Real estate agents to take on News and Fairfax?
The Australian yesterday reported that the Real Estate Institute of Australia is planning to launch a website to collate property sales data and, ultimately, compete with realestate.com.au, domain.com.au and the many others. It’s a move by independent real estate agents to take control back of a key traffic generator for their businesses – online advertising. While the move is likely to be too little too late, it’s the arrogance of a major competitor which caught my eye in the story:
Realestate.com.au chief executive Simon Baker said those price rises were justified because they corresponded with the much higher rises in site traffic and property listings.
Mr Baker said the group was not concerned about the prospect of an industry-led site because it was unlikely REIA would be able to obtain enough capital to adequately fund a new sales portal.
The Australian is published by News Limited which owns 53% of realestate.com.au. Baker is wrong to justify price rises of 10% a year on traffic generated by the site. The Internet is not a place where such old school justification of price rises is accepted. Online shoppers do so because online costs are less. Price rises ought to reflect real price rises experienced by the supplier and not what they think they can get away with.
By allowing online advertising sites to grow unchecked as they have, real estate agents have lost control of traffic to their doors and this makes them vulnerable. If Australia follows the US there will be a move to cut real estate agent commissions through better online functionality. Just as happened with online travel portals taking business form travel agents. Why will I be happy to love, say, $10,000 to a real estate agent when I can use an online ad portal to take care of the main work for less than 10% of that?
To compete with the power of realestate and domain, the agents need to offer new and exclusive functionality. It’s not just about price as the story in The Australian suggests – offering cheaper ads will not work. The agents need to leverage their intellectual property to their advantage.
The disruption faced by real estate agents is similar to that faced by newsagents. Both are old world bricks and mortar businesses made up of independent business people often too busy running their businesses to see the tsunami of online driven disruption which threatens to impact business as they know it. Good on the REIA for acting on this. It’s more than we are seeing from newsagents. However, their reaction will need to be faster and smarter than current reports suggest.
The challenge is that real estate agents and newsagents rely on long term big business partners who are no actively competing against them. This issue is the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about – how dare we speak ill of a supplier competing with us for fear they will go harder. The reality is that News and Fairfax are competing with real estate agents, they are a huge threat to the model real estate agents operate under. Likewise with newsagents. Fairfax and News will do what is right for their share price – meaning that newsagents and real estate agents must do only that which is right for their profitability.
While the advertising folks at the Financial Review don’t get to cover the masthead, they do get to cover front page stories as this photo from Tuesday’s AFR shows.
I’ve heard about 
Peres surprised me. He was passionate, engaging and well informed. He came across as honest in his comments and answers – maybe they are traits of a politician out of office. He sees the blogosphere as vital for democracy and breaking down borders. He sees it as crucial to transparency and essential to a more peaceful world.
At the end of his time at LeWeb, Peres was delivered a spontaneous and long standing ovation. Delegates were honored to have him speak and moved by his words. His presence at a blogging conference adds to the credibility and importance of the blogosphere. He sees blogs as a legitimate – and two-way- communication channel.
Dave Sifry from 
Take 1,000 IT people involved in online businesses from around the world – from developers to venture capitalists – and you’re bound to get reality checks on a range of fronts. 
One other surprise today looking at how newspapers and magazines are sold in Paris is the lack of rules. Here’s a foreign newspaper stand at one of the Presse kiosks – it’s easy to browse. The local dailies are close to the counter with the full cover viewable. Back in Australia we have all sorts of rules – how close to the front of the shop, the type of stand to use, the amount of space to give etc. Sometimes these rules get in the way of our customers. Here, with newspapers especially, it’s about easy access.
Here are some random retail-related observations from a day wandering around Paris.
These are the most common ‘newsagencies’ on the streets of Paris and suburbs from what I have seen today. These ‘kiosks’ are efficient – they allow for the display, Parisien style, of 250 magazine titles, all major dailies and another 20 or so imported newspapers. They also offer tobacco, candy and, in some cases, calling cards. Newspapers, magazines and tobacco products account for 80% of all sales. High street newsagencies have not been forced to retreat to these kiosks – I’ve been told this is how it’s always been for the sale of newspapers and magazines. It’s certainly efficient. These Presse kiosks are everywhere.
Off the main thoroughfare and tucked into small spaces of between 20 and 30 sq metres are these presse shops – newsagencies French style. I’ve been into five so far an their range of magazines is excellent – at least 800 titles. In a fan type display along shelves – no full face displays here, not even for the high volume titles. Their lottery products take up much of the counter with tobacco products behind the counter. No stationery. No greeting cards. They don’t have room – each of the shops I have see so far is tiny. If I had paid more attention during French classes in high school I might have more to say about their trading terms. One owner I spoke with said “business no good” but his wife then jabbed him as if to say he always says that. What has been consistent is their shingle PRESSE is bold and clear atop each one.