As predicted by Nick on the following thread http://www.proptechnow.com.au/2011/12/is-the-business-portal-industry-consolidating/, it looks like RealBusinesses.com.au are one of the first big companies to feel the pinch of the business for sale niche.
Big companies like RealBusinesses, SeekCommerical and business.domain have massive overheads and expenses, and without signing up almost every single business broker in Australia, this niche is just too small for these big firms to justify operating in. The volume simply isn’t there.
It is also safe to assume that these big boys are relying a lot on their parent companies such as seek.com.au, domain.com.au and realestate.com.au to drive traffic and business, not to mention a ‘link’ from these parent sites are very valuable in Google eyes, hence their dominance in the serps since the recent updates.
But the question is, is it worth it? Is it worth the time and effort trying to dominate such a small market compared to what these guys are used to in real estate? The answer is no. Statistically it’s not worth it, and from a financial point of view, it obviously isn’t worth it either.
A site like RealBusinesses.com.au which is owned by a huge firm like REA, quietly exiting the back door of this industry, opens up the front door for the smaller sites in this field like www.BizListings.com.au and www.Business-Trader.com.au, just to name a few. And when I say smaller sites, I am referring to the administration side of the business and not the actual websites themselves.
These particular sites are making a huge impact on the big players and with basically zero overhead, as they are run from home offices and usually with no more than 3-4 staff, they can be extremely competitive on price, making these sites the first choice for private sellers and business brokers alike.
So it will be interesting to see how things pan out for this niche on 2014 and I’m predicting that we might see another big player exit the industry in the not to distant future.
Author: Peter Watson
