The UK land grab continues. Real estate startup Zoopla has acquired property technology company Byteplay Ltd, whose assets include OnOneMap.com, DotHomes.com and Extate.com, all three of which are now pointing to Zoopla.co.uk. The terms of the deal remain undisclosed in what appears to be classic consolidation play.
Byteplay is also the operator of the local ‘propertygazette’ websites, which include bristolpropertygazette.co.uk and coventrypropertygazette.co.uk and a host of others covering UK towns and cities.
Zoopla says the deal is a “win” for estate agents already utilising its service as they’ll now see more leads via the company’s roster of local property sites, which has been given a boost thanks to today’s acquisition. This, says Zoopla, makes it a serious challenger to the market leader in the UK, Rightmove.
And it’s true the company does seem to have momentum of late, having also recently acquired the PropertyFinder Group, which was put up for sale recently by joint owners REA Group and News International. While last week Zoopla launched its augmented reality app for the iPhone that lets users search for properties for sale and rent and compare house prices by pointing the phone’s camera at a street, mining its 27 million strong property database.