depart in droves, as well as several key executives. But
Perry, who was employee No. 1 at AutoTrader, may have the moxie to turn the company
around. And he’s set as his first priority getting the 279-store AutoNation back on board.
Chip Perry has his work cut out for him as the new CEO at TrueCar, and he knows it.
“Many dealers have had misgivings
about working with TrueCar,” Perry
said in an interview with Bloomberg
News after he was hired in
November 2015. “My goal is going
to be to earn their trust back by
listening to them and building their
feedback into our future plans.”
If anyone can turn TrueCar
around, it will be Perry, 62, who
launched AutoTrader as its first
TrueCar CEO Chip Perry, 62, launched AutoTrader as its
first employee in 1997.
employee in 1997, back when it was
known as AutoConnect. He
navigated the company through a split between owners Cox Enterprises and Landmark
Communications; oversaw the acquisition of Kelly Blue Book, and shepherded massive growth
with annual revenues up to $2 billion until he left in 2013.
TrueCar spins the wheel on the usual automotive classified model by offering consumers
a haggle-free price online. It’s not exactly direct-to-consumer like upstarts Vroom, Beepi and
Carvana — TrueCar still relies on dealers — and there’s the rub: Dealers have complained
repeatedly (and loudly) that TrueCar’s relentless low-price pitch and $300 per car fee for lead
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generation often forced them to sell cars at a loss. Some, like the 279-store AutoNation, the
largest dealership chain in the U.S., pulled out of TrueCar’s network entirely in July 2015.
“I’m hoping we can find a way to work together again. It will be an important priority
to build a bridge that AutoNation would be comfortable crossing.”
That may entail “some adjustments to the business model,” Perry added, so “we’ll be
able to come up with an action plan that works for car dealers and makes TrueCar a
friendlier, stronger, better marketing partner.”
Perry, who has only been on the job for about a month (his official start date was Dec.
15, 2015) will also have to build up his staff after the departure of several key executives
including president and former head of Hyundai Motor’s U.S. operations John Krafcik (he left
to lead Google’s self-driving car project) and Larry Dominique, the company’s VP of industry
solutions who came to TrueCar from Nissan.
Founder and CEO Scott Painter also stepped down on Perry’s arrival. “Scott did an
amazing job getting TrueCar to this stage and for him to step aside does enable a clean, new
chapter to open up,” Perry told Bloomberg.
Perry’s hiring came as a surprise. Perry had only started in July as CEO of RentPath, the
Atlanta-based company that operates Rent.com and other rental-related websites.
“RentPath is an incredible company with a bright future ahead, which made my
decision to leave incredibly difficult,” Perry said in a statement released by RentPath. But
“it’s no secret that I have a passion for the automotive industry and I have been presented
with a unique opportunity to build on my experience from AutoTrader.”
RentPath’s current CFO Kim Payne has taken the position of interim CEO. The company
said of Perry’s move that it wishes “him well as he returns to the automotive industry where
he has built a formidable career as one of the best in the business.”
TrueCar says it receives 6 million unique visitors a month and has 10,000 dealers.
(AutoTrader, by contrast, claims double the number of dealers and triple the visitors at 18
million a month.)
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Verticals’ social content lures fans
Consumers turn to digital pals when car shopping
Social content is playing an ever-increasing role in consumer purchasing decisions.
Automotive verticals using social content can capture a larger audience than traditional
classified sites.
The digital age has changed the way we shop, as consumers now turn first to their digital network of friends and followers for advice, opinions and validation of buying decisions.
A Capgemini report, Cars Online 2015, reveals consumers are using a wider variety of online sources
when choosing a vehicle. Its study of 7,500 “inmarket” consumers (those planning to buy or lease
an auto in the next 12 months) reveals that a visit
to a dealer or manufacturer website is now supplemented by visits to Web forums (19 percent), social media pages (12 percent), and smartphone
apps (9 percent).
The report says the figure is higher in Asian
markets. In India and China, the percentage of
PistonHeads started as an online
magazine and forum for sports auto
enthusiasts and was purchased by
Haymarket Media Group in 2007.
consumers who are significantly influenced by social media comments over traditional information
sources is around 80 percent.
If social content is a major draw for con-
sumers then those motoring sites which host forums and enable users to write reviews and
provide content are capturing a large community of enthusiasts.
U.K.-based PistonHeads is very keenly followed by motoring enthusiasts because its
community of auto fanatics and experts are backed up with data-driven content and forums.
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It claims to be one of Europe's largest online communities with over 39 million posts since its
launch. The site gets over 4.5 million unique visitors and 60 million pages views per month.
PistonHeads started as an online magazine and forum for sports auto enthusiasts and
was purchased by Haymarket Media Group in 2007. The site is now the Haymarket Automotive
Group’s leading classified brand with over 139,000 vehicles for sale.
Its strategy of fostering community has kept PistonHeads at the No. 2 market position,
behind Auto Trader in terms of traffic. It holds a constant 11 percent market share of all visits
to U.K. auto classified sites, in a market worth more than £560 million in 2015.
Haymarket’s Director of Digital Revenue, Lee Williams, told The AIM Group that PistonHeads’ differentiated focus sets it apart and enables it to win through from a number of
pointless “me too” competitors trying their luck in the market.
Personalized auto buying is the way forward and the peer review is the most important
tool for buying decisions, Williams explained, “We are focused on delivering the ultimate classified user experience by leveraging the expertise of the PistonHeads community of motoring
experts and the data/content reach of the Haymarket Automotive portfolio.”
“Our primary strategy is our forward view that media is both going to be purchased and
consumed in a personalized targeted way. This view and feedback from clients, agencies and
competitors, are they have begun to pick up the subject with pace.”
The Haymarket Automotive Group has excellent market penetration and collects insights and data from its three titles in The Automotive Group which include: What Car, AutoCar and PistonHeads.
Some 80 percent of auto buyers use mobile search and 75 percent have social media
profiles, William says, “Relying on search without customer understanding and forecasting is a
ticking clock.”
The Haymarket Automotive Groups unique insight into a buyer’s journey enables it to
pinpoint content. Williams tells us the next step for Haymarket is to look at investing in product and people to build data to drive revenue, content marketing and insight. He says, “Our
stock and dealer numbers have doubled in the last 12 months, and the team and business are
Page 17
Vol. 17 No. 1
U.K. startup aims to alter auto hunt
Carsnip plans expansion into U.S. later this year
A brand new vertical search engine is hoping to disrupt the U.K.’s auto buying market.
Vertical search engines which can take feeds directly from dealers, as well as objects listed
on other classified sites, are set to change the classified landscape.
Carsnip.co.uk uses a natural lanCarSnip
guage search so that anyone can
URL: www.carsnip.com
Owner: Various private investors include Charles
Songhurst, Founding
Partner at Katana Capital, Adrian Aoun, Special Projects at Google/
Alphabet, Hank Vigil,
Senior Vice President, Strategy and Partnerships at
Microsoft, Fritz Lanman, Chairman & Co-Founder at
DWNLD, John Story, Founder of Peers Hardy Group.
Address: United Kingdom.
Launched: March 2016
Business model: Privately held. It charges Product Providers a referral fee for leads and
sales. Pay-per-click or advertising may be introduced
later.
Bottom line: CarSnip has the potential to transform
auto search and take its technology quickly into other
markets. Its ‘free to dealers’ model will attract a large
numbers of dealers away from other sites and ensure
market traction.
Sources: Q&A with Alastair Campbell, CEO
CarSnip. Carsnip.com alaistair@carsnip.com 00 44
77 9597 2072
find autos using terms like “seven
seats” or “£20,000” without the
need to specify a brand or model.
The site launched earlier this
year but a database
of dealers is currently being built
and
its U.K. crawl will be complete by
March 2016.
CarSnip CEO Alastair Campbell said, “CarSnip will transform
how drivers find autos online. Many
industries have already gone through
their intelligent search revolution,
combining big data and machine
learning to optimise user experience. The auto industry has lagged
behind until now, Carsnip will
change this.”
It integrates data from auto industry Product Providers which include insurers,
finance companies, service centres and tyre sellers to deliver the total cost of motoring.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Buyers will be able to see how much each vehicle will cost them over its lifetime, rather than just the upfront capital outlay.
It will also make its data and tools available to Publisher Partners. These partners already have high traffic websites associated to autos and CarSnip’s offering enables
them to drive better engagement, longer time on site and new customer acquisition.
Campbell, adds, “There are currently 55,000 links to autos on sale, within our database. We want to stop dealers paying other hosts to showcase their content as, to put it simply, they shouldn’t have to.
Carsnip.co.uk uses a natural language search so that anyone can find autos using terms like
“seven seats” or “£20,000” without the need to specify a brand or model.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Leave the selling to Sweden’s KVD
Online auto auction house KVD.se is changing the way Swedes buy and sell second-hand
cars. The company started in the early ’90s selling company cars, government surplus and all
kinds of machinery in huge auctions, but only as a B-to-B venture. Then in the early 2000, the
company gradually allowed private buyers of cars. But it wasn’t until 2013 KVD.se decided to
include cars from private sellers in their auctions. And now it is the private-seller inventory
that is expanding.
In 2014 private-seller cars represented 12 percent of the 30,000 cars
that were sold at auction, but the numbers are growing rapidly, up 86
percent over 2013.
KVD.se is owned by the private-equity firm Ratos, which is listed
on the Swedish stock exchange and has now international ambitions. The only market so far is
Norway, where the company still is struggling to be profitable. KVD.se is also owner of Bilpriser.se, Sweden’s largest car-valuation company.
The idea is to offer private sellers the chance of getting the best price without being
engaged in the sale process. They drive their cars to one of KVD’s facilities to negotiate the
lowest acceptable price. KVD does the rest: clean it, test it and put a listing on the Internet.
Any defects discovered during inspections are listed, so transactions are very transparent. Be-
sides being on KVD.se, the car is also advertised on the Schibsted sites Blocket.se and
Bytbil.com. The documentation of the car has such good reputation that private buyers seldom check the car personally.
There are auctions every weekday and at least 500 cars are sold every week.
“We have the future model for selling private cars and we have plans to go international,” said KVD spokesperson Jessica Malmgren.
The private seller pays 10 percent in an auction fee up to a maximum of SEK 12,000
(about $1,412 U.S.) but it is KVD which sells the car, offering the same consumer-protection
rusles as any car dealer.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Car buyers, sellers chat at Vento.TV
Spanish video app aids in engagement, trust issues
Two key challenges in auto classifieds are engagement and consumer confidence.
Professional dealers need to reach customers at the crucial point between online research and
actual purchase; while private sellers need to overcome trust barriers. Vento.TV, a video chat
app that provides real-time communication between buyers and sellers, addresses these
obstacles.
Vento.TV launched in beta in April 2015, with 70 clients, it is now available
commercially. The app is embedded in the client's website, allowing potential buyers to
connect anonymously, with no need
to download software or register.
“It has great possibilities for
classifieds,” said sales and
marketing manager Silvia Mora.
“Being able to see the products and
ask questions addresses any worries the buyer might have.”
Vento runs alongside other mobile apps, so users can still text, make calls and use the
camera.
One of Vento.TV's beta clients is Audi Motor Gómez, part of Grupo Motor Gómez. They
use the app to showcase new and used cars. “Being able to speak to the customer in the
online part of the search lets the dealership staff start the sales process earlier,” said Mora.
“It's a chance to rescue potential clients.”
Embedded in a classified site, Vento.TV allows both professional and private sellers to
connect directly with buyers. Sellers can show a car in far greater detail than photos. “Live
video testifies the existence of the product and the truth of the description,” noted Mora.
Buying a car, new or second-hand, is a significant purchase. Anything that increases
consumer confidence benefits sellers. The potential challenge for classifieds, according to
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Vento.TV launched in beta in April 2015, with 70 clients, it is now available commercially. The
app is embedded in the client's website, allowing potential buyers to connect anonymously,
with no need to download software or register.
Coches.com CEO Iñaki Arrola, is uptake by professional auto dealers. The technology is
straightforward, but salespeople need to be familiar with the app and comfortable using it in
the sales process.
Vento.TV operates on a freemium model. A free license gives one agent access to the
platform and functionalities, with occasional ads, like YouTube. Premium licenses are €19.90
($21.60) per month, and give unlimited agents access to the platform, ad-free. It also offers
custom plans tailored to client needs.
Premium functions in development include the option to record communications, as is
standard with phone customer service lines.
“Classified websites will be treated as partners,” said Mora. “It won't cost them
anything to offer Vento.TV. We set up the app as a tool on their platform, so any [classified]
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Vol. 17 No. 1
CarSales fortifies Asia, LatAm gains
Top Australian auto classifieds site eyes China move
Australia's leading automotive classifieds business CarSales has been busy expanding into the Southeast Asian, Latin American and North Asian markets in the last three years, with a
rash of strategic alliances and acquisitions in Korea (SK Encar), Mexico (SoLo Autos) and Thailand and Malaysia (iCar Asia). CarSales CEO Cameron McIntyre told The AIM Group that his
company was also keeping a keen eye on similar opportunities in the Chinese market.
In March 2014, Carsales paid AUD$126 million ($92 million U.S.) to acquire a 49.9 percent share of South Korean automotive site SK Encar, an investment which delivered 31 percent underlying revenue growth for CarSales in the 2015 financial year. In August this year,
CarSales topped up its holding in Southeast Asian classifieds portal iCar Asia to 20 percent, a
move which signaled the company's continued interest in the Asian automotive market as a
whole, according to McIntyre.
Kuala Lumpur-based iCar Asia is 34 percent owned by the Malaysian-based investment
firm Catcha Group, which also owns 16.7 percent of Asian real estate portal iProperty. Overall, iCar Asia operates a range of automotive classifieds sites in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, including Carlist.my, LiveLifeDrive.com. One2Car.com and Thaicar.com. Thaicar.com is
market leader in Thailand and was acquired by iCar Asia in December 2014. This gave iCar Asia
control of the country's number one and two portals. In market terms, iCar Asia can claim its
online properties currently reach 7.5 million car buyers and sellers in the Southeast Asian region every month. McIntyre said that the iCar Asia top up was intended as a “placement” to
institutional investors, essentially a holding position strategy. However, he said the company
was very keen to both support the iCar Asia business and to further solidify its overall position
in Asia through new investments.
In Latin America, CarSales expanded into the Brazilian market in 2013 with an AUD$89
million stake in WebMotors, an investment which achieved underlying FY15 revenue of 21 percent for CarSales. The Australian site made further moves into Latin America in August this
year with the acquisition of a controlling 65 percent stake in leading Mexican automotive classifieds site© SoloAutos,
valued at $9 million (U.S). McIntyre said
the focus of CarSales' ongoing
2016 Advanced Interactive Media Group LLC
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Vol. 17 No. 1
LatAm Autos an emerging giant
Company secures key assets, boosts market share
LatAm Autos, a cars classifieds company operating in Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador,
Panama, Bolivia and Peru, has aggressive plans for Latin America. Listed in the Australian
Securities stock exchange, it is rapidly growing to become the region’s dominant player for
auto classifieds.
It’s still smaller than some of the region’s largest car players in terms of business,
including Brazil’s WebMotors, but it has a clear path toward growth.
Source: LatAm Autos
Since December 2014, when it went public with an IPO, it has acquired key assets in
the region, building scale and gaining market share in countries like Argentina and Mexico.
The company is still in an investment phase, but profitability is expected to be reached
in 2018, when it should accelerate growth through a strong market position.
LatAm Autos key figures
Item
Listings
Traffic
Leads
Number
107,000
4.9 million unique visitors
-
Year-over Growth (%)
41
22
90
Revenues
AUD 6.1 million (USD 4.36
-
million) in 2014
Source: LatAm Autos
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Vol. 17 No. 1
We traveled in November to Buenos Aires to meet one of the LatAm Autos’ executives
and get a better sense of what the company’s expectations are for the South Cone area,
including Argentina, a major cars classifieds market in South and Latin America.
At the upscale Puerto Madero district in Buenos Aires, just beside the Darsena Sur
river, Juan Pellicer, country manager at AutoFoco, LatAm Auto’s asset in Argentina, talked
to the AIM Group at a local restaurant.
While we delighted ourselves with a “bife de chorizo,” a traditional Argentinian steak
dish, we were told by the confident executive of the company’s plans and aspirations for the
entire region as well as to southern part of Latin America.
After acquiring PatioTuerca.com (Ecuador, Panama and Bolivia), SemiNuevos y
DeMotores (Mexico), TodoAutos.pe (Peru) and AutoFoco (Argentina), the Ecuador
headquartered company eyes other potential acquisitions.
“We’ll continue buying key assets in the region,” Pellicer said.
“We might buy both a leading company or a weak one, so we can inject quality on it
and build it to lead a specific market.”
With all LatAm Autos’ businesses increasing at different rates, Pellicer sees potential
to expand the company’s growing operations to other nations surrounding Argentina,
including Chile and Uruguay. Uruguay seems to be a particular challenge, as horizontal
players like EBay’s AlaMaula and Schibsted’s TodoAca decided to give up in building their
brands in the neighboring nation.
“Paraguay has an issue with Internet penetration and isn’t so far an attractive market
for us, but Chile and Uruguay certainly interest us,” he said.
Growth in Argentina
In Argentina, LatAm Autos managed to reach a leading position in terms of traffic,
following the acquisition of AutoFoco.
“We’re Argentina’s No. 2 cars classifieds player, just behind MercadoLibre,” Pellicer,
who worked at jobs and real estate giant Navent, said.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Source: LatAm Autos
“When I arrived in AutoFoco we were the nation’s No. 4 competitor for sure,” he said,
while reminding the hard work he and his team had to build and reposition the brand.
SimilarWeb confirms AutoFoco as the nation’s No. 2 player in terms of traffic,
surpassing La Nacion’s DeMotores, however, AutoFoco still needs to gain some territory in
order to approach rival MercadoLibre. The Nasdaq-listed ecommerce player is said to have
about 140,000 autos listings, while AutoFoco is said to have some 62,000 ads.
Argentina, whose economy was mainly characterized in the past few years by wild
inflation, huge public deficits and tight import controls, still represents a land of
opportunities for Australian investors.
“Discounting inflation, I can say we grew about 15 percent in 2015,” estimated
Pellicer.
Print media still paying off
Print media still seems to be paying off for AutoFoco.
“In the beginning, the print magazine seemed to be out of our focus, but when I
realized its revenues numbers, I saw it could complement our offer,” he said, while
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Vol. 17 No. 1
estimating revenues from the homonymous publication to account for up to 40 percent of the
company’s revenues so far. The
AutoFoco.com magazine is sold in the greater Buenos Aires
areas, Córdoba, Mendoza, Santa Fé, as well as in other parts of the country for ARS 32 (USD
2.29), as of October 2015. “We’re considering having one magazine per country, but it’s still
too early to say or confirm a decision,” he clarified.
LatAm isn’t a homogenous region
With about 10 years of experience in classifieds in Latin America, a rare asset
nowadays, Pellicer said one of the most common mistakes foreign investors commit is to think
LatAm is a homogenous region. “I remember, while working as a VP of operations at Navent,
that U.S. investors often saw Latin America as a unique, homogenous region. Mexico has
different realities than Brazil, for example,” he said.
Competition
LatAm Autos estimates top car classifieds performers to have EBITDA margins of
between 43-65 percent, Pellicer says a “healthy” EBITDA margin would probably range from
30 to 40 percent. However, he said it’s dangerous to simply determine what should be a good
margin, since different businesses undergo different phases. “LatAm Autos couldn’t do other
things in Argentina than invest heavily in AutoFoco,” he said.
Argentina and Mexico are set to be LatAm Autos key markets in Latin America, as the
company’s main cars classifieds assets in Latin America, AutoFoco in Argentina and
SemiNuevos in Mexico, account for about 65 percent of the company’s revenues in the entire
region.
On the other hand, competition in these two markets seem to be heavier than
anywhere else. LatAm Autos strongest competitor is MercadoLibre, which owns AutoPlaza in
Mexico and MercadoLibre Vehículos in Argentina.
Similarly to Navent, which managed to build an empire region-wide by specializing in
vertical classifieds, LatAm Autos has the advantage of being a cars classifieds only player.
Such aspect could be a game changer for the growing company to win the battle with
different classifieds and marketplace models.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
EBay closes Garage website door
Site will soon merge into updated main mobile app
EBay quietly shut down its Garage website in July 2015 and in the coming days is
scheduled to “decommission” its standalone Motors app, rolling that functionality (mostly)
into version 4.0 of EBay’s main mobile app. Garage failed to attract enough enthusiasts with
a promise of social bragging rights, but the parts and accessories side of the business is still
riding high, with 7 million units purchased every month — EBay says it sells over half of all
parts and accessories posted online.
EBay Garage is no more. The social and e-commerce website for automotive enthusiasts
and do-it-yourself-ers buying and selling parts online was quietly absorbed back into EBay
Motors in July 2015. Nor are things staying the same at Motors — in the coming days, EBay is
scheduled to discontinue its standalone Motors mobile app and roll that functionality — most
of it at least — into the newly released version 4.0 of EBay’s main app.
EBay launched Garage in 2012, spinning it out of another brand EBay called My
Vehicles. However, despite 2 million vehicles being registered through Garage, the user
community side of the website, with its emphasis on social bragging rights for customized rigs,
never quite took off. A visit to the still-standing Garage website reminded us of a museum just
past its prime filled with lonely portraits only rarely seen by the public. (In EBay Garage’s
case, that means pictures of car and trucks with the comments field either empty or in many
cases simply disabled.)
In that respect, the reincorporation of the more successful parts and accessories
business into the larger Motors site makes sense. Garage still exists — as a tab on the Motors
website — and it remains functional, but it’s clear there’s no one really behind the scenes and
it’s only a matter of time before EBay flips the off switch on the community entirely.
What will happen to Garage users is not clear — perhaps they all ran off to more
conducive sites like Pinterest long ago — but a look at what’s happening on EBay’s mobile app
suggests we won’t be seeing much of them in the future. EBay announced earlier in 2015 that
its Motors app would be “decommissioned” by the end of the year, with Motors remaining as
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Vol. 17 No. 1
just a tab in the main EBay app. That’s already the case, although it’s still possible to
download the Motors app — which does have a section for enthusiast profiles — on its own.
(Motors inside the main EBay app tellingly does not.)
The main EBay app also incorporates “fitment” for the first time on the mobile side.
Previously only available on the Web, fitment uses Big Data to link specific parts and
accessories with the appropriate vehicles so that buyers don’t have to worry that what they’re
buying won’t work with the vehicle they own. That in turn allows sellers “the opportunity to
use the 55-character listing title limit to highlight product details instead of describing
compatible vehicles,” EBay spokesperson Michelle Del Rio told the AIM Group. Fitment works
in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Germany.
For users who have bought a car on EBay or registered one in the past through Garage,
a search on EBay will automatically display only those parts that fit. Sixty-seven percent of
car and truck parts, and 36 percent of motorcycle parts listed on EBay now work with fitment.
The addition of fitment to version 4.0 of EBay’s main mobile app was at least one of
the catalysts for EBay to consolidate all its categories in one place and to drop the separate
Motors app after 8 years on its own, Del Rio added. Other than the enthusiast profiles, the
main piece of Motors functionality that seems to have gotten left behind is a VIN scanning
feature. (We suspect it may be back in an upcoming release.)
Parts and accessories — brakes, wheels, tires, interior and exterior components — have
always been one of the main draws to EBay Motors, which just celebrated its 16th birthday.
EBay says over 50 percent of all auto parts sold online go via EBay and that 47 percent of
consumers purchasing automotive parts do it online. The emphasis on parts has been rising
along with the age of the American car — life span today is 11 years — so replacing a muffler
or an engine is not an esoteric pursuit for many motorists in the U.S.
In an online survey conducted in May 2015, EBay found that 64 percent of consumers
purchasing parts and accessories online are in the Do-It-Yourself category, meaning they
install the parts they bought themselves. The remainder brings the parts they’ve purchased to
a dealer or garage to install. Women make up a large number of online parts purchasers — 41
percent of the total — and more than half (56 percent) install the parts themselves.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Portal provides car repairs at home
First vehicle repair site in Turkey attracts 2 investors
Too busy to bring your car in for repairs? We’ll bring the mechanic to you. That’s the
premise for Mobilotoservis.com, which launched in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2014. Pressing its first
-mover advantage, it was Turkey’s first auto repair portal and remains the country’s largest.
Launched by Kaan Sarac and Ozgen Toru, the company has taken two investment
rounds. Entrepreneur Nevzat Aydin was among first investors after he sold Yemeksepeti.com
to Delivery Hero for $589 million.
Mobilotoservis.com
URL: http://
www.mobilotoservis.com
Founders: Kaan Sarac, Ozgen
Toru
Investors: Aslanoba Investment, Nevzat Aydın
Another first-round investor, Aslanoba
Investment, was part of the second
investment as well.
According to the co-founder
Sarac, he and Toru launched the site
realizing the potential of Turkey’s
Date of establishment: January 2014
automotive market. The site has more
Number of members: 40,000
than 40,000 members and serves more
Cities: Only in Istanbul at present
than 10,000 clients.
The founders said that the
hardest issue was convincing car owners that quality repairs could be accomplished in front of
their homes or workplace. But Sarac says they have overcome that issue.
Mobilotoservis.com at first decided not to launch a mobile app, the thinking
being that typical users would access it only once or twice a year, making it unlikely they
would keep it on their phone. That revelation resulted in a strategic shift: Build the business
first. Sarac said they started with services that consumers would be most likely to use:
changing tires at your door and delivering spare parts. The idea caught on and service calls
expanded. Now they’re getting ready to launch that mobile app.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
New German sites stress service
Carzada, Karosso have similar business models
Probably the biggest break from the traditional sales model was made by
Autoscout24.de in the past year, when it gave private sellers the choice to whom they want to
sell — to Autoscout24-selected dealers, or anyone (including private buyers and dealers). At
the time, we reported the move here.
Another model that
broke from the
traditional sales model
came in the form of
service-focused sites,
similar to Vroom in the
U.S. In Germany two
such sites started up in
2015 and a third said it
would start, but was
still just a promise in
December.
Karosso gives the private seller a free, non-binding selling price within
24 hours after the seller submitted basic info on his auto on the site.
Munich-based
Carzada.de launched
in August and Berlin-based Karosso.de in September. In December Carzada raised money for
more functionality and expansion. Vroom has been active in the U.S. for about two years.
Rocket Internet’s U.K.-based Carspring (here) raised €3 million for expansion to
the continent (here). In July it announced Germany would be first in line, but in December we
were still waiting. This is out of character for Rocket Internet, which prides itself on how fast
it can bring new businesses to market.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Another interesting twist to story: Carzada was launched by two ex-Carmudi managers.
Carmudi is the global auto brand of Rocket Internet.
Karosso and Carzada have similar, but not the same, business models.
Karosso gives the private seller a free and non-binding selling price within 24 hours
after the seller submitted some basic info on his auto on the site. If accepted by the seller,
Karosso sends an inspector to the
seller’s home, where he checks the
vehicle, determines a binding price
and (if accepted) takes pictures of the
auto. Back in the office the auto is
listed on the Karosso site. When sold,
Karosso picks up the auto, cleans it,
gasses it, lets it be certified by Dekra,
and delivers it to the buyer. Shortly
afterwards the seller gets his money.
Only autos with service histories and
which are accident-free are sold by
Carzada guarantees that the auto will be sold within 60
Karosso. The oldest auto currently on
days at the final, binding price.
offer on the site is seven years old.
All of the above costs the seller nothing.
According to management, Karosso will be exported to other EU countries.
Carzada offers even more service, and is more focused on quality. Only autos are
traded by Carzada that are less than six years old, have fewer than 90,000 kilometers on the
clock; are accident-free; haven’t been used as taxis; have no rust; have service histories; have
good tires; are in sound mechanical condition and have had no more than two owners.
The private seller submits his basic info on the site and is immediately given a
free, and non-binding selling price. If accepted, he makes an appointment for the auto to be
fetched and taken to Dekra for an inspection. Based on the Dekra report, a final, binding
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Dutch portals vie for repair revenue
Apps, special sites add maintenance search tools
According to recent market studies, one way of expanding market share for car
classifieds is to offer dealers numerous auxiliary services, and car repair is a key among them.
Yet, there is a strong competition in this area coming from apps and also from specialized
sites that have gained strength in the Dutch market in the last two years.
Among the Netherlands’ top auto portals, only the leader AutoScout24.nl, a Dutch
version of the Germany-based site, has added a repair service to its portfolio. In 2013-2014,
AutoScout24.nl made a concerted effort to boost its visibility in the Dutch market, and these
efforts succeeded as according to SimilarWeb the site audience has increased from 2.4 million
average monthly visitors a year ago to 3 million currently, 2.1 million desktop and 940,000
mobile.
AutoScout24.nl added a new section of the Web page in early 2014 offering a search
tool for maintenance services. This feature was relatively new for the Scout24 Group, and it
has existed in the home market in Germany for over a year. If a car owner needs to perform
maintenance on his or her car, this feature of the site provides information on the dealers and
workshops available in the vicinity, and the prices they charge.
According to Roy Roelofs, founder of Autociaal.nl, a car aftersales mobile app, this
step is crucial in the Dutch market. “The way to make money in the Netherlands is not to sell
cars, but to offer repair services,” he said. Therefore dealers “are focused on loyal clients
that also do repairs,” he added.
Specialized repair sites
A majority of other top Dutch sites do not offer repair service, likely due to strong
competition with apps or specialized sites.
De Persgroep-owned AutoTrack.nl that used to be a leader of Dutch market but is
currently No. 4 does not offer such service at the moment. The likely reason is that De
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Persgroep owns the entire site devoted to finding repairs, Carsom.nl, which allows to receive
and compare quotes for maintenance services.
Another site that allows users to find repair services is MijnGarage.nl, it allows users
to punch in a postal code and see workshops available nearby. The key goal of the site is to
introduce the pricing transparency into repair services, and it has 1,200 affiliate workshops.
Following the recent introduction of the Android and iOS app managing director Adriaan
Roggeveen van Sator told Dutch Aftersales magazine that it is expected the number of
participating workshops will increase to 2,000.
Repair service apps
The online repair services are facing an increasing competition from repair apps. In
the Netherlands, several were launched in the last three years. For example, Fixico offers an
option to send three homemade pictures of the car damage to repair shops affiliated with
Fixico, and within 24 hours the customer would receive at least three quotes.
Another app that deserves attention is an aftersales tool Autosociaal. It helps mobile
users to keep contact with the dealership, allowing auto enterprises to maintain connection
with clients after the sale.
The app users can ask the car sales company questions, or use the app to schedule an
appointment at the car repair station, or report a damage. In addition, car sales companies
can inform their clients via the app about things such as maintenance.
Car auctions and dealer reviews
Apart from highly competitive repair functions, another additional service that is
offered by some portals such as Marktplaats.nl, which is focusing on growing its auto
segment, is a car exchange service, or an opportunity to quickly sell car at an auction
choosing the highest bidder. Essentially, it is a service that guarantees a quick buyer.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Sites see big potential in Pakistan
Newspapers still rule classifieds, but online ads grow
Auto classifieds are gaining traction in Pakistan with two important players Pakwheels
and Carmudi seeing a huge growth potential on the back of a surge in the internet usage.
Offering free of cost listing services to individuals, they majorly earn revenue from bulk
listings, onsite advertisements and corporate sponsorships.
Auto classifieds are not something new for bargain hunters in Pakistan who browse
through print media to find out low-priced used cars, but their online version — albeit present
for the last more than a decade —




Newspapers hold major share in classified
market
Auto classifieds bank on dealer packages,
advertisements, direct sponsors to stay afloat
Verticals eye value-added services and collateral offers
Pakwheels may raise $10 million U.S. in next
round of funding
has just started gaining traction
amidst the rapid growth in the
country’s Internet population.
A local survey report said car
dealers principally use newspapers
(41.7 percent) to reach buyers,
followed by Internet (16.7 percent)
and online classifieds (8.3 percent).
Yet, the survey found that 27.6 percent of car buyers in Pakistan explore the internet to
verify prices before going for an actual buying. However, the survey added that 25 percent of
car dealers had expressed their willingness to focus on digital classifieds.
Pakwheels.com pioneered the auto vertical back in 2003 and up to now a score of new
players, both specializing in the field and general classified, emerged to cater to online car
and motorcycle seekers. Carmudi.pk and OLX.com.pk are comparatively new entrants.
“Unlike others, we rely on both online and traditional modes to get attention for our
listings,” said Zeeshan Ali, Head of Marketing at Pakwheels.
The country’s leading marketplace, operating in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi,
Karachi and Multan, is aggressively engaged in above and below the line activities.
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In 2015, the company spent more than $400,000 U.S. on local TV commercials and
organizing an automobile exhibition in Karachi last December.
“Our revenue stream mainly emanates from direct sponsorship, which gives us a
competitive advantage,” Ali said.
BankIslami and AGS Battery are two of the company’s major sponsors, putting paid
onsite banners and funding its auto events. Ali said
individual buyers are offered free of cost of services, “but
we have dealer packages.”
“Dealers, which form roughly 30 percent of our
customer base, are charged nominal fees for advertising
their vehicles and we give them prominent positions at our website,” he said. The portal
aggregates 60,000 vehicle ads in a month.
Other go-getting verticals are also seen banking on this sales strategy to grease wheels
of their businesses. However, Germany, Berlin-based Carmudi.pk, having operations in 20
countries, is seriously weighing to trim the dealer’s listings, which are its key revenue source
besides onsite advertisements.
The auto classified kick-started its Pakistan’s operation in 2013 and has 22 employees
on its payroll. It is serving customers across eight cities, including Lahore, Peshawar and
Gujranwala. “I want to reduce dealers’ accounts to at least 80 percent and aim at monetizing
C-to-C listings,” said Raja Murad Khan, deputy managing director (DMD) at Carmudi, a name
with no meaning and that was derived in the far eastern market. The website’s total listings
stand at an average 35,000.
Over the years, Pakistan has seen a rise in auto classifieds with its technologyconnected population crossing the 35 million mark. One can hit upon various verticals,
including Apnigari.com, Driven.pk, Sastigari.com and Gari.pk. Some of them have a small or,
in some cases, no listings at all.
“I have seen both the rise and fall of auto classifieds,” Khan said. “You see presence
doesn’t matter and what matters is service delivery.”
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He, however, added that the ecology is building with new ventures coming online amid
an uptick in auto sales in the country. Online classified is free of cost for individuals, while
print media costs sellers advertising tariffs.
Carmudi expected auto sales to hit 165,000 units in 2015. The country imported 33,000
cars during July 2014 to April 2015; of them, 90 percent were used.
A 2014 Nielsen Survey said 78 percent of Pakistani online consumers planned to buy a
new or used car in the next two years.
Horizontal OLX.com.pk, dealing in motley of
products and services, appears to be much cognisant with
this fact as it’s exerting a pull on car and bike enthusiasts
through thousands of ads.
A frequent online bargain hunter expressed his satisfaction when asked about his
decision to buy a chic contemporary bike from OLX that bombards audience through an
integrated communication strategy.
“I am more satisfied with an offer displayed at a virtual classified than one being
proffered at any bricks and mortar store,” he said.
Ali observed that Gen X still prefers traditional channels, such as print media, “but
yes, Mjillennial is rushing towards us.”
“We’re also observing a great migration to mobile environment from desktop following
3G/4G [launched in 2014],” he said. “Being technology-verse is important for using our site
[therefore] we frequently drive learning campaigns.”
The number of mobile phone subscribers across the country has reached 135 millionmark with the users of Internet-enabled handheld devices crossing over 20 million.
Khan, however, said the culture of online transactions is not much pervasive.
“We are just a marketplace showcasing vehicles online,” he added. “Nobody wants to
do value buying and a car purchase is a million-rupee decision.”
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He said online value buying behavior is seen in some developed countries, “but in
Pakistan we are miles away.”
“Interlinking of various stakeholders is an issue,” he said.
Nonetheless, the vertical specialists keep their fingers crossed for an uptrend in traffics
“I have seen both the rise and
fall of auto classifieds. You see
on their portals.
Pakwheels is expanding its support for
affiliates to provide value-added services to
presence doesn’t matter and what
the customer on the back of its more than 100
matters is service delivery.”
marketing and IT professionals. In September,
— Raja Murad Khan,
the marketplace invested $100,000 U.S. seed
fund in startup Autogenie.pk, which offers
online maintenance consultancy and collateral
products. It is also promoting auto financing for
new and old cars on its website.
In October 2014, the auto classified raised $3.5 million U.S. in the first round of funding
from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based venture capital Frontier Digital Ventures and is waiting in
the wings for the second round in the next two to three months.
Ali said the company is eyeing around $10 million U.S.
The company has realized the significance of local language to penetrate into the
market comprised of a majority Urdu-speaking population. Its visitors can read website blogs
in Urdu. “Maybe, we’ll soon integrate a local language script for our entire products and
services range,” Ali said.
Though Carmudi is planning vehicle certification services and warranties for used cars
in collaboration with Toyota (Pakistan), yet it doesn’t feel the need of local content.
“There’s not much information needed to be translated into the local language. A
customer has to make a physical visit to know other intricate details,” said Carmudi’s DMD,
who estimated three visits for a car every week.
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Re-branding revs up Motors.co.uk
Exec aims to shake up ‘stale’ classifieds sector
One year after EBay announced its entry into the U.K. auto classified sector in 2006,
Terry Hogan and Chris Green founded Motors.co.uk.
About the same time established market leader in print, Auto Trader realized its future
was digital and accelerated its digital transition strategy. It became the clear market leader
and now claims to command over 80 percent of all time spent on U.K. classified sites with 92
percent prompted brand awareness. Eighty percent of U.K. retailer forecourts advertise on its
website and around 65 percent of used
Motors.co.uk
URL: www.motors.co.uk
Owner: Manheim and
Cox Automotive
Address: U.K.
Launched: 2007
Traffic: Network claims
to reach 4.1 million auto
buyers
Revenue: Unknown
Sources: motors.co.uk, auto trader.co.uk
auto transactions involve autos listed
on Auto Trader.
All other players in the auto
classified space have had a hard job
competing with Auto Trader. However,
Manheim, part of the Cox Automotive,
the world’s largest automotive services
company, saw potential in Motors.co.uk
and an opportunity to get some of Auto
Traders market share. It acquired Motors.co.uk in 2012.
A re-brand followed in 2013 and Hogan, managing director and co-founder of
Motoring.co.uk, has made his ambition for the brand clear saying, he wanted to revolutionize
auto buying and selling in the U.K. through intelligent product innovation.
"Over the last few years, we have seen very little ‘new’ from the major classified
portals and we include ourselves in that mix,” he said. “The sector is stale and lacks real
innovation, and our aim is to shake things up a little bit.”
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Motors.co.uk now claims to reach 4.1 million auto buyers through its network and
communicates with more auto buying consumers than most dealer groups in the U.K.
By the beginning of 2014, Motors.co.uk had increased its investment in digital media,
notably upscaling PPC and online display. It launched its new Smart Search advertising
campaign in a bid to bring Motors.co.uk to the forefront of consumer’s minds.
The advertising campaign ran across TV, radio, outdoor and digital media and focused
on Motors.co.uk’s unique Smart products. In March 2015, the Carfuffle campaign was
superseded by its Smart-Finger campaign.
The year 2014 also saw the launch of its new platform MyMotoring.co.uk, which aims to
support all motorists through their auto owning life-cycle with reminder alerts and exclusive
deals for users. By April 2015, MyMotoring.co.uk had attracted over 500,000 registered users
and in August 2015, the Motoring.co.uk and MyMotoring.co.uk websites were merged to create
one central resource for auto buyers.
The investment in re-branding and marketing has seen the company significantly
increase its market share. It now claims to reach 4.1 million auto buyers through its network
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WebMotors bucks Brazil’s troubles
Company invests in display ads, tools for dealers
The year 2014 wasn’t a good year for Brazil. Latin America’s largest economy is likely
to end 2015 with a GDP of negative 3.7 percent growth, while inflation is seen to be reaching
up to 10.8 percent, according to the latest forecast of the nation’s central bank. Prospects for
2016 year aren’t encouraging as well, as Brazilian economy should face another challenging
year, with GDP expected to reach minus 2.2 percent growth amid a scenario of political
instability.
Despite all negative
fundamentals, which still
affect Brazil’s
automotive industry, cars
classifieds player
WebMotors probably saw
revenues increase above
10 percent in 2015. The
company hasn’t officially
released its numbers for
fiscal year 2015, but the
WebMotors probably saw revenues increase above 10 percent in
2015, despite Brazil’s struggling economy.
nation’s No. 1 cars
classifieds player should
see revenues surpass BRL 100 million, (USD 25.24 million) in 2015.
“We should grow [revenues] up to two digits,” said WebMotors’ CEO, Maria
Regina Botter, while talking to the AIM Group at the company’s HQ in Vila Olimpia, in the city
of Sao Paulo, Brazil. “But we had much more ambitious goals in mind for 2015,” she admitted.
Opportunities
Despite the still bearish expectations in 2016 for Brazil’s automotive industry, which in
the prior year saw cars output and domestic sales fall drastically, Botter sees a number of
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opportunities arising for WebMotors. The company benefits from the expertise of Australiabased Carsales, which bought a 30 percent stake in 2013 for BRL 180 million ($45.44 million
U.S.).
One of them is the potential increase of revenues through advertising from automakers.
Most of WebMotors’ income comes from dealers and dealerships. Paid listings by private car
owners and display advertising, mainly from automakers, compliment the company’s revenue
stream, which has been solidly increasing over the past few years.
“Display advertising has been rising. The advertising market is too dynamic and is a
segment that should grow even more for us,” the executive told the AIM Group.
“We have a huge database and we’re working on it in order to enrich our advertising
[offer]. We’re ready to offer another level of understanding of the market behavior with real
data,” she said.
Market intelligence
In addition to better servicing display advertising clients, the Santander-owned
classifieds player is also betting in market intelligence, with tools for both dealers and
automakers.
“Through Internet search we can anticipate buying moves in the market. We’re working
with automakers to make sure our advertising offer includes such intelligence to support their
decision-making processes.”
On the other side, WebMotors is also targeting dealers with in-house solutions. “We
have solutions that help the dealer to evaluate a car for purchase and which give them agile
access to all the automotive chain.”
“We have an app that consolidates a database of market prices for all autos listed at
WebMotors.”
“Through this application, the dealer can decide for how much he could take a used car
as part of a payment for another car or whether he should purchase a used vehicle or not,”
Botter explained, adding the app is fully integrated with the dealer’s inventory, ERP systems,
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as well as with classifieds and leads management solutions.” Some of those solutions,
including the integration with other classifieds portals and leads management, are offered by
WebMotors through VMotors, which was acquired in December 2014.
Educating dealers
With about 320,000 listings in Brazil, the country’s largest inventory so far, the
Santander, Carsales-owned classifieds website sees in the dealer a key part of its business.
The WebMotors leader argues that educating the dealer for the digital era is a goal to be
pursued in 2016.
“Today, we understand that the main challenge is to educate and convince dealers to
sell with a lead originated in the Internet.”
If Internet users in Brazil seem to be used to the digital era in auto classifieds, the
same can’t be said of dealers, who still don’t take a lead from Internet with the care they
actually should.
“Listening to them, following-up their response level to emails that users send, I can
say dealers’ engagement is still weak, and the reply’s time is still slow,” said Botter, who has
been presiding WebMotors for about four years, analyzed. “That’s a strong investment we’re
making in 2016 to educate dealers and tell them of the importance of taking this opportunity
when it’s at their doors.”
Management
Partnering with Carsales was a major step for Brazil’s WebMotors, which completed 20
years of existence in 2015.
“Such a partnership aimed to boost WebMotors’ business, not in the financial side, but
because of their technological expertise. The partnership is allowing us to evolve more
rapidly.”
Challenges persist, but Carsales is confident in the new partner.
“There’s plenty of changes required behind-the-scenes to achieve this, but the team in
Brazil are motivated and FY16 will see us very close to delivering on an accountable solution
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Group L’Argus rescues AutoReflex
Classifieds player hopes to increase site’s audience
With the acquisition of auto portal AutoReflex from Axel Springer, France’s L’Argus is
expecting to solidify its position as No. 3 player in auto classifieds and boost the audience and
professional clients of previously struggling AutoReflex by adding to the brand the association
with L’Argus.
The site was about to
be closed down by the
previous owner Axel
Springer likely
because it could not
offer much new to the
portfolio in order to
differentiate itself
from the key portal
LaCentrale.fr and
because it was
France’s L’Argus acquired auto portal AutoReflex from Axel Springer.
hemorrhaging money
(we reported about it
here). Yet, L’Argus, which is already big in new car sales and car information including
benchmark pricing, made a decision to purchase the site and give it a boost by adding one
million extra unique monthly visitors that would arrive from the Group’s other portals (we
reported about the deal here).
Groupe L’Argus started life with the publication of car magazine L’argus de
l’automobile back in 1927. Currently L’Argus is a website and a weekly newspaper dedicated
to cars, which is considered a French benchmark for used car transactions and offers. The site
Pro.largus.fr offers price quotes for cars, auto-related jobs and news, and around 110,000
vehicle listings.
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Numerous synergies
In commenting on the deal, general director Jean-Pierre Gauthier stressed this is a
real bargain for L’Argus, and the group will benefit from AutoReflex’s popularity among
dealers. Another big asset is that apart from listings, AutoReflex has devices to trace emails
and track phone calls. AutoReflex is within France’s top 5 portals and it focuses on b-to-c
segment.
With AutoReflex and other sites
Group L’Argus said it will have in total
more than 1.6 million unique visitors and
nearly 200,000 listings. AutoReflex and
other sites of L’Argus have only 25
percent client overlap in terms of
dealers subscribed.
According to Gauthier, another
bonus of acquisition is that half of
The AutoReflex site has seen a traffic drop since
AutoReflex customers already use at least this summer, the time of purchase by L’Argus.
one of Argus IT solutions, called Cardiff
Planet. The new product by L’Argus called Diffusion + can be deployed to clients of
Autoreflex.
“The offer called Diffusion + coupled with our Used Vehicles Planet software already
enables our customers to benefit from the unlimited publishing of their used vehicle listings
on all our sites for a highly competitive subscription fee of €749 per year,” Gauthier said in a
press statement. "We charge a year that some of our competitors charge per month."
Finally, apart from expanding the user base for its auto listings software, L’Argus will
benefit from the function of building sites for automobile distribution developed at
AutoReflex.
That said, there might be a number of difficulties for AutoReflex down the road. The
site has seen a traffic drop since this summer, the time of purchase by L’Argus. For example,
from December 2014 to April 2015 the average number of desktop visits was at 250,000, while
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Trovocamion keeps on trucking
Site sees growth in sales of used heavy machinery
In Italy the second-hand heavy machinery classified market hasn’t many relevant
players. The most interesting project that is emerging in the past year is Trovocamion.it,
(Italian for “I find truck”) owned by Live Shape LLC.
Born in 2012, Trovocamion.it launched its paid services in 2014. After the launch of the
verticals camping van portal, Trovocamper.it, and boats, Trovobarche.it, Live Shape has also
decided to launch its own vertical dedicated to the market of trucks and heavy machinery.
The operation is in line with Live Shape strategy to covering those interesting market
niches not controlled by foreign giants.
“We are very pleased with the results
because in the last 12 months we have
doubled site traffic and increased by
50 percent the number of ads. The
goal for 2016 is to reach 200 dealer
subscribers, so becoming the Italian
market leader; It won’t be easy, but
we'll try,” said Marco Gherardi, Live
Trovocamion.it’s goal for 2016 is to reach 200 dealer
subscribers and become the market leader.
Shape Classified Media co-founder.
“Despite the figures, for the
first nine months of 2015 we have recorded a trend of growth in registrations compared to the
same period of 2014,” said Gherardi. “The feeling — confirmed by the sellers and dealers with
whom we have ongoing discussions — is that the industry of trucks and heavy vehicles have not
yet overcome the crisis of last years.”
According to many people (and I agree) to try to revitalizing the sector in Italy should
be thought particularly attractive incentives aimed at encouraging the renewal of fleet
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circulation which is quite dated.” (According to Italian market research, the average age of
trucks is 16 years).
“Apart from the advent of TrovoCamion.it, I did not seem to notice in the last few
years any particular news about the heavy vehicles classified sector in Italy; like in all other
sectors it highlighted the disappearance of ads magazines, balanced by the growth of web-
based projects (both national as
TrovoCamion.it and international like
Europa-Camion)”, Gherardi said.
The goal of Trovocamion.it is to try to
generate the largest possible number of
qualified leads.
“The best way to stand out from the
others, isn't to do different things, but to
do things made better. Because they try to
differentiate themselves from the others
the portal offers an extra service.
Trovocamion.it automatically produces for
all subscribers dealer videos of their ads
Trovocamion.it plans to release a responsive
version of its site by March.
(an automatic editing of images associated
with the ad with background music) that
are automatically published within the
Trovocamion.it video channels on YouTube and DailyMotion. “It's an original and very
appreciated service”, Gherardi said.
Talking about competitors even in this sector, big generalist players as Subito.it
became a direct competitors of verticals.
Usually a specialized dealer prefers to post the ads on a vertical portal because
is more interested in close the deal and be better positioned in the market rather than add
his ad at the other 5 million ads on a generalist site.
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Heavy vehicles rebound in Spain
As economy recovers, sites see increase in traffic
With the Spanish economy reviving, the market for heavy goods vehicles is on the
increase. Trucks, tractors, and a wide variety of construction equipment make up a small but
growing sector of auto classifieds. The market is strongly regional, in contrast to general auto
classifieds, and growing revenue from this sub-sector sector relies on accessibility and
customer service.
The majority of Spain's heavy machinery is advertised in sub-sections of generalist and
auto classified sites. Ads are split between 60 percent private and 40 percent professional
sellers, according to Marta Machado, PR and communications manager for Coches.net and
vibbo.com. Among generalist sites, Milanuncios.com and vibbo.com (both owned by Schibsted
Spain) have the highest volume of listings.
Auto classifieds with sub-sections for heavy machinery include Coches.net and
AutoScout24.es. Vocento's auto site, Autocasion.com manages Mascus.es, the Spanish branch
of dedicated heavy machinery classified Mascus, which is active in 58 countries.
Vocento's auto site, Autocasion.com manages Mascus.es, the Spanish branch of dedicated heavy
machinery classified Mascus, which is active in 58 countries.
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Auto classifieds Coches.net and AutoScout24.es both have separate categories for
industrial vehicles within the main site. AutoScout24.es includes separate categories for
buses, semi-trucks, caravans, agricultural machinery, and trailers, among others.
Spain's largest generalist site, Milanuncios.com takes the same approach to organizing
its ads, separating tractors, semi-trailers,
and “industrial vehicles” (forklifts, cherry
pickers, excavators, etc). It has around
100,000 listings, total, in these categories.
Coches.net and Vibbo.com, combined,
average about 19,500 listings per month, a 9
percent increase from January to December
2015, said Machado.
Mascus.es, which solely advertises
industrial vehicles, has over 315,000 listings.
The heavy machinery and related
vehicles market is regional, compared to standard autos. Sales and demand are concentrated
in Madrid, Catalonia, the community of Valencia and Andalusia. This reflects Madrid,
Barcelona and Valencia's status as leading cities and transport hubs. There is also more
demand for vehicles like cherry-pickers, forklifts, construction cranes, and excavators to serve
industrial and construction needs in these busy urban regions. The market for agricultural
equipment is less dense and spread across Spain's sprawling rural areas.
While the heavy machinery sector is much smaller than standard autos, the value
of the vehicles boosts its revenue potential for classifieds. On Milanuncios.com, for example,
heavy truck prices average €25,000 to €50,000 ($27,000 to $54,000) while tractors range from
€10,000 to €30,000.
Mascus.es recently launched an app, bringing it into line with most auto classifieds.
“Our clients and users spend most of their time on the move, away from computers, but they
are always connected on their smartphones and tablets,” said marketing director Gauthier
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Snapshots
Australia
1. Carsales.com Ltd
Site: http://www.carsales.com.au
Ownership: Public company, ASX-listed
Annual revenue: AUD$311.8 million ($225.48 million U.S.); 70 percent market share of estimated AUD$340 million market ($242.8 million U.S.); market capitalization valued at
AUD$2.5 billion.
Stats: Unique visitors – 1.6 million unique visitors per month; total monthly visits 13 million; Page views – Over 100 million page impressions served per month; over 800,000 vehicle searches per day; Listings - 3,200 dealers out of a potential 4000 in the market; Mobile
apps - Carsales.com.au mobile app on Apple Watch, 3.87 million downloads (2.38 million on
IOS and 1.49 million on Android)
About: Carsales.com Ltd is the largest online automotive, motorcycle and marine classifieds business in Australia. Network of websites includes Carsales.com.au, Motoring.com.au, Bikesales.com.au, Boatsales.com.au, RedBook.com.au as well as caravan,
truck and machinery classified websites. Carsales has operations across the Asia Pacific region and has interests in leading automotive classified businesses in Brazil, South Korea,
Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Sources: Carsales.com.au media/shareholder releases; full year 2015 public results; Nielsen Online Ratings March 2015; ASX listing information, industry sources IBIS World; AIM
Group Global Classifieds Report.
2. CarsGuide
Site: http://www.carsguide.com.au
Ownership: 50 percent owned by News Corp; 50 percent owned by 35 Australian dealers.
Annual revenue: Undisclosed; estimated at AUD$60 million ($42.85 million U.S.); estimated
15 percent to 20 percent share of total automotive classifieds market.
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Stats: Unique visitors: 600,000 per month; claims a unique audience of 11 percent; Page
views: 25 million per month; Listings: Undisclosed; Mobile apps: Carsguide.com.au mobile and
iPad app
About: Founded in 2011 by News Corporation and a consortium of 35 automotive dealers,
Austria
1. Gebrauchtwagen.at Internetportale GmbH
Site: http://www.gebrauchtwagen.at
Ownership: www.brain.at GmbH
Annual Revenue: Confidential
Stats: Unique visitors -- no official data available; Visits: 760,000 /12 months average
(Simliarweb); Listings: 85,000 / average per month; Mobile Apps: up to 500,000 installs
(Google); Mobile Traffic: average 540,000 monthly visits
About: Gebrauchtwagen.at is an established auto vertical in Austria battling for leadership
with Autoscout24 at a national level offering listings for used and new cars to low prices.
Gebrauchtwagen.at has around 2,500 car dealers as clients. Around 80 percent of the auto ads
are from B-to-C clients. Gebrauchtwagen.at claims to offer professional auto vendors the
“best fair price auto classifieds conditions in Austria”, excluding on purpose classifieds from
car dealers from other neighboring countries like Germany or Hungary. One core strength of
Gebrauctwagen.at is it SEM & SEO marketing with referrals to various top car related domains
in Austria. Among its partners are Eurotax (car evaluation) and car spare parts provider
ad AUTO DIENST.
With a simple lean and intuitive design, Gebrauchtwagen.at offers car dealers an all inclusive
service with homepage design, analytics and car pool management tools, a Facebook App integration, an import interface connection to several car pool management software vendors and
a personal service by its sales force team.
Private car sellers can list up to two auto ads for free for 60 days, an advantage compared to
general Austrian general classifieds leader Willhaben with a strong position in automotive classifieds in Austria.
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Sources: Gebrauchtwagen.at, SimiliarwebPRO, Google Play
2. AutoScout24 AS GmbH
Site: http://www.autoscout24.at
Ownership: Scout24 Holding GmbH (Germany)
Stats: Unique clients: 247,000 / month (ÖWA Plus 2015-II); Visits: 740,000 / 12 months average (Simliarweb); Listings: 100,000 / average per month; Mobile apps not separately counted
for Austria; Mobile Traffic: Average 120,000 monthly visits
About: Autoscout24.at is a spin-off of leading German auto site Autoscout24 with over 40,000
business clients in 17 European countries from Scout24 Group. Though EBay’s German auto
vertical Mobile.de is not directly active in Austria, Autoscout24 is far away from having a
clear No.1 position as auto vertical in the country.
Autoscout24 offers listings for cars, trailers motorcycles and trucks, focused mainly on the Bto-C auto market providing several added-value premium services such as a Facebook-app,
car pool management tools and a B-to-B-car-dealer service. In Austria there is a partnership
with tabloid newspaper Kurier. A strength of AutoScout24 in Austria’s fragmented car classifieds market are its innovative online and mobile ad solutions
Sources: AutoScout24.at, SimiliarwebPRO, ÖWA Basic & ÖWA Plus 2015-II
3. Car4you GmbH
Site: www.car4you.at
Ownership: Willhaben internet service GmbH & Co KG (owned by Norwegian Schibsted Classifieds Media and Styria Media Group as 50 percent joint-venture)
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Stats: Unique clients: 122,000 / month (ÖWA Plus 2015-II); Visits: 130,000 / 12 months average (Simliarweb); Listings: 64,000/ average per month; Mobile apps: up to 50,000 installs
(Android) Mobile traffic: Average of 75,000 monthly visits
About: Car4you is the auto brand spin-off of leading Austrian marketplace and online portal
Willhaben focused on professional car dealers that covers new and used cars ads, motorcycles
and trucks.
Considering the listings on general classifieds site Willhaben, both platforms have the largest
offer of auto ads in Austria with round about 110,000 listings. Willhaben has launched a motor
network to increase reach and ad services, which includes also a partnership with car pool
software provider Autopro24.at and marketing solutions provider MODIX, offering a wide range
of dealer services, from car pool analytics and statistics, B-to-B dealer trade-in tools, including a new mobile app design service for car dealers (App4you & App4youPLUS). Business clients can also subscribe to a daily buying-in alert newsletter service for new C-to-B offers on in
the Willhaben motor ads network. Possible multiple ad listings on several regional media and
auto partner sites (Austrian Motor Association ÄRBO, auto vertical Automobile.at, news site
OE24.at, motor site Bike4me.at among others). So this automotive network has potential of
getting fast to the clear No.1 national car classifieds position in Austria.
Sources: Car4you.at, Willhaben.at ÖWA Plus 2015-II, Google Play, SimiliarwebPRO
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Brazil
1. WebMotors
Site Name: WebMotors
URL: http://www.WebMotors.com.br
Company name: Webotors
Ownership: Santander bank (70 percent), Carsales.com (30 percent); privately-held
About: WebMotors is a Santander, Carsales owned company, which operates in the Brazilian
auto classifieds segment. The company is the nation’s No. 1 cars classifieds player, with about
320,000 listings. Revenues in 2015 are expected to surpass BRL 100 million (USD 24.90 million).
WebMotors was launched in Brazil in 1995 as an online catalog of vehicles. It was first acquired
by ABN AMRO bank in 2002, and later by Grupo Santander Brasil. In 2013 Australia-based
Carsales bought a 30 percent stake in the website for BRL 180 million, with the aim of
“transferring technology and knowledge between the two companies”.
Most of WebMotors’ income comes from dealers and dealerships. Paid listings by private car
owners and display advertising, mainly from automakers, compliment the company’s revenue
stream, which has been solidly increasing over the past few years.
Following Carsales’ purchase of a 30 percent stake in the company, WebMotors has been growing its operations in Brazil. It acquired a number of assets, including classifieds players MeuCarango and Compreauto, and VMotors, a dealer and data services provider.
Monthly visits: 24 million
Listings: 320,000
2. ICarros
Site Name: ICarros
URL: http://www.icarros.com.br
Company name: ICarros
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Ownership: Itau bank; privately-held
About: ICarros is a Brazilian cars classifieds portal, which is owned by Itau bank, one Brazil’s
largest private banks. It’s the nation’s No. 2 car classifieds player in terms of traffic, with
about 15 million monthly visits and some 138,000 listings. ICarros has the largest auto classifieds community in Facebook, with over 2.9 million fans, as opposed to the 2.1 million likes its
main competitor WebMotors has.
Sylvio Alves de Barros Netto is ICarros’ CEO. He founded both WebMotors and ICarros. After
founding WebMotors in 1995 and selling it to ABN AMRO bank, Sylvio, along with a partner,
founded ICarros, selling it partially to Itau. Similarly to WebMotors, ICarros also offers solutions for dealers, such as CRM tools and creation of websites.
A key particularity of Brazil’s car classifieds segment is that online online portals closely work
with the bank, which provide financing for companies and individuals to buy both a new or a
used car. They also offer car insurance through their banks.
Monthly visits: 15 million
Listings: 138,000
No revenue information available
3. Mercado Livre Veículos
URL: http://www.mercadolivre.com.br/veiculos
Company name: Mercado Livre Veículos
Ownership: MercadoLibre, Nasdaq-listed
About: MercadoLibre is a Latin American technology company and a major ecommerce platform that
also operates in the classifieds business. MercadoLibre owns several auto portals in Latin America, including AutoPlaza in Mexico and TuCarro in Colombia and Venezuela. Brazil, along with Argentina, is one
of MercadoLibre’s key markets for classifieds, and the cars vertical represents an important part of the
business the Portuguese-speaking nation.
A large portion of Mercado’s listings are from private owners, however, the company also targets dealers and dealerships. Competitors have the advantage of working with large bank, which can provide financing for the purchase of used or new cars.
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Canada
1. AutoTrader.ca
Site: http://www.autotrader.ca
Ownership: Apax Partners (acquired company from Yellow Media in 2011, announced in July
2015 that it was conducting a “strategic review” of Trader Corp. with an eye towards either a
sale or IPO).
About: AutoTrader.ca was the top automotive classified site in Canada until Kijiji came on the
scene and, as AutoTrader.ca’s Ian MacDonald admits, his company failed to respond aggressively enough. AutoTrader.ca still has more tools to offer dealers, with bulk uploaders, feeds,
inventory management and VIN expansion features, but Kijiji is playing catch up fast. Dealers
pay at AutoTrader.ca; individuals list for free although they can opt for premium placement.
AutoTrader.ca’s sister site AutoHebdo.net cross lists postings in French, while DealerTrack’s
Dealer.com helps with dealer marketing. AutoTrader.ca uses vAuto as its inventory management vendor. AutoTrader.ca dropped its print version in 2013 to focus on online exclusively.
This year, the company launched an amusing in-house built mobile game called “Dealer
Dash.”
Stats: Page views: 2.2 million (SimilarWeb). AutoTrader.ca puts figure at 5.5 million “during
peak periods.” Mobile accounts for more than half of all visits; Listings: 288,000 vehicles.
60,000 new (20 percent), the rest are used. 80 percent of those are from 5,000 dealers on the
site.
Annual revenue: N/A
Sources: Ian MacDonald, director of consumer marketing, AutoTrader.ca
2. Kijiji
Site: www.kijiji.ca
Ownership: EBay
About: Kijiji is Canada’s leading general merchandise website. Automotive is one of the few
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categories for which Kijiji charges — between CAD$300-$1,000 /month (for dealers only) depending on the size. (Rental companies also pay.) With its emphasis on private seller listings,
Kijiji is the flip side to AutoTrader.ca, which caters more to dealers. Kijiji powers the automotive sections on all ten of Postmedia’s newspaper websites. Kijiji claims “90 percent brand
recognition in Canada” and is used by 42 percent of Canadians.
Stats: 12 million unique visitors to Kijiji as a whole (3x the amount for Craigslist in Canada).
Traffic to the automotive category specifically is 5 million, which would put it neck and neck
with AutoTrader.ca (depending on the source). Postmedia’s Driving.ca site (which has a “Kijiji
Used Cars” tab) receives 2 million unique visitors a month. Listings: 350,000 vehicles, slightly
more than AutoTrader.ca.; Traffic from mobile: Kijiji remains weaker in this area than AutoTrader.ca, with no automotive specific mobile app, although Kijiji actively promotes its overall mobile app.
Annual revenue: N/A
Notes: Kijiji has a small internal team powering Kijiji Autos, headed by Ryan Thompson
3. Metroland Media
Sites: www.autocatch.com, www.wheels.ca
Ownership: Torstar (Metroland acquired AutoCatch from its founders in 2011).
About: Metroland runs several interlocking automotive properties under its “Wheels Automotive Network” brand. The centerpiece is the minimalist AutoCatch.com, Metroland’s crossbrand classified engine, which powers the listings on Wheels.ca (Metroland’s nationwide review-centric vehicle website) and Metroland’s 112 community newspapers. Private sellers list
for free on AutoCatch. A separate brand, LeadDriver, works directly with dealers to obtain the
listings that appear on AutoCatch and to provide other services, such as on-site dealer data
capture and lead management.
Stats: Metroland’s AutoCatch runs a distant third to AutoTrader.ca and Kijiji, with just
200,000 unique visitors a month. 70 percent of traffic comes from Google; Listings: 77,000 vehicles (5,000 new). There are just under 1,500 dealers listed; Traffic from mobile: Mobile optimized site but no mobile app.
Annual revenue: N/A
Sources: Jonmichael Moy, general manager, Torstar Digital Auto Ventures Group
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China
China’s automobile market, which has been the world’s largest since 2010, was faced
with tremendous challenges in 2015 as the economy slowed to “only” 7 percent GDP growth.
However, it has been observed that in an economic downturn, due to the high quality of their
traffic, online automotive verticals actually become more attractive to dealers competing for
a smaller number of buyers.
There has in fact been a rapid move to online automotive advertising in China in the
last five years, coupled recently with the growth of a secondary market for used cars. In
addition, the sector is currently undergoing a move from pure advertising to a transactionbased e-commerce model.
At present there are two major pure-play classified automotive verticals, Autohome
Inc. and BitAuto Holdings Ltd. Until recently BitAuto seemed to be ahead in terms of dealer
subscribers and subscriber ARPU. However, setting aside horizontals like Netease, Sina and
Sohu, it appears from the page views and the number of minutes spent on the relevant sites
per unique visitor that Autohome now dominates the market.
1. Autohome Inc.
Sites: Autohome.com.cn, Che168.com
About: Autohome (NYSE: ATHM) positions itself as an online destination focused on automobile
consumers in China. Through its two websites, Autohome.com.cn and Che168.com, it delivers
content to car purchasers and owners. This includes professionally produced material, usergenerated content, an automobile library and automobile listing information. The company
derives revenue primarily from its online advertising and dealer subscription services.
Autohome conducts independent and professional evaluations of vehicle models from its users’
perspective. The company has an editorial team focusing on serving consumers throughout the
automobile ownership lifecycle.
Stats: According to IResearch, a third-party research firm, in the fourth quarter of 2014 Autohome ranked first among China's automotive websites and the automotive channels of Internet portals in terms of average daily unique visitors, the average daily time spent on its sites
per user and average daily page views. It recorded 7.8 million average daily unique visitors on
PCs, in the fourth quarter of 2014. Average daily time spent per user increased from 14.5
minutes in the fourth quarter of 2013 to 16.7 minutes in the fourth quarter of 2014, based on
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data released by IResearch. Statistics and analytics service Hypestat.com reckons there are
now on average 9,918,450 page views per day.
Revenue: Autohome has also succeeded in delivering substantial revenue growth and now
leads in terms of annual revenue, which in 2014 was RMB 2,132.9 million ($343.8 million U.S.)
net. It had a market capitalization of $3.95 billion (U.S.) as of December 30, 2015. However,
the company saw the value of its stock fall by 14 percent in 2015, partially the result of increased investor jitters over macroeconomic conditions in China.
Ownership: The company is privately owned and initially listed on Nasdaq in December 2013.
Of its shares, 65.09 percent are owned by 82 different institutions. The controlling stake is
held by Australian phone company Telstra Corporation Ltd., which currently owns 56.7 percent
of shares. For Telstra, Autohome is its most successful overseas investment to date. Another
major shareholder is Tiger Global Management LLC, which in September 2014 revealed that it
had increased its stake to 18.5 percent (6.735 million shares).
Sources: Company reports; NYSE data; IResearch reports; Autohome.com.cn, Hypestat.com.
2. BitAuto Holdings Ltd.
Sites: BitAuto.com, Taoche.com
About: BitAuto Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: BITA) operates two new- and used-car transaction marketplaces in China. The company has three main lines of business: Marketplaces: bitauto.com,
a new-car classifieds site; taoche.com, a used-car classifieds site; and digital marketing solutions, including websites, online marketing, public relations and advertising. The bitauto.com
and taoche.com websites provide consumers with up-to-date automobile pricing information,
specifications, reviews and consumer feedback.
BitAuto’s EP platform provides Web-based integrated digital marketing and customer relations
management (CRM) solutions to new-car dealers. CIG, the company’s digital marketing agency,
services 47 automotive companies.
BitAuto originated as an advertising agency for the automobile sector before developing into
an online provider of automobile-related Internet content and marketing services. Whereas
Autohome concentrates on end users, Bitauto works in close conjunction with auto dealers. It
concentrates on providing value-added services for them with its CRM service. The company
has been able to capitalize on the position of its chairman in the China Automobile Dealership
Association (CADA) and on its association with Kelly Blue Book.
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On Jan. 9, 2015, leading Chinese Internet companies JD.com Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
announced that they would make investments in BitAuto totaling approximately $1.3 billion
(U.S.) in cash and resources, and investments totaling $250 million (U.S.) in cash in YiXin Capital Ltd., a subsidiary of BitAuto primarily engaged in e-commerce-related automotivefinancing platform business. The three companies intend to work together to provide enhanced online automotive transaction services to car buyers across China. BitAuto now operates the automobile channel of JD.com, which was launched on April 15, 2015.
Ownership: The company is privately owned and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2010. JD.com and Tencent now own 26 percent and 3.3 percent of BitAuto stock respectively. Cox Enterprises Inc., owner of AutoTrader Inc., formerly the main shareholder, held
15 percent of stock as of April 2015. Other major shareholders include Oz Management LP and
France
France has two undisputed leaders in the car segment: auto section of horizontal site
LeBonCoin as No. 1 and the portal for dealers LaCentrale.fr as No. 2. The third place has been
contested for a while. According to SimilarWeb, the market is divided in the following way
among the verticals, in terms of desktop traffic:
LaCentrale.fr
AutoScout24.fr
Ouestfrance-auto.com
65%
17%
9%
321auto.com
8%
The French auto market is seeing an enhanced competition, and as rates on LeBonCoin
increase, new, more affordable portals emerge. For example, earlier this year Jaitonauto.com
portal (“I have your car”) was launched. The site offers a package of ads multicast on twenty
different sites referenced by search engines, and a warranty for mechanical failures. It also
aims to compete against LaCentrale.fr and LeBonCoin on price, offering dealers a monthly
package of €99 for unlimited number of ads.
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According to UBS data, the level of intermediation in auto segment in France is much
lower than in real estate segment, with 60 percent of real estate transactions done by agents
and only 35 percent of car sales transactions carried out by dealers. This level is much lower
than in the UK, USA or Germany.
1. LeBonCoin Auto
Site: www.LeBonCoin.fr/voitures/
Company name: LeBonCoin.fr
Ownership: Schibsted Classified Media
About: The car section of LeBonCoin is an absolute leader in terms of traffic, both pages
viewed and number of unique visitors. It took over the previous leader, LaCentrale. The listings number took a dive in 2011 when the site started charging fees, but then regained pace.
Car dealers are offered special services to synchronize their inventory management systems
with LeBonCoin. Car dealerships often have contracts negotiated at the national level. Professional advertisers can also open a “virtual store” with all their listings.
Among the milestones of the year 2015 were such new services as performance indicator
called phone clicks, new support service for dealers, and mobile app specifically for auto segment.
Stats: 16,000 dealers; 782,000 listings, 350,000 posted by professionals; more than 22 million
page views per month, 7 million unique monthly visitors coming to auto section alone, half the
traffic comes from mobile app
Annual revenue: The total revenue of the site in 2014 was €150 million, according to CEO Antoine Jouteau. Car revenues are c26% of total revenue of the site, according to UBS estimates.
Sources: site, UBS analysis, interviews with market analysts; Xerfi
2. LaCentrale
Site: www.lacentrale.fr
Company name: Car & Boat Media
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Ownership: 51 percent owned Axel Springer, 49 percent by Spir Communications
About: The site presents an integrated offer for professional sellers, with services ranging
from car insurance to subpart discounts, as well as price assessment, mechanical guarantee,
and a whole number of post-sale services. The controlling stake was sold by Spir in 2014 to Axel Springer for €72 million.
The site allows individuals to post cars for free if their worth is below €3,000. Among additional services, it offers car price assessment in real time, in partnership with L’Argus, the
agency with France’s benchmark quotes and prices. It also offers car insurance services in
partnership with Axa. LaCentrale provides online car registration, offers of tires and their exchanges, and technical control in partnership with Dekra-Norisko.
Among the milestones for 2015 was an addition of a call tracking and call forwarding service
Securitel developed by LaCentrale vendor WannaSpeak. The service allows sellers to hide
their number and use a special number provided by Securitel on their listings. Securitel allows
both to protect the personal information of sellers and evaluate the performance of listings.
Stats: approximately 10,000 dealers; 285,000 listings; 3.1 million total mobile visits per
month, 5.2 million total desktop visits, 5:39 minutes average visit duration, 6.43 pages per
visit, 36.88 percent bounce rate, according to SimilarWeb.
Annual revenue: in 2014 the revenue for Car & Boat Media that includes four web sites including Caradisiac and LaCentrale was €48 million
Sources: General Manager Jerome Ponsin, French media, SimilarWeb
3. AutoScout24.fr
Site: AutoScout24.fr
Ownership: Germany-based Scout24 Group
About: The portal was launched in France in 2006. Among the peculiarities of the French version of Scout24 site is that it has a special portal devoted just to trucks in France,
TruckScout24.fr.
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Among additional services, the French site offers a mechanical warranty in partnership with
ICare, and car assessment and price quote service eKomi. It also has introduced a dual fee
structure. Businesses pay about €60 per month for posting ads with 18 listings on average per
client, according to Vincent Hancart, CEO of AutoScout24.fr, who spoke to French edition
Auto-Infos.fr. "We also have a payment for the lead. We measure the number of leads provided to the customer and we calculate the price based on an average," he explained.
Basic stats: 2.5 million listings; 1.35 million average monthly desktop visits, 27 percent share
of mobile traffic, 500,000 mobile visits; 7:48 average desktop visit duration, 8.54 pages
viewed per visit, 39 percent bounce rate, according to SimilarWeb.
Sources: SimilarWeb, French media and the site
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Morocco
As the Internet penetration is growing and online purchases are becoming more
popular, Morocco is seeing an increased competition in all segments, including cars.
Lamudi.ma recently conducted a study, which found Morocco to have the highest Internet
penetration rate in Africa, with more than half the population connected to the net.
1. Avito
Site: Avito.ma
Ownership: Schibsted Classified Media; previously co-owned by Naspers/Avito.ru which sold
its shares to Schibsted in 2015
Stats: 145,000 listings; the site as a whole receives 6 million average visits a month, 15:32
minutes average visit duration, 15.25 pages per visit, 14.2 percent bounce rate, the share of
mobile traffic is 16 percent.
About: The auto segment of the dominant generalist player on Moroccan classified market
claims to have 60 percent of the used-vehicle classified market. It offers several additional
services including car registration, financing options, and help with legal paperwork.
In February 2014, Schibsted and Avito merged the two rival sites in Morocco – Bikhir of Schibsted and Avito.ma – into one, and kept the Avito brand when the two became one. Since then,
the site was seeing strong growth, including in the used vehicles area, and according to Alexa
it is currently Morocco’s fifth most popular site.
The site’s model focuses on revenue from professionals and advertising. The site does not use
online payment system, which is not yet widespread in Morocco, and instead focuses on connecting buyers and sellers. Among the recent milestones was bank card payment option for
paying for listings.
Source: site managers, SimilarWeb, Moroccan media
2. Moteur
Site: Moteur.ma
Ownership: 32 percent stake is owned by Malaysia’s Frontier Digital Ventures,
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Stats: 50,000 listings; half a million average monthly visitors, 18 percent mobile traffic.
About: Launched in 2007, the car mostly includes listings in the middle and upper price
range, moderated by industry professionals, and the site also offers a price comparison tool.
Dealer ads make up around 50 percent of all the listings and the site’s ambition is to drive
that share to 70 percent. Using this year’s investment by Frontier Digital Ventures the site intends to grow, increase staff and start monetizing.
Source: SimilarWeb, the site, Wamda
3. Voitureaumaroc
Site: Voitureaumaroc.ma
Stats: 120,000 average monthly visitors, 8:48 average visit duration, 26.2 percent bounce
rate, 9.45 pages per visit, 16 percent mobile traffic.
About: The site trails only slightly its competitor Moteur.ma. Among the milestones of the
year was cooperation with France’s car price quote company L’Argus to assess Moroccan market for used cars. The site currently offers Argus price quotes, car financing options and car
insurance.
Source: site
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The Netherlands
The Dutch online auto market has recently observed some landscape changes:
AutoTrack.nl, which used to be a leader several years ago, is no longer among top three sites
both in terms of listings and traffic. According to SimilarWeb, the desktop traffic over the last
six months was distributed as follows:
AutoScout24.nl
AutoTrader.nl
56.8%
17%
Autowereld.nl
AutoTrack.nl
14.3%
11.8%
1. AutoScout24.nl
Site: www.AutoScout24.nl/
Ownership: Scout24 Group
About: The portal owned by Germany-based Scout24 Group has been highly successful in the
Dutch market and in 2013- 2014 it took over the previous leader, AutoTrack.nl. One of the
popular features is the search tool for maintenance services, including prices. Also popular
with users is rating for maintenance services and garages. These services are crucial in the
Dutch market as they potentially bring more revenue than car sales themselves, according to
analysts.
The company’s mobile app is also said to be well-suited for dealers that are attracted by its
alerts feature. They plug in the features of the car they are looking for and the price into the
app, and once the car with desired parameters hits the market they receive a notification upon which they immediately decide whether to make a purchase. AutoScout24 offers a wide
choice of cars available from outside the Netherlands.
Stats: 3,250 auto dealers; 2.6 million listings; 1.5 million average monthly desktop visits,
800.000 average monthly mobile visits, 10.4 daily page views per visitor, 24.4% bounce rate
Notes: Sources include SimilarWeb, Alexa, the site, and Emerce
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2. AutoTrader.nl
Site: www.AutoTrader.nl
Ownership: Sanoma Group since 2008
About: The portal that was launched as early as 1992 has recently seen a makeover. Among
special services that were recently added for individuals are possibility to view a complete
history of a particular car, and search based on 34 criteria. In addition, in 2014 it started offering a car auction service that is increasingly adopted by Dutch auto verticals. On AutoTrader.nl, a car goes through a professional inspection prior to be auctioned off, and is subsequently placed up for auction in 6,000 garages throughout Europe.
One traffic booster for AutoTrader.nl is its availability on auto aggregator Gaspedaal.nl that
was recently left by a competitor AutoTrack.nl following a lost law suit regarding an unlawful
usage of the site’s databases (we wrote about it here).
Stats: 220,000 listings; 440,000 monthly desktop visits and 420,000 mobile, total visits over 2
million, mobile traffic taking up 43%; 8.6 pages per desktop visit, 7:27 minutes average visit
duration.
Notes: Sources include interviews with analysts and market players, site information, SimilarWeb
3. AutoWereld B.V.
Site: www.AutoWereld.nl
Ownership: The chief owner and site creator is Autodealers.nl, a company that helps businesses that sell cars to create their web sites. Telegraaf Media Groep and Inno Holding became the portal’s stakeholders in 2011.
About: Created in 2009, this is a free portal for both individuals and companies that rose to
prominence in the last several years, particularly since 2013. Placing the offer is free of
charge and is done automatically, by links to the most common Dutch software systems, such
as Wheeler Delta, OEC, Autosoft, VWE and OBS. Recently the site started offering dealers additional services such as visitor stats and pricing analysis.
Stats: 6,000 auto dealers; 240,000 listings, and according to SimilarWeb it controls around 14
percent of the Dutch traffic, 350,000 mobile and 370,000 desktop unique monthly visitors,
around 1.2 mln total monthly visits, 7:37 minutes average visit duration, 7.75 pages per visit
and 32.6% bounce rate.
Sources: interviews with analysts and market players, site information, SimilarWeb
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Pakistan
1. PakWheels (Pvt.) Ltd
Site: www.pakwheels.com/
Ownership: Majority owned by original founders, with Frontier Digital Ventures a minority
stake-holder.
Stats: Unique visitors: 5 million / month; Page view: 20 million / month; Listings: 60,000 /
month; Mobile apps: 425,000 Installs (iOS, Android, Windows)
About: Pakistan’s leading auto sector’s classified Pakwheels.com was launched in 2003. The
vertical enables the country’s growing internet users to buy and sell automobiles and to read
industry’s news and reviews in Urdu and English. Individual listings are free of cost, but dealers are charged fees for the services. The company is aggressive in its marketing strategies,
using online as well as ATL and BTL modes to maintain its competitive edge in the market.
Sources: Google Analytics, Pakwheels.com
2. Carmudi Pakistan Limited
Site: www.carmudi.pk/
Ownership: Rocket Internet (Germany)
Stats: Unique visitors: 150,000 / month; Page views: 200,000 / month; Listings: Average
35,000; Mobile apps: Over 170,000 Installs (iOS, Android)
About: Having started its Pakistan’s operation in 2013, Carmudi.pk is fast making inroads into
the infant digital classified market of Pakistan. Carmudi is an online portal dedicated to
providing its visitors an easy access to some of the best vehicles available in Pakistan. With
the help of a team of local and foreign experts and agencies, the online auto vertical offers
an access to a large number of listings of certified dealers from across the country and provides customers with all the details they need to know about automobiles. The marketplace
has started delivering value added services, such as access to information on financing, insurance and maintenance of automobiles to its visitors.
Sources: Carmudi
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Saudi Arabia
1. Motory
Site: www.motory.com
Ownership: Motory Company
Stats: Unique visitors: 376,800 / month; Page views: 2,037,840 / month; Listings: 11,960 /
month;
Mobile apps: up to 10,000 Installs
About: Motory.com still a new player in the Saudi Arabia market as it was launched early
2014.The website is very active in social media especially Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Motory.com is informative website as it has buyer’s reviews, auto industry news, reviews of
the latest models and information about upcoming events. Also releases periodically an Info
Graph about the Saudi Auto Market. Motory.com offers free website registration to sign in and
be able to make an offer or enquire about a listing.
Sources: Google Play, Trafficestimate.com, Worthofweb.com
2. Haraj
Site: Haraj.com.sa
Ownership: Haraj Company
Stats: Unique visitors: 7,201,300 / month; Page views: 383,685,090 / month; Listings:
48,000 / month; Mobile apps: up to 100,000 installs
About: Haraj.com.sa is an auto website that covers most of Saudi Arabia cities.
The website only available in Arabic and its offers a paid annual membership for car agencies
which includes many benefits during the subscription period. The website has a blacklist
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Spain
1. Coches.net
URL: http://www.coches.net
Ownership: Schibsted Spain
About: The “clear leader” in Spain's auto sector, according to industry experts. Coches.net
covers all vehicle categories, including motorcycles and heavy machinery. It offers a range of
services including reviews, comparisons, statistics, financing, insurance, maintenance and
broad ranging editorial content. It benefits from cross-posting with Schibsted's generalist
sites, Milanuncios.com and vibbo.com.
Traffic: 3 million visits/month (desktop)
Revenue: Est. €10-15 million (based on total Schibsted Spain revenue of ~€100 million
Sources: SimilarWeb, company financial report, interviews
2. AutoScout24
URL: www.autoscout24.es
Ownership: AutoScout group
About: One of the vast global network of sites held by German company AutoScout, which is
Europe's largest auto classified. It offers users a wide range of editorial information and has a
robust network of dealership and professional vendors. Additional services include financing,
insurance and product comparisons.
Traffic: 920,000/month (desktop)
Revenue: Not available
Sources: SimilarWeb, company reports
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3. Autocasion
URL: www.autocasion.com
Ownership: Vocento Media Group
About: Vocento posted positive financial results in 2015, reversing several years in which the
media group struggled. Autocasion presumably contributed to this, though the company does
not break out its financial results by verticals. In addition to offering classifieds across all vehicle catagories, it currently operates the professional dealer sales on Milanuncios.com, part
of a two year deal imposed on Milanuncios by the Spanish authorities.
Traffic: 800,000/month (desktop)
Revenue: Approx. €1 million (based on total classified revenue of ~€15 million)
Sources: SimilarWeb, company financial reports, interviews
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Switzerland
1. Scout24 Schweiz AG
Site: www.autoscout24.ch
Ownership: Ringier AG
Annual Revenue: Confidential, last revenue estimates by experts for 2013 at CHF 12 million
Stats: Unique users: 1.2 million / month (NET-Metrix-Profile 2015-2; Visits: 1.6 million / 12
months average (Simliarweb) / 11 million (NET-Metrix Audit 11/2015) includes traffic from
Anibis.ch); Listings: 150.000 / average per month; Mobile Traffic: Total 952,000 Unique clients (November 2015, Apps & mobile site)
About: AutoScout24.ch dominates motor classifieds for used and new cars in Switzerland with
a market share of about 80 percent with its 5.500 business clients. Autoscout24.ch is focused
on the B-to-C auto business. It´s key strength is technological innovation for car dealers, with
additional services with a particular focus on generating clients high-performance leads with
recent online advertising and analytical tools (e.g. Live Data App).
In 2015 Autoscout24.ch tried to enforce leadership among B-to-C clients and generate additional revenues by enforcing new car sales, with the introduction of a revamped new vehicle
section that includes a detailed car configurator tool, displaying easy comparable offers for
auto models for new, demonstration and used cars from dealers, including a mobile payment
solution from start-up partner CashSentinel. New car sales, which are booming since the end
of the Euro/CHF cap make up now for 20 percent of all listings. AutoScout24 has grown its average stock of listings around 7 percent in 2015.
Sources: NET Metrix, Autoscout24, Similiarweb PRO
2. Ricardo.ch AG
Site: auto.ricardo.ch/
Ownership: Tamedia AG since July 2015
Annual Revenue: Confidential, Last estimates for 2013 were at CHF 3.2 million
Stats Unique clients: 341,000 / average per month; Visits: 830,000 / 12 months average
(Simliarweb); Listings: 100.000 / average per month; Mobile Traffic: around 40 percent share
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Vol. 17 No. 1
About: Autoricardo.ch success as auto vertical is based on its linkage to leading Swiss B-to-C
auction & e-commerce marketplace Ricardo.ch.
It has by far the largest spare parts & accessories offer as auto vertical with round 200,000
items. As car vertical Autoricardo is focused on delivering its 2,000 car dealer clients a lowprice alternative to Autoscout24, with several additional services linked to its auction model
like the option to out-stock traded-in cars in auctions (service used by 30 % of business clients)
or accessories and parts.
Car dealers have also the option to out-stock difficult to sell vehicles through the rental solution “plusdrive for up to 12 months. Around five percent of all vehicle sales are linked to auctions.In cooperation with Switzerland’s leading auto data provider, auto-i-dat, Autoricardo
offers a car pool management solution (Parkmanager), with and integrated car evaluation tool
and a mobile interface to list and manage ads on all main car verticals in the country.
Autoricardo.ch has established itself as an alternative to free ads marketplaces for private
sellers to sell their cars. Around 5 percent of all sales on Autoricardo are auctions. Autoricardo offers several ad listings packages in combination with Tamedia’s B-to C- car site
car4you.ch for their joint around 3,500 business clients.
Sources: Autoricardo.ch, Similiarweb PRO, auto-i-data Switzerland
3. Car4you Schweiz AG
Site: www.car4you.ch
Ownership: Tamedia AG
Annual Revenue: Confidential and not disclosed by Tamedia
Stats: Unique clients: 341,000 / average last 12 months (NET-Metrix Audit 11/2015);
Visits: 160,000 / average last 12 months (Simliarweb); Listings: 80,000/ average per monthMobile Traffic: 45 percent according to company info
About: Car4you.ch is a pioneer auto site started in 1997 that covers new and used cars, motorcycles, commercial vehicles & trailers focused mainly on B-to C car sales. It has around
2,000 business clients. Car4you.ch was acquired in 2011 by media group Tamedia and is operated since last September jointly with Autoricardo.ch, offering several combined reach ad
packages for car dealers at the lowest prices in Switzerland. Together both auto verticals
have according to Managing Director Marcel Stocker around 3,400 car dealer clients.
Benefits for car dealers listing at Car4you are the large partner network, which includes several other Tamedia auto sites, web directory search.ch and the Swiss Automobile Association.
Car4you.ch launched before the merger a “B2B-Push-Service”, allowing car dealers the option
to alert other dealers of potential interesting vehicles in their car pool for sale. Since May
2015 it has partnered-up with German C-to-B auto recommerce platform Carsale24.ch.
Sources: NET Metrix Audit, car4you.ch, Similarweb PRO, Tamedia
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Turkey
1. Sahibinden
Site: http://www.sahibinden.com
Company name: Sahibinden Information Technologies, Marketing and Trade Corp.
Ownership: Aksoy Group
Annual Revenue: 35 Million TL ($12 Million in auto section)
Stats: Traffic, unique visitors: 33.5 million/ month (whole website); Page views: 2,460,378,
017 / month (in automotive section); Mobile Apps: More than 5 million downloads
About: Sahibinden.com is the first and the biggest horizontal classified in Turkey, established
in 2000, The website is the first in real estate and second hand automobile by far in Turkey,
also second in marketplace.
Sources: sahibinden.com, SimilarWeb, Google Play
2. Arabam.com
Site: http://arabam.com
Company name: Arabam.com
Ownership: ILab Group
Annual Revenue: Sold Dec. 28, 2015 for $5 million to ILab
State: Traffic, Unique visitors: 2,917,023/ month; Page views: 104,395,720 / month; Mobile
Apps: 100,000 downloads
About: Arabam.com established in 2002, It was one of the classified websites of dogan group.
The website fired 40 employees in August.
Sources: Google Play, SimilarWeb, Arabam.com
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Vol. 17 No. 1
3. Tasit.com
Site: http://www.tasit.com
Company name: Tasit.com information services, technologies and trade corp.
Ownership: Tasit.com
Annual Revenue: N/A
Stats: Traffic, Unique visitors:
About: Tasit.com established in 2009, also they began to rent a car in February 2015. They
took investment several times. First one was CF Partners from Germany.
Sources: Google Play, SimilarWeb, Tasit.com
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Ukraine
1. Auto.Ria.ua
Site: Auto.Ria.com/
Ownership: partly owned by Naspers Classifieds, the share of ownership is confidential; the
majority is owned by a Ukrainian IT “RIA” company
About: The site derives income from dealer subscription plus premium services, as well as advertisements. It is a dual-language (Russian and Ukrainian) portal with the largest car database in the country. The site functions primarily on B-to-C market, with a small share of C-toC transactions, with a possibility of up to five free ads from individuals attached to a single
phone number. The portal has a convenient functionality and created a separate link explaining users how to deal with fraud.
In terms of services for auto dealers, the site offers a “My auto dealership” function which
professionals to add cars for sale, see traffic stats, add photos to the gallery, and order packages with 10-20% discount for listings beyond one month’ duration.
Stats: 5 million total monthly visits for the auto section, 41 million total annual visits, 256,000
listings; the site has mobile apps: Android has 200,000 users, iOS has 100,000 users.
Auto.ria.ua is a part of a generalist site Ria.ua, 29th most visited portal in Ukraine with 11.31
percent audience reach
Sources: CEO Serhiy Luzhetskyy, Internet traffic monitor Gemius, Ukrainian media
2. RST.ua
Site: www.RST.ua
Company name: RSTcars
Ownership: three private individuals
About: The site derives its income from ads, B-to-C and C-to-C services.
The unique feature of RST.ua is that it did not have any start-up investments and did not attract any external investors. Founded in 2006, it is owned by three individuals who are cur© 2016 Advanced Interactive Media Group LLC
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Vol. 17 No. 1
rently also managing the portal.
Stats: 2.5 million unique monthly visitors; 4.3 million average monthly visitors; 400,000 listings,
13,000 listings added daily, the old ones do not have time limit for removal; 13:35 minute average time on the site; 21.4 pages seen per visit; 18.7 percent bounce rate. The share of mobile
audience is 22 percent, mostly brought by a mobile version of the site.
Sources: product manager Alexander Golubov; SimilarWeb; Gemius
3. AvtoBazar.ua
Site: www.avtobazar.ua
Company name: Dimedia Group
Ownership: AC Online media company, whicxh also owns or operates automotive classified and
news portals that include Autocentre.ua, Newcars.ua, Avtobazar.ua, Avtomagazine.ua, Dada.com.ua, Bazar.ua, Autobild.ua, Motonews.ua, Mc.com.ua, Roxy.com.ua, and others. AC
Online is owned by Autocentre Media Company active in print, TV and Internet. Its online and
print editions are related to car sales, subparts, auto dealers across the country, as well as newcar catalogues.
About: In 2014, the site added a section related to service and repair centers, as well as Driver’s Notes service that allows drivers to stay abreast of scheduled maintenance, fuel usage, expenses for repairs, as well as exchange driving experience. The site has strong search functionality.
Stats: 2.5 million unique monthly visitors, 1.4 million average monthly desktop visitors, 170,000
car listings, 15 million monthly page views; 5.45 percent most recent reach of the total audience; 6:40 million average visit duration, 8.26 pages per visit, 35.3 percent bounce rate.
Sources: head of Internet marketing Aleksei Rashevskiy, traffic monitor Gemius, Ukrainian
web stats source BigMir
Page 77
Vol. 17 No. 1
United Arab Emirates
1. Auto Trader
Site: http://www.autotraderuae.com
Ownership: Auto Trader magazine
Stats: Unique visitors: 120,900 / month; Page views: 1,092,240 / month; Listings: 4,404/
month; Mobile apps: up to 50,000 installs
About: Autotraderuae.com is an auto website that covers new and used cars ads in UAE market. The website also covers ads for car rental, bikes, boats, car parts, car plates, caravans
and mobile numbers. The website provides advertising packages for car dealers for an annual
fee. The website is created by Auto Trader magazine which is sold every week at Emirate stations and magazine shelves. The website provides guide for all car services centers across
UAE.
2. Yallamotor
Site: www.yallamotor.com
Ownership: Partnership with Bayt.com since 2010
Stats: Unique visitors: 434,200 / month; Page views: 2,244,900 / month; Listings: 1,200/
month; Mobile apps: N/A (will come soon)
About: Yallamotor.com is an Auto website that operates in seven countries in the Middle East.
The website provides updated new and used car prices, reviews and auto news from the Middle East. The website list used-auto ads free of charge so its revenue generated primarily
with banner advertising, content sponsorship and lead generation. The website team consists
of two guys, who edit and publish the site content, while the leadership and management
support comes from Bayt.com.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
United Kingdom
The U.K. auto classified vertical has seen minimal changes in the last few years with little innovation shown from any of the major classified portals.
The vertical is still dominated by Auto Trader and despite some new entrants to the sector in
the last few years no one has come close to threatening its dominance. Of the three sites that
dominate, Auto Trader corners the mainstream market, PistonHeads leads the prestige and
specialist market, and GumTree has the edge in the first buyer and budget market sector.
2015 will be a record sales year for the U.K.’s new auto market, which has seen continuous
growth since 2011. The market continues to be buoyant due to low-interest rates and attractive finance deals, which have combined to entice consumers to buy new autos. This activity
will keep the used auto market active as this turnover filters down into the secondhand market.
While the classified sector lacks innovation, however, the U.K. is seeing new auto buying models emerging that may ultimately impact classifieds and shake things up a bit. New auto buying models such as Carwow and Carspring are changing the way a consumer shops for a vehicle
and will ultimately impact classifieds in the longer term.
No.1: Auto Trader
URL: www.autotrader.co.uk
Company name: Auto Trader Group PLC
Ownership: Public company – Floated March 2015
About: Auto Trader is the U.K.’s largest automotive classified advertising business having
transformed from a print title in 2013.
It advertises new and used vehicles from both by private sellers and trade dealers, over 80
percent of U.K. auto dealers advertise on Auto Trader. It lists over 400,000 vehicles for sale
each day.
SimilarWeb ranked it the 56th most visited site in the U.K. and received 8.10 million visitors
in October.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Revenue: Year to 31 March 2015 £256 million, an increase of 8 percent on its previous year
revenue of £238 Million.
No.2: PistonHeads
URL: www.pistonheads.co.uk, www.pistonheads.com
Company name: Haymarket Media Group
Ownership: Private Company
About: The Haymarket Media Group publishes more than 100 consumer and trade publications
in some 20 languages and more than 40 countries.PistonHeads is one of three brands owned by
the Haymarket Media Group that make up the Haymarket Automotive division.
The Haymarket Automotive Group includes classified sites PistonHeads, WhatCar and its online
auto news and review site, Autocar. In addition to being an automotive marketplace, PistonHeads is the U.K.'s biggest motoring website and online community.
PistonHeads started as an online magazine and forum for sports auto enthusiasts.
In 2007, Haymarket Media Group purchased the site. Today, PistonHeads is the U.K.'s secondbiggest motoring website behind AutoTrader. It has approximately 139,000 vehicles for sale.
Revenue: Unknown.
No.3 Gumtree
URL: www.guntree.co.uk
Company name: Gumtree.com Limited
Ownership: Ebay
About: The site was founded in 2000 by Crookall and Michael Pennington. Ebay purchased the
company in 2005 for an undisclosed sum.
The Gumtree business is a community-powered business, with an amateurish feel yet the site
manages over 8 million visitors every month, with over 154,000 vehicles for sale. Since its purchase Ebay has chosen to maintain the Gumtree brand with its community feel.
Revenue: Ebay revenue estimated to be £40 million, the automotive segment is unknown.
Page 80
Vol. 17 No. 1
United States
1. AutoTrader.com
Site: www.autotrader.com
Ownership: Cox Automotive
About: AutoTrader and Cars.com continually vie for the top spot in the U.S. AutoTrader claims
20,000 dealers and 250,000 private sellers. Cox Automotive reports that 67 percent of all car
buyers visit either AutoTrader or KBB.com, also owned by Cox, during their shopping process,
which has given the two opportunities to use Big Data to offer targeted incentives (GM is the
first customer). Upsells for individual sellers run $25-$75 for featured placement.
AutoTrader is replacing the dealer website creation product it has been using from fellow Cox
company VinSolutions with a similar product from Dealer.com, which came along with Cox’s
acquisition of DealerTrack earlier in 2015.
Stats: Traffic: 18 million (AutoTrader reported), 9 million (SimilarWeb, desktop only).
KBB.com has 20 million unique visitors a month. Listings: 2.7 million new vehicles (56 percent
of total), 1.9 million used and 250,000 certified pre-owned vehicles
Annual revenue: $1.3 billion
Notes: Revenue figure is from interview with Sandy Schwartz, president, Cox Automotive.
2. Cars.com
Site: www.cars.com
Ownership: Tegna (the media company resulting from the spin-off of Gannett publishing business). Tegna also owns CareerBuilder.com and runs automotive sites Auto.com, NewCars.com
and PickupTrucks.com.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
About: Cars.com runs neck and neck with AutoTrader, with a similar number of dealers
(20,000), traffic and vehicle listing numbers (see below). Through its new Sell & Trade option,
Cars.com is aiming to better connect individual sellers with dealerships that buy used vehicles. Cars.com is gearing up for changes in the coming years when it will become free of its
obligation to retain non-Gannett newspaper affiliates and will be able to reach out to dealers
in those markets with its own direct sales force. (Today, 35 percent of dealers are in markets
where they still deal with newspaper affiliates.)
With a newly focused owner (just Tegna vs. the burdensome former ownership structure of
Classified Ventures), Cars.com is worth watching carefully. Differentiation comes in both its
consumer reviews of dealers (up to one million now) and the 2015 partnership with RepairPal
to “certify” dealership repair departments.
Stats: Traffic: 13 million (Cars.com), 9 million (SimilarWeb, desktop only); Listings:
3 million new vehicles (60 percent of total) and 1.8 million used and 240,000 certified preowned vehicles.
Annual revenue: $450 million (estimated)
Notes: Revenue extrapolated from Tegna earnings statement October 2015.
3. Edmunds
Site: www.edmunds.com
Ownership: Edmunds
About: Edmunds has come a long way from its early days as a paperback guide to car prices in
the 1960s. The site is still known primarily for its consumer pricing tools, such as the True
Cost to Own calculator that includes additional costs like taxes, maintenance and fuel. But
with traffic in keeping with Cars.com and AutoTrader — albeit with a smaller number of dealers (13,000 vs. 20,000) -- it’s one of the first stops on any car consumer’s shopping list. 2014
saw the introduction of a new Price Promise valuation tool where dealers commit to an upfront price.
Edmunds sponsors an annual “Hackamotive” that links entrepreneurs with the automotive industry; winners are invited to join Edmunds’ Fastlane Accelerator, a three-month mentoring
program. Edmunds bought the results of one such graduate, CarCode SMS, which lets car shoppers engage in SMS conversations with dealers. 4,000 dealers are using the service.
Stats: Traffic: 20 million (Edmunds.com), 9 million (SimilarWeb, desktop only);
Listings: N/A but all from dealers
Annual revenue: N/A
Notes: Some data confirmed by Leah Lesch, Edmunds.com.
Page 82
Vol. 17 No. 1
Consulting Services for Interactive Media and Classified Advertising
Who’s winning
in U.K. property
portal war?
The launch of new property portal, On-
TheMarket, in January 2015 brought increased competition for the two major
portals controlling the U.K. market. It also
sparked
BY LISA WALLS-HESTER
It’s a year since the launch of
OnTheMarket, the portal created by
agents to challenge the Rightmove and
Zoopla duopoly controlling the U.K.
real estate classified market.
Vol. 17 No. 1 Jan. 18, 2015
intense
controversy
because
agents signing up with the new site had to
choose between the other two instead of
listing on all three. OnTheMarket set out
OnTheMarket promised to knock
Zoopla from its number two position within a year, and while it has fallen short of this aim, it
is has succeeded in its mission to shake-up the market and provide a low-cost alternative for
independent agents.
At the time of the launch, Chief Executive of OnTheMarket, Ian Springett, set his sights
high, but did not under-estimate the task ahead. He said, “We are in a constant battle, and
they (the other portals) will come after us hard.”
And they did, industry insiders queued up to denounce the concept, Russell Quirk, CEO
of online agent eMoov said the portal “Would not last beyond 12 months, it was bad for the
consumer and it would fail.” Zoopla’s Chairman and CEO, Alex Chesterman’s said the new
portal would be a “short-term event.”
From its launch, OnTheMarket put a large dent in Zoopla’s membership numbers. Zoopla claims the exodus has slowed over recent months, financial accounts to 30 September
report a total of 12,702 U.K. agency partners compared to 16,373 in 2014.
Even if OnTheMarket falls short of its target number of agents on its one year anniversary it will continue to cause significant drag on Zoopla’s membership.
OnTheMarkets policy of allowing agents to ‘list with only one other portal’ means that
Rightmove, being the market leader, and controlling over 85 percent of the market, is the
agents ‘must have’ other portal. It has become the short-term winner in the portal wars, benefitting with an increase in agent numbers and profits.
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Vol. 17 No. 1
Rightmove’s half-year results for the period ended 30 June 2015 showed agency offices
were 2 percent higher than at the start of the year at a record high of 17,122 (Dec. 31, 2014:
16,843).
Zoopla recognised the risk of limited growth in the classified arena and set about to
transform itself into a digital consumer services organisation. Its recent £160 million acquisition of price comparison site uSwitch propped up profits for the Group.
While Zoopla has a transformational year Rightmove has not made
any significant departure from its
planned policy and says its commitment to return excess cash promptly to
investors continues. The principle and
only business for Rightmove plc is the
operation of the Website.

OnTheMarket’s launch hurt Zoopla and gave
Rightmove a boost.

Zoopla acknowledges the competitive classified market and looks for growth elsewhere.
 OnTheMarket is limiting its own growth potenEarlier in the year analysts foretial by barring online agents.
cast some competitive pricing strategy
from Rightmove, but this did not materialise and instead its average revenue
per advertiser has increased by 10 percent to £740 per month on the same period a year ago.
Rightmove benefits from massive brand awareness and popularity with the British public and has a lower risk of losing traffic. Agents are dissatisfied with the portals high fees.
A limiting factor to potential growth for OnTheMarket is its embargo on listing online
agents. Springett indicated that he was not unsympathetic to some of the “better” online
agents gaining membership to OnTheMarket. There are many agents who have a 'wait and see'
approach to joining OnTheMarket, and we may see a slackening of this policy if the portal fails
to attract its target number of agents.
The year ahead
Competition and market disruption may come to the portals from other factors:
The persistent interference from the U.K. government in the real estate industry will
indirectly have some impact on the classified sites. The Government is launching a consultation document on the real estate industry which will look at the fees charged by professionals
and companies involved in the property purchase and transfer industry.
Purplebricks is an increasingly popular online agent gaining brand awareness, and about
to list on the stock market. It has the potential to compete with Rightmove and Zoopla and
with continued marketing it will not ‘need’ to use those portals because its own brand awareness is becoming big enough for it to host its own shop window.
The fundamental flaw with the three largest portals is that none of them scope the
whole of the market. The possibility that a new player will emerge offering for sale by owner
ads could change the classified landscape. The British public has the appetite for direct selling
Page 84
Vol. 17 No. 1
and if the main three portals continue to rule out for sale by owner ads, then it is possible
new player(s) will gain market momentum.
Sellers have started selling their own homes, via Facebook and Twitter and while this is
still a novelty, technology will drive the phenomenon quickly. With over 60 percent of property searches conducted on mobile devices, the battle may soon move on from portal wars and a
challenger operating with a mobile-only app could soon arrive.
OLX Kenya tightens online security
The leading Naspers-owned classifieds site OLX teamed up with security company G4S
in Kenya to make delivery of goods traded on the site safer. Buyers and sellers are now able to
use the G4S offices as locations for dropping off and picking up packages by the parties safely.
Peter Ndiang’ui, OLX country manager for Kenya, said in a statement the partnership
will make buying on the site more convenient and save time.
“This partnership enables us as OLX to make transactions safer for our users, and to
lessen the burden of transport on them, even as more traders, micro-businesses and consumers troop to our platform every day, to sell both new and used items,” said Ndiang’ui.
He said the service would make transactions safe, and fast, while the cost will be prenegotiated with OLX based on distance. The service is voluntary and will be open to those who
need goods delivered.
“For safety sake buyers will have to identify themselves and prove they had been in
contact with the sellers. A set of questions will therefore be posed to the buyer, who will
have to answer correctly before he’ll be given the package,” explained Ndiang’ui.
He said the service will be tested with customers in Nairobi for the next three months.
Depending on the demand for the service, it may then be launched in other countries.
Not just for auctions anymore: Auction.com rebrands as Ten-X
Real estate auction website Auction.com has rebranded itself as Ten-X to emphasize
the company’s transition from a pure auction site for distressed assets to a more comprehensive online marketplace for residential and commercial real properties.
To drive home that point, Ten-X will introduce in March a new platform that allows
buyers and sellers to conduct transactions using either the site’s traditional online auction system or a non-auction process.
Ten-X, which as Auction.com has facilitated the sales of over 200,000 properties since
its founding in 2007, will be organized into three units — the original Auction.com, Ten-X
Homes featuring move-in ready residential properties, and Ten-X Commercial. Ten-X Homes
will only be available in four markets initially — Dallas, Denver, Miami and Phoenix — while
Ten-X commercial will have a national footprint.
Page 85
Vol. 17 No. 1
ClassyCareers: a new fashion jobs site in Dubai
Dubai’s fashion industry is reputed to be an attractive place for fashion people from all
over the world to work at one of the city’s many world-class fashion agencies which are progressively pointing the direction for fashion in the Middle East.
No wonder then, that a job site dedicated to the Dubai fashion industry recently
launched. It’s called ClassyCareers.info and may well be the first job site in the Arabic region
focused on the fashion sector of the Middle East.
Job-seekers may set up profiles with portfolios on the site for free. The website assists
jobseekers with photo shoots for their profiles at a minimal cost — and sometimes even free.
ClassyCareers has the right to distribute jobseekers’ content, including materials, images,
both online and offline.
The website enables artists to post in different fashion fields, including modeling,
event hosting, promotional jobs, entertainment, DJ, casting, hair styling, make-up and even
face-coloring.
Job hunters, especially at fashion agencies, may take advantage of the site’s compatibility with other websites of ClassyCareers. For instance, a users can upload his portfolio to
ClassyCareers and then present it to potential employers (fashion agencies in Dubai) in the interview.
Rozee.pk unveils new mobile app
A buzzing mobile scene in Pakistan is exerting a pull on classifieds to target customers
on the go. All the major verticals and horizontals are investing resources to make their services accessible from mobile devices. Rozee.pk, Pakistan’s leading recruitment platform, just
unveiled a mobile application to enable employers to accelerate their hiring process.
Rozee.pk, used by 66,000 employers and 6.5 million professionals, launched this app on
Google Play and the Apple Store to allow hiring managers to list critical and time-sensitive vacancies via mobile devices.
“Leading companies recognize that quality talent is what powers their growth,” said
Monis Rahman, chief executive officer and founder of Naseeb Networks, which runs Rozee.pk
in Pakistan and Mihnati.com in Saudi Arabia, in a statement. “Hiring needs to operate at
speed.”
Rahman said the app provides hiring managers with an ubiquitous user interface for increased efficiency, and an opportunity to establish direct contact with shortlisted candidates
through text message and auto-calling.
“Managers can oversee hiring across teams in their organization and review, rate and
comment on candidates,” he added. “They can post and monitor job vacancies and browse
the resume database.”
Page 86
Vol. 17 No. 1
While the app can be downloaded free of cost, an employer can pay online for valueadded services.
The old payment method was sluggish. “Earlier, employers paid by cash or per cheque.
And, they couldn’t start using services, before we had received their payments,” a spokesperson of the platform said.
“Now, we have bank transfers and a credit-card payment facility in-app to remove delays.”
HurriyetEmlak grew 47 percent in 2015
HurriyetEmlak.com, one of the biggest real estate sites in Turkey, published its vital
statistics for 2015 — and impressed with strong growth across a range of key performance indicators.
For instance, the site grew its revenue by 47 percent in 2015, its new-listings rate by 30
percent and its visitors and cooperation members by more than 30 percent. (All statistics supplied by the site.)
These growth rates followed on equally spectacular growth rates in 2014: hurriyet emlak logovisitors grew by 40 percent and new listings by 20 percent in 2014.
Kamil Ozornek, a member of the board of Dogan Online, said the site concentrated on
bringing diversity to the market, with new products, and that it concentrated on new investment in 2015.
Ozornek said the “smart search” and “smart offer” products were popular among users,
and that the products had won awards in the international arena. He also said the product
“real estate score”, launched to increase the productivity of participating users, was effective. The already high level of safety was improved yet again.
HurriyetEmlak.com released several new products to the market and then relied on television campaigns to create awareness. The spots flighted on TV were watched by more than
2 million people on YouTube.
HurriyetEmlak.com, an affiliate to Dogan Group, Turkey’s biggest media group,
launched HurriyetEmlakhaber in 2016, after running it in beta for a while. The Dogan Group
wants to increase the awareness of HurriyetEmlak.com, and also of HurriyetEmlakhaber.com,
the news site of the real estate market, which publishes the new construction projects and
news about the market.
Although there are almost 10 large and small player in Turkey’s real estate market, the
main competitors are Sahibinden.com and HurriyetEmlak.com. Tapu.com, an auction-based
real estate website, and Tarimdan.com, a marketplace for farmers which also publishes real
estate ads for farmers, are eating into the marketshare of the big players.

As cars get smarter, so do buyers and sellers

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