This document provides an overview of Zoopla Property Group (ZPG), including its vision, mission, history, growth, brands, and values. ZPG was founded in 2008 by Alex Chesterman to create a one-stop property portal. It has since grown through acquisitions of other property and home services companies to help consumers find, move, and manage their home. ZPG's vision is to be the consumer champion at the heart of the home, and its mission is to be the most useful resource for consumers and effective marketing channel for partners related to property and home services.
2. Why does this
book exist?
It contains everything you need to know about
Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) - our vision, our
mission, our business partners, as well as how we
help consumers find, move and manage their home.
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4. How it all started
Alex Chesterman launched
Zoopla in 2008 as he was
looking for a home and
couldn’t find a one-stop-shop
for property related data.
Over the next few years, ZPG acquired
a number of different companies to
create a new type of property portal;
one that empowers consumers to make
better decisions by providing them with
more useful property and home services
information. In doing so we transformed
the property portal landscape.
We’ve been the proud winners of
numerous awards and accolades,
including being named one of the Top
10 UK Tech Companies by the Guardian
and one of the Top 100 Most Innovative
UK Companies by Smarta.
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6. How
we’ve
grown 2007
++ Zoopla founded
2009
++ Launched property listings
part of the site
++ Acquired:
PropertyFinder.com
HotProperty.co.uk
ThinkProperty.com
++ #2 property portal by unique
visitors in under two years
++ Winner of Best UK Property
Portal (Daily Mail Awards)
2008
++ Zoopla launched
++ Winner of UK’s Most
Promising Internet Company
(First Tuesday)
++ Winner of UK’s Best Property
Website (Web User)
2010
++ Winner of 100
Most Innovative UK
Businesses (Smarta)
++ Listed as one of
the Top UK Tech
Companies (Guardian)
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7. 2011
++ Acquired: HousePrices.
co.uk
++ Won Innovative Business
of the Year (Fast Growth
Business Awards)
++ Listed as one of the Top
100 UK Tech Companies
(Daily Telegraph)
2013
++ Acquired:
SmartNewHomes.com
HomesOverseas.co.uk
++ Winner of Best Brand (Sunday
Times Tech Track 2013 Awards)
++ Winner of Company of the Year
(Growing Business Awards 2013)
2015
++ Acquired uSwitch, allowing ZPG to
move into the home services space
++ Record levels of consumer traffic
++ 62% of visits now via mobile with
more than 7m app downloads
2012
++ Acquired:
UpMyStreet.com
PrimeLocation.com
FindaProperty.com
Globrix.com
2014
++ Successful IPO on
the London Stock
Exchange
++ Rated an “Outstanding”
place to work by Best
Companies Survey
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...today we are
the only company
that helps consumers
find, move and
then manage
their home.
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8. What we are today
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We have some of the most famous brands covering the
key needs of finding, moving and managing a home.
Alongside our power brands of Zoopla, uSwitch and PrimeLocation we have niche
brands, designed to provide more tailored offerings to specialist audiences.
9. Zoopla: Our mainstream property brand that empowers consumers with
information, so they feel more confident as they find, move and finally settle in and
manage their home.
9
uSwitch: Our comparison brand that helps consumers make informed decisions
to save money and find the best deal on their household bills and personal finances
– everything from gas, electricity and broadband to mobile phones, insurance and
credit cards.
PrimeLocation: Our premium property brand that lists properties to buy or
rent, and offers inspiration for home improvements and aspirational moves.
10. The well-known proverb ‘an Englishman’s
home is his castle’ is as true today as it ever
has been.
But moving between homes and managing
running costs when you arrive is a little more
complicated. Our role is to smooth out the
many different processes involved by being the
consumer champion at the heart of the home.
Why is this so
important?
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11. 11
The UK has more homeowners than most
other European countries, and we love home
improvements. Most people look to add value to
their home and move every 7 years.
But, as house prices rise, we also have a growing
population of long-term renters unable to get on
the housing ladder. Others favour the flexibility
that renting allows to suit their needs.
We are increasingly savvy with our money,
particularly our home running costs. More and
more of us are looking to switch to get the best
deal we can.
12. Different stages of
development
12
While our brands help people with many
aspects of the home, every product we
offer is at a different stage of evolution
which affects consumer confidence
when it comes to switching.
It’s important to think about this when we communicate
with consumers, as no one approach fits all.
12
Early stages: The online money and mobile switching markets are
relatively immature. They are perceived as complex and consumers feel
there’s a high risk to switching.
13. 1313
Growing: The online
energy and broadband
switching markets
have grown quickly
over the last few years,
as government and
brand initiatives have
encouraged more people
to switch.
Maturing: The property
search and online
insurance switching
markets are mature. It’s
common practice for
most property or car
insurance searches to
start in this way.
14. Driving a win-win
14
The key to helping consumers is connecting them
with the right business partners. We look to create
a win-win situation.
We want to get the maximum number of consumers visiting each of our
sites each day, and when they arrive we want to serve them the widest
number of partners to meet their specific needs.
15. 15
We also want to help our
business partners target
key audiences so their
marketing is more effective.
16. We love what we do
16
99,117 hours, that’s how long the average Brit spends working...
Wouldn’t it be good to spend this time doing something worthwhile?
With a purpose and a meaning. That’s why working at ZPG is so good because
we’re trying to make a difference to people’s lives.
17. 17
We call our purpose our vision. It’s our long-term aim of where we want to be.
Ours is to be...
‘The consumer champion at
the heart of the home’.
Together, ZPG’s brands and people will collectively help the nation make better
property decisions and save money. And that feels great!
18. 18
In order to achieve our vision we must deliver on our mission.
Our mission statement
‘To be the most useful
resource for consumers when
finding, moving or managing
their home and the most
effective marketing channel
for related business partners’.
19. To be successful we need to be effective in 7 strategic
areas which we call the ‘BIG IDEA’:
Success = BIG IDEA
19
Build: Establish key partnerships for inventory and deals
Innovate: Differentiate our consumer and partner experiences
Grow: Invest in our brands and consumer engagement
Integrate: Maximise synergies across the business
Develop: Create new products and services to monetise
Expand: Grow revenues in adjacent business areas
Amaze: Wow users, partners and staff in all we do
20. Achieving our mission
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Of course, the
way we treat our
consumers and
business partners
is as important
as the results we
achieve.
Doing things the right way for our
consumers, partners and employees
alike makes us successful.
We define these behaviours in our ZPG
values. Values that earn us the respect
and trust of everyone that comes into
contact with the business. It’s the way
we go about achieving our mission.
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2. Agile
Moving fast and in a focused fashion
We make quick decisions to innovate
and stay ahead of the competition.
We’re focused and data driven and have
a thirst for knowledge and insight and
we’re not afraid to test, learn and try
again in order to achieve our mission.
4. Entrepreneurial
Being creative and owning it
Entrepreneurialism is deep rooted in our
heritage. We use our initiative, make
decisions and spend money like it is our
own and we never stand still. We are
constantly looking for the best outcome
to meet our mission.
1. Passionate
Taking pride in our work and vision
We take pride in our work and are
passionate about delivering a great
experience for our consumers and
partners. Our vision and passion drives
the decisions we make, products we
create and services we offer.
3. Collaborative
Supporting each other as one team
We’re colleague conscious, respect each
other and believe in honesty and integrity
in all dealings. We support each other
and work as a team to enable us all to
achieve our goals and win.
Values
22. Social responsibility
22
Helping goes beyond our office walls.
We have a long history of supporting
others and we are proud of how we
help charities.
Our chosen charities are The Prince’s
Trust and Only Connect.
We’ve been supporting The Prince’s Trust since 2013 with
their work helping young people in need.
To date we’ve raised over £100,000 and were crowned
‘All Round Heroes’ at The Prince’s Trust annual corporate
awards ceremony in 2014, demonstrating our passion for
inspiring young lives and supporting the next generation.
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And we also support the registered charities you choose in
a few ways. Just talk to HR to find out how.
Only Connect is a creative criminal justice charity, rooted
in community. Their vision is a connected society, where
everyone chooses a crime-free life. We’ve been supporting
them so they can deliver innovative rehabilitation projects.