Zoopla CEO Charlie Bryant (main image) issued an unusual public statement criticizing his rival after OnTheMarket announced last week that September was a record month for traffic. .
The claim made by OnTheMarket in its advertising and marketing communications is that the portal received enough visitors during September to become the second largest portal in the UK after Rightmove during the month. 
Zoopla issued a statement over the weekend saying it wanted real estate agents to understand the “tactics” used by competitors, saying the extra traffic was “low-quality display advertising” to “make headlines”. He said he thought it was via
Zoopla also said that the numbers shared by OnTheMarket in a recent ad “highlight September and do not accurately reflect the entirety of 2024.”
It is also claimed that the numbers reflect that OnTheMarket used advertising to increase “paid traffic” by 209% and attract more visitors. This indicates that people are spending less time during each visit, resulting in higher “bounce” rates and fewer visitors. Number of pages viewed per visit.
Increased traffic
“These metrics suggest that OnTheMarket's strategy appears to be more focused on increasing traffic numbers than attracting serious movers,” Bryant says.
“In our experience, shorter visit times, higher bounce rates, and fewer pages viewed mean users (and agents) are less likely to convert into leads for your business. .
“We recently commissioned a survey from OnePulse to better understand which real estate websites consumers expect to see their homes listed for sale. 68% said Rightmove, followed by 38% and OnTheMarket.”
A spokesperson for OnTheMarket says:
“We would like to thank Zoopla for highlighting that more people visit OnTheMarket than the Zoopla site. Since the acquisition of CoStar Group, we have been clear about our aim to become the leading portal in the UK market. In September 2023, there were 18 million visits; in September 2024, there were 56 million visits, 212% compared to the previous year. sales increased by 76% during the period.
“Zoopla's website traffic figures are based on third-party estimates and are sample-based and therefore inaccurate. Our data is based on Google, the undisputed authoritative source of web traffic information. Based on real metrics provided by Analytics, the facts are clear: leads, time on site and overall traffic increased significantly throughout 2024, surpassing Zoopla in September.
“Our rapid growth demonstrates that we are executing on CoStar Group's long-standing strategy of partnering with our customers to generate highly motivated leads at a fraction of the cost of our competitors. ”
