Type Public Industry Internet, real estate Headquarters London, United Kingdom | Traded as LSE: ZPG Founded January 2008 | |
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Founder Alex Chesterman
Simon Kain | ||
Zoopla (Zoopla PLC) is a British property website covering the residential property market, partially owned by Daily Mail and General Trust and estate agent Countrywide. Zoopla focuses on providing users with access to information such as sold house prices, area trends & statistics and current value estimates for domestic properties in the UK. Zoopla PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Contents
History
The Group was founded in 2007 and the Zoopla website was launched in January 2008 by Alex Chesterman, who also founded ScreenSelect (later LoveFilm) and Simon Kain, LoveFilm CTO. It was backed by Accomplice, Octopus Ventures and other investors.
In July 2009, Zoopla acquired property website Thinkproperty.com from the Guardian Media Group.
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.
In January 2011 Zoopla acquired historic database of UK house prices HousePrices.co.uk.
In October 2011 Zoopla and Digital Property Group, the subsidiary of A&N Media, which operates property websites Primelocation.com, Globrix.com and FindaProperty.com, merged their respective businesses and in May 2012, Zoopla acquired property information website UpMyStreet.com. In June 2012 it formed Zoopla Property Group Ltd.
In December 2012, Zoopla acquired property information website Globrix.com.
In Spring 2013, Stephen Morana, formerly of Betfair Group Plc, was appointed new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Zoopla's biggest shareholder, the Daily Mail and General Trust floated Zoopla on the London Stock Exchange in June 2014.
In June 2015, Zoopla bought the price comparison website uSwitch.
In July 2016 it was revealed that Zoopla's CEO was one of the businessmen behind a controversial legal challenge to the EU referendum result.
Operations
Zoopla is a searchable directory of UK residential properties using various sources like the Royal Mail's postcode database, the HM Land Registry's data on property transactions in England and Wales, Google maps, and other data sources. Based on this data, Zoopla has developed an automated valuation model or algorithm that provides a computed valuation estimate for any property in the UK. Zoopla also allows users to claim their home or set a TemptMe price, similar to US website Zillow. Its analogue for valuing the Internet properties is DNPric.es. The accuracy of Zoopla's computed valuations is disputed.
Sponsorship
Zoopla have sponsored West Bromwich Albion Football Club since 2012. In January 2014, founder Alex Chesterman, who is Jewish, decided to remove support of the club after an allegedly anti-Semitic gesture from player Nicolas Anelka made headlines.