Property Portal Privateproperty.co.za has passed the landmark of one million unique users per month on its web and mobile platforms for the first time this January 2011, meeting the goal set exactly one year before.CEO Justinus Adriaanse explains that achieving the target of one million browsers was assisted through the massive growth in web and mobile users over the past two years.Adriaanse goes on to says that in January, Private Property recorded a total of over 700 000 unique browsers on its web site and an additional 400 000 unique browsers on its mobile site. In January this year the site had over 15 million page impressions and was in the top 10 busiest websites in South Africa.He says that this explosive growth was triggered by a shift in strategy from operating as a site for Private Sellers/owners selling their own properties to a full service property portal, engaging with both estate agents and private sellers to provide a full spectrum of services.The new, broader, strategy has resulted in Private Property becoming the busiest property portal in SA, surpassing rivals to take this crown.Justin Clarke, Chairman and Co-Founder of Private Property comments that “For years we thought that these sorts of numbers were impossible to achieve, with home sales in South Africa numbering in the region of 10 000 per month, there appeared to be a natural ceiling to the number of potential visitors a property site could generate. It is truly a huge achievement.”“Passing 1 million unique visitors shows very clearly how much interest there is in the buying or selling of homes in South Africa. There is clearly a passive market of people that are either looking to buy in the medium-term or looking to get a clearer value of their own property, as well as people who have a passionate interest in Real Estate as a whole,” Clarke comments.Adriaanse says that he expects that the largest growth area for the company will come in the form of mobile users as this offers the greatest potential number of users. Mobile also compliments the nature of property buyers as it allows them to browse properties in a specific area while on the road.He adds that the focus for the company over the next 12 months is not so much in increasing the number of unique users but rather to increase the quality and quantity of the listings on the site. “We want to ensure visitors to the site get all the information they need from the listings and this means adding more picture galleries, video tours, floor plans and other location specific information to each listing. If we can achieve these goals the users will follow,” he says.Nielsen NetRatings January 2011 on www.privateproperty and white label sites
Property Advice
