Zoopla share price: Company sees record consumer traffic levels in January

Zoopla Property Group (LON:ZPLA) has this morning issued a trading update. Here are the highlights from the company statement:

Zoopla Property Group Plc (LSE:ZPLA) (the “Group” or “ZPG”), the digital media business and operator of leading UK online property portals including Zoopla and PrimeLocation, announces its trading statement based on performance of the business between 1 October 2014 and 31 January 2015 (the “Period”).

The Group has grown its reach and audience significantly, resulting in record levels of consumer traffic to its websites and mobile apps, with 42.3m average monthly visits during the Period, an increase of 14% compared with the same period last year and with a record total of 50.5 million visits during January. Mobile devices now account for over 60% of the monthly visits and are up 42% compared with the same period last year, as consumers continue to use the Group’s services to search and research the property market at work, home and on the move.

We continue to invest in marketing our brands and developing our platform to help our users find their next home and our members market their listings more efficiently. Our ‘Smarter’ marketing campaign continues and is delivering strong results. And having launched new, unique tools including commute time search, price per square foot and comparable reports over the past few months we continue to innovate and develop numerous further exciting features for both our users and members which will be rolled out over the coming months.

As guided in November 2014, the number of agency members has been impacted in the short term by the launch of Agents’ Mutual and its restrictive ‘only one-other portal’ rule. The number of total advertising members at the end of the Period has fallen 11% over the past year to 16,967 (Jan 2014: 18,999); of which 13,4021 are UK agency branches (Jan 2014: 16,059); 2,793 are new home developments (Jan 2014: 2,644); 635 are overseas agency branches (Jan 2014: 296); and 137 are commercial agency branches, part of the new commercial channel which was launched at the end of last year.

Current trading & outlook
Our consumer-led approach and proposition continues to drive strong engagement on our websites and mobile apps as consumers increasingly rely on the unique search tools and data we provide. We offer the best value digital marketing proposition available to property professionals with existing members benefiting from increased exposure and enquiries and record leads per listing and branch. Whilst we expect some limited further UK agency churn, this is likely to be partly offset by the return of some members who have found the Agents’ Mutual restrictive ‘one-other portal rule’ damaging to their business. The Group is trading in line with management expectations and is well positioned for long-term growth.
As of 07:13 GMT, Thursday, 12 February, Zoopla Property Group PLC share price is 186.00p.

Copy expert traders easily with BROKER_NAME_LINK. Invest in stocks like Tesla & Apple. Instantly trade ETFs like FTSE 100 & S&P 500. Sign-up in minutes.