| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Internet, Real Estate |
| Founded | January 2008 |
| Founder(s) | Alex Chesterman and Simon Kain |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
| Services | Property search and research |
| Website | Zoopla.co.uk |
Zoopla (also Zoopla! or Zoopla.co.uk) is a property and house prices website that provides information such as sold house prices and current value estimates for all 27 million residential properties in the UK.
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The Zoopla site is a searchable directory of UK residential properties, created as a mashup of Royal Mail's database, the UK HM Land Registry's data on property transactions, Google maps, Microsoft maps' "bird's eye view", and other data sources. The data is then presented in a read-write format, so that user-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 AVM is based on user-added information such as property attributes, transactions from the Land Registry, and analysis of historical price trends. The site also allows users to claim their home or set a TemptMe price (a price at which they could be tempted to sell).
The site also provides listings of around 500,000 properties for sale or to rent from residential estate agents along with pictures, descriptions, maps, statistics and local information.
In July 2010, Zoopla also made a similar service as an iPhone application including GPS-based property searches and augmented reality camera view.
Zoopla was founded in 2007 by Alex Chesterman, who also founded ScreenSelect / LOVEFiLM and Simon Kain, former senior developer at Bookpages / Amazon UK and LOVEFiLM CTO.[1] The website was launched in January 2008. In June 2008, they hired Doug Monro, former Managing Director of Gumtree, as Chief Operating Officer.[2], who subsequently left to found Adzuna[3] in 2011. The company is based in Southwark, London.
The website had 1.6 million visitors in March 2010,[4] making it the second largest property website in the UK behind market leader 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[5] and comments on the value of various celebrity homes.[6] There has also been some debate over the ethics of property porn and property snooping.[7][8]
Zoopla is backed by Atlas Venture, Octopus Ventures and other investors.[9][10]
In July 2009, Zoopla acquired property website Thinkproperty.com from the Guardian Media Group.[11]
In August 2009, Zoopla acquired the PropertyFinder Group, consisting of the websites Propertyfinder.com, Hotproperty.co.uk and UK Property Shop, with combined annual revenues of £7M, from prior owners the REA Group and News International for an undisclosed sum.[12]
In July 2010, Zoopla acquired property technology company Byteplay.[13]
In August 2010, Zoopla launched its first television advertising campaign. The humorous campaign compares finding the perfect property with finding the perfect partner, showing a number of people discussing the house-buying process in terms that could be used to describe a relationship. [14]
In 2010 Zoopla was named in the Startups 100 awards as one of the UK's most innovative, inspiring and ground-breaking new companies. [15]
In October 2011 Zoopla and Digital Property Group, the subsidiary of A&N Media which operates property websites Primelocation.com and FindaProperty.com announced plans to merge their respective businesses.