Singapore’s leading online property portal, PropertyGuru, has acquired Thailand’s DDProperty Investing, which owns www.ddproperty.com, for THB80 million, in a bid to expand its footprint in the country’s online property market.
“This partnership happened because both PropertyGuru and DDProperty.com share the same business goal and see the huge growth potential in Thailand’s online property market,” said Tanomsak Khacharoen, Managing Director of All Property Media Co. Ltd and co-founder of DDproperty.com.
With the new acquisition, PropertyGuru is ready to spend up to THB80 million to establish the website’s position as Thailand’s number one, in the eyes of online property traders.
“Together we aim to support and develop DDProperty.com and uphold its status as the local online property market leader. DDProperty.com has seen consistent growth in traffic and revenue for all four years since its conception. The website, which has a database of 75,000 opted-in members, currently services 740,000 visitors viewing five million pages per month. It offers over 95,000 properties for sale and rent in Thailand and has enjoyed a whopping 188 percent growth in visits over the past year,” added Tanomsak.
He noted that, along with the group’s investment, PropertyGuru is bringing to DDProperty its experience, knowledge, innovative technology and manpower, necessary for what was originally a two-man operation.
Steve Melhuish, Chief Executive of AllProperty Media Pte Ltd, which owns PropertyGuru, revealed that the company has been gathering information on Thailand’s property-related online sites and businesses. It found that the overall online advertising sector has a value of over THB1,500 million a year, with a growth rate of over 20 percent in the past year.
“We expect to invest over 80 million baht during the course of two years to upgrade and develop the website’s data management along with focusing on marketing and promotional activities to give DDProperty.com more exposure. By the end of this year we aim to see at least 1.5 million visits with over 10 million page views monthly,” he said.
“The development will concentrate on improving the quality of information, web accessibility, and ease of use. We will also build a database of property projects as well as developers and agents in Thailand so consumers can find exactly what they are looking for more conveniently. From the stimulation of the Thai government’s property development policy, we are anticipating a lot more dynamism in property trading and launches of new condominium and residential construction projects, which in turn means the steady rise of advertising revenue from their promotional campaigns.”
“This acquisition gives PropertyGuru a unique regional marketing capability to real estate developers and agencies wishing to target buyers in multiple Asian countries, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, India, Macau and Hong Kong,” added Melhuish.
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