- Zoopla
Zoopla (also Zoopla! or Zoopla.co.uk) is a property website that provides information such as sold house prices and current value estimates for all 27 million residential properties in the UK.
Product features
The Zoopla site is a searchable directory of UK residential properties, created as a mashup of
Royal Mail 's database, the UKHM Land Registry 's data on property transactions,Google maps, Microsoft Birds eye view, and other data sources. The data is then presented in a read-write format, so thatuser generated content can "fill in the gaps".Based on this data, Zoopla has developed an
Automated Valuation Model or algorithm that allows the site to provide an instant valuation estimate for any property in the UK, similar to competitors Mouseprice and Hometrack. The site also allows users to claim their home, advertise it for sale or set a TemptMe price (a price at which they could be tempted to sell).History and company information
Zoopla was founded in 2007 by Alex Chesterman, former founder of
ScreenSelect /LOVEFiLM and Simon Kain, former senior developer at Bookpages / Amazon UK and LOVEFiLM CTO. [cite web |url=http://www.zoopla.co.uk/about/ |title=About Zoopla! |accessdate=2008-07-26] In June 2008, they hired Doug Monro, former Managing Director ofGumtree , as Chief Operating Officer. [cite web |url=http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/816717/Gumtree-MD-Monro-heads-property-site/ |title=Gumtree MD Monro heads to property site |accessdate=2008-07-26] The company is based in West London.The website had 300,000 visitors in May 2008, [Nielsen NetRatings, May 2008] making it one of the top ten property websites in the UK, but well behind established players like
Rightmove .Zoopla have been quoted in the UK press in a number of articles based on their data, such as the UK Property Rich List [cite web |url=http://www.zoopla.co.uk/property/richlist/england/ |title=Zoopla UK Property Rich List |accessdate=2008-07-26] and comments on the value of various celebrity homes. [cite web |url=http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article1340868.ece |title=Madge and Guys's separate rooms |accessdate=2008-07-26 ] There has also been some debate over the ethics of property porn and property snooping. [cite web |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2008/03/07/fthouse107.xml |title=Find out what next door's house is really worth |accessdate=2008-07-26 ] [cite web |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/property_and_mortgages/article3633631.ece |title=Are you a Zoopla! snooper? |accessdate=2008-07-26 ]
Zoopla is backed by
Atlas Venture and other investors. [cite web |url=http://www.atlasventure.com/ourportfolio/portfoliodetail.cfm?id=222 |title=Our portfolio - Zoopla |accessdate=2008-07-26 ]The site has some similarities to
Zillow.com in the US.External links
* [http://www.zoopla.co.uk Zoopla website]
Notes and references
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