propertyguru - lessons in building a leading property portal group in sth east asia

Key Lessons - Building South East Asia’s Leading Online Property Group

Helping 350 million people research, buy, sell or rent property… Everybody needs a home

“Prove biz model”

“Accelerate SG leadership”

“Internationalization”

“Professionalize & Scale”

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Brief History

11M monthly consumers 2.4M apps 1.1M properties 500k monthly leads 31k agents

Australia

Hong Kong

~$12bn Transactions Annually

Asia’s Leading Online Property Group

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Property Any Time

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Property Moving Online

Property Listings Property Agents

Source: PropertyGuru

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15 mobile apps, 4 countries, 3 platforms & 3 languages

2.4M App Downloads Consumer Apps Agent Apps

54% of visits

Property Search Is Going Mobile

Where Our Revenue Comes From

Agents Developers & Banks

Scalable, run rate Bigger budgets, bespoke

350 million People

80,000 Agents

80 million Smartphones

$140bn Transactions

Big & Growing Markets

4%

48%

10% 9%

5% 1%

32%

24%

16% 14%

2013 2018 forecast

Just Starting…

2004 2013

Source: Frost & Sullivan (2014)

Lesson 1 – Continual Innovation

•  ~1/3rd of staff

•  Upskilled product managers

•  Award winning mobile teams

•  By functionality, not country

•  2x Dev Centres

•  Single platform

Continual Consumer Focused Innovation

2008/09:

Map search

Directories

Mobile apps

Agent Websites

StreetView

Facebook

Many Asia 1st’s

2010/2011:

iPhone app

Mortgage broker

Commercial

Auctions

Newspaper

Property data

Floorplans = Better Listings

240,000 properties Redrawn Re-Digitized From scratch

Listing Quality Algorithm

Reminders to agents Almost every facet scored

From the smallest details such as Furnished? No. of toilets? Unit no.?

to the most critical information

Location Price Floor Plan

Personal Property Score

Continual Mobile Improvements

Condo Directory

SMS Enquiry

Multi-Photo Upload

New Map Search

Maybank Mobile Partnership - SEA

Increased exposure & leads for agents

Cleaner Responsive Design

Mortgage Marketplace

Property Data

Agent Academy

•  Invest in Brand

Lesson 2 – Branding Is An Investment

“As Recommended By The PM…”

Central & Local Marketing – Teamwork

Offline – re-enforces online + supports sales

Online – SEO, SEM, Mobile & Social

Content – Create + Curate + Distribute

Events – educate, influence, brand & sales

Invest in Marketing

Singapore

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Indonesia

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Malaysia

Thailand

Help consumers

600 articles/month - 3 languages

Property sentiment

Infographics & lifestyle on social media

Video snacks

Create + Curate + Distribute….

King Content…

Events - Consumers, Developers & Agents

Consumer shows

Market updates

Developer summits

Agent summits

Developer – Agent Events

Industry seminars

Lifecycle Marketing – Agent Insights

Thailand Example…

Source: Google Analytics

347,358

1,515,197

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Paid Search Engine Organic

Paid traffic % ê12% Brand Index é52% Engagement é 3x No. 2

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DDProperty$ Prakard$ Propertyperfect$ Thaihometown$ Thinkofliving$

Source: Google Internal

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The Measurement Dilemma…

Total Visits x Average Time on Site = Total Engagement Share ~ Proxy for share of leads

•  Right Strategy, Executed Well… easier said than done!

Lesson 3 – Get Disciplined

10+ Year Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) for Company

5 Year Company Vision

1 Year Company Goals

Quarterly Functional Priorities (ELT & ELT-1)

Strategy into Tactics

Priorities + KPI’s + Rhythm + Accountability

Investment… When & How?

Start Up: Prove business model Self fund Series A/B: Early stage VC’s & angels Accelerate Debt Finance: Quick, no SPA/SHA/dilution But opex

Series B/C: Major Growth Round Blue Chip VC Vs Strategic

Also JV Partners… Increase Local Reach

Indonesia – $3.5bn listed no. 1 media company (TV, Outdoors & Digital). Cash for minority equity investment + branding + product bundles

Malaysia – Large outdoor/print/digital media company. Media for Equity JV. Helped increased brand index from 4% to 27% in 3 years

But needs to be managed

•  Leadership team built – upgrade/professionalize functions

•  2 years improving legacy systems & processes – plan ahead

•  Putting in place KPI tracking is tough

•  Policies & processes = better run business & IPO-able

•  Don’t scrimp on advisors - 2x upgrades of lawyers, corp secretary, accountants = less costly mistakes

•  Select & invest in key systems: –  Netstuite ERP & CRM & Online Billing –  Amazon Web Services –  Eloqua lifecycle marketing –  Birst data visualisation –  etc

Systems & Process… Don’t Delay

Most important…

Lesson 4 – It’s All About People

Most important, hardest to manage

Attitude is everything…

Hire, Train, Assess, Develop

Work hard to develop Culture

Happy employees… +31% productivity, +37% sales, +3x creativity

$3,000 raised

$3,500 raised for Japanese Tsunami

$1,800 raised for Thai Flood staff

$62,000 raised for Children’s Cancer

750 lives helped in 4 countries

4 countries doing their bit for mother earth

60 Gurus

4 Countries

Lot’s of sweat

1 House

PropertyGuru Essential Reading…

Summary

Consumer focused

Continual innovation

Mobile first

Branding investment

Structure & discipline early

People & culture most important

No substitute for hard work

Thanks!

propertyguru - lessons in building a leading property portal group in sth east asia

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