3. The Opportunity
3.3. Competitive Landscape
Different customs have different requirements. Below is the list of all their needs.
Roles Stages Needs and requirements
Property buyers
Publish / Search Listing
Wide range and abundant property list in their interested area
Accurate and detailed Information of real estate listings
Exclusive and tailor-made property acquisition advice
Tax and financial planning
The rationality of the price Offer &
Acceptance
Professional help in discovering property flaws
Price negotiation assistance for lower selling price Buyers
Financing
Better financing condition
Wider range of available options Closing/
ESCROW
Exclusive service in closing real estate transactions
Low service charge and quick closure of sales
Property sellers
Publish / Search Listing
Exclusive and tailor-made property selling advise
Publish to wider range of potential buyers
Tax and financial planning
The rationality of the price Offer &
Acceptance
Reduced time and trouble in showing property to interested perspective buyers
Professional help in negotiating of higher selling price Buyers
Financing
Low service charge in account settlements
Prompt receipt of payment Closing/
ESCROW
Exclusive service in closing real estate transactions
Low service charge and quickly closed sales
Real estate brokers/
agents
All stages
Access to wider range of property listing
Less time and energy in providing service to perspective buyers or sellers / more precise potential customer group
Prompt closure of sales
Increased commission
Real estate
agencies All stages
Access to wider range of property listing
Effective and cost efficient management of agents and ongoing sales
Lower risk of transaction disputes and lawsuits
Prompt closure of sales
Access to wider range of prospective customers
Less time and efforts in providing service to perspective buyers or sellers
Earn as much commission Real estate
developers All stages Sell the property ASAP with higher selling price and lower marketing cost or commission.
Figure 8: List of Target Customers' Needs in Every Stage
3.3. Competitive Landscape
Currently there are thousands of existing real estate websites that offer property listings in more than 300 cities in China. Competitors are mainly from two categories: pure real estate
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participating in Chinese real estate e-commerce, classified by the difference in business relationship: C (Consumer), B (Broker/Brokerage Firm), D (Developer), O (Owner), and P (Platform). The existing business models can be categorized into five categories as the chart below.Figure 9: Chinese Real Estate E-Commerce Model Analysis
Data source: 中国房产电商发展趋势及企业参与策略研究 <Trend of Chinese real estate e-commerce development and enterprise penetration strategy research> , 2013, Author edited.
The business model Beijing Mobile Realty Inc, proposed belongs both in Models 2 and 4.
Except the BJ government official website, the major competitors of MyRealty.com are from two groups: website operators, EJU.com, Sofun.com, AnJuke.com, and real estate agent owned website, HomeLink.com.
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Items Detail Description
Website (Platform) Eju.com (易居购房网) http://www.eju.com/
Brief Introduction
The first real estate e-commerce platform operated by famous internet company Sino.com. Reformed and launched in Aug. 2011. It has abundant human resource and internet traffic from mother company and great connection with physical real estate companies. It keeps innovating in the real estate marketing and closed 29,279 deals and made sales up to CNY 32.8 billion in 2012.
Main Web page format (example)
Target Customers Developer, sales agency, real estate agency, individual real estate agent, home buyer Product or
service offerings
Free information for property search, real estate related statistics and news
Group deal of home shopping for paid customer
co-selling deal for real estate agencies and agents
Business area Newly-constructed housing, commercial property, office building, leisure property, overseas property, decoration appliances
Revenue stream advertisement fee, Case/co-selling referral, membership fee from participants
Advantages
Unique special deal supplied by several major developer partners
co-selling platform for sales agencies, developers and home buyers
stable relationship with major players in physical real estate industry
Disadvantages
Limited choices of property listing. Not offering property trading business. Data sources mainly owned and provided by property sellers. Property description too simple. Too many advertisements
Figure 10: Competitor Profile - EJU.com
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Items Detail Description
Website (Platform) SouFun (搜房网房地产电子商务) http://www.soufun.com
Brief Introduction
Well known independent and professional real estate website operator that own a real estate research institute known for publishing important reports. Founded in 1997 and listed in NASDAQ in 2010, currently it is the biggest real estate website operator in the world and has more than 7,000 employees and 106 branches all over china.
Main Web page format (example)
Target Customers Developer, real estate agency, individual real estate agent, home buyer
Product or service offerings
Free information for property search, real estate related statistics and news reported by its own research institute
online community of owners and buyers,
Group deal of home shopping for paid customer
Online property auctions
Business area
Newly constructed housing, residential property trading, villa, commercial property, office building, leisure property, overseas property, decoration appliances, rental residential property
Revenue stream advertisement fee, Case/co-selling referral, membership fee from participants
Advantages
Complete and well-designed functions at very low cost for property buyer, including detailed description and price update of property and nearby area.
Well-known professional real estate platform with abundant related information
Long standing website with vast audience of active users
Operates a research institute and publishes market studies and information.
Disadvantages Complicated function design. Property listing mainly owned by real estate agency.
Too many advertisements that might annoy users
Figure 11: Competitor Profile - SouFun.com
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Items Detail Description
Website (Platform) AnJuKe 安居客 http://beijing.anjuke.com/
Brief Introduction
The first real estate website to target individual real estate agents, agencies and developers in selling residential property, including property trading and newly constructed housing. Established in 2007 in Shanghai, it employees around 1,500 people in 31 branch offices in major cities in China.
Main Web page format (example)
Target Customers Developer, real estate agency, individual real estate agent, home buyer
Product or service offerings
Free property information search, including real estate price update
Group deal of home shopping for paid customer,
Online advisor forums that answer consumers’ property related problems for free
Multiple mobile apps for every user group
Business area Newly-constructed housing, residential property trading, rental residential property Revenue stream advertisement fee, Case/co-selling referral, membership fee from participants
Advantages
Simple and clear user interface design with professional look
Customer oriented functions on website and mobile app.
Specialized website/mobile functions for real estate agents.
Different mobile apps for each user group using iOS or Android
Long established platform unites real estate related professions
Large online advisory member group which formed a high entry barrier Disadvantages Limited property offering.
Brand awareness is limited to real estate agents and limited property buyers Figure 12: Competitor Profile - AnJuke.com
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Items Detail Description
Website(Broker) HomeLink 链家在线 (http://beijing.homelink.com.cn/ershoufang/)
Brief Introduction
In Beijing it is the leading real estate agency with up to 30% market share of residential property trading. The company’s permanent emphasis on being authentic and professional gains mass consumers’ confidence, providing its brand value.
Formed in 2001, it has more than 900 chain stores and 18,000 employees in Beijing and 7 other mass trading cities in China.
Main Web page format (example)
Target Customers home sellers, home buyers Product or
service offerings
Free property information search, including real estate price update and area view
Customer oriented website design with helpful information for property trading
Specialized mobile apps only for real estate agents Business area Residential property trading, rental residential property Revenue stream Commission
Advantages
Dominant brand power attracts more potential buyers and sellers with a higher success rate in sales
Specializes in property trading in certain cities
100% authentic, detailed and reliable property descriptions with trustworthy agents.
Disadvantages
The conflict of interest prohibits it from establishing mutual relationship with other agencies and individual agents and limits its offering in property listing.
The nature of the company as real estate agency limits its growth
Limited property offering because it is not an open information sharing platform Figure 13: Competitor Profile - HomeLink.com
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Nowadays there is a calling for honesty and customer focus in the real estate brokerage industry. Reputable real estate websites like Homelink.com and Sofun.com have started to emphasis the accuracy of property descriptions and the selling price because of the resentment from websites users for the long lasting practice of providing false property descriptions. Also the proportion of advertisements on web pages is restrained to around 25% of a webpage so that website users can search for information more easily. The third change in the real-estate websites is the differentiation of business focus because the copycats can’t compete in the market anymore.
After researching functions provided by existing well-known real estate websites, the company has identified that two functions are seldom available in most real-estate websites:
the video introduction of a real-estate property and the rational suggested selling price. The company also discovered that description of a property is not detailed enough and picture quality is not good enough. From the founders’ point of view, these features are important for home buyers, especially for serious consumers. Also from using functions on competitors’ websites and their mobile tools founders discovered some points for improvement, such as the user interface can be more user-friendly, the mobile application can be more aligned with its website functions. From general public’s point of view, the process flow design on website and mobile application can be more intuitive and tailored to buyers’ needs.
The company recognized a niche market and a good point of penetration into this competitive, over-crowded but promising market: real estate e-commerce website with reliable multimedia information and seamless mobile applications.
The differentiation between proposed product offerings of Beijing Mobile Realty Inc. and the competitors can be categorized into three aspects: technology used, content information and Service offered.
The figure below provides detail descriptions of its offering and target customer:
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Aspect (*key factor) Existing offering (AS-IS) Proposed offering(TO-BE)
Tech.
Used
*Location Base Service
Every website offers maps nearby search for general users using smart mobile &
GPS
Follow the competitors’ offering
*Mobile App integration*
Every major website offer this function for general users
AnJuKe.com and HomeLink.com have specialized apps for different user group
Follow the competitors’ offering Enhance the mobile app functions in serving user needs like AnJuKe.com for both in iOS and Android users
*Online video N/A Offering the online video function
Map search Every website provide baidu map serach Use google map search Process
integration using tech.
HomeLink provides necessary help and process online guide for real estate agents over smart phone
Provide similar functions like
HomeLink.com but to all paid members
Info.
Content
*Source of Content*
Mostly owned by real estate agents, except HomeLink
The content is owned and created mostly by MyRealty.com
*Multimedia information
formats
Mostly in photos and layout.
Homelink provide the real area view with SOSO map support
Standard format of every property:
photos of every room & layout
On-the-spot video filming by our staff or authorized partners
*Information quality
The description item of a property is not standardized.
Eju and SouFun have too many ads, creating negative user feeling
Provide standard and professional property description format
Descriptions of property for sale is verified by company’s staff onsite
*Personalized content subscribe
Homelink provides free property price update notification
SouFun provide watchlist for both buyers and sellers
Offer watch list for registered users
Provide regulated listing and price update based on the watch list
After user login, the list and ads will show accordingly to watch list
*Property apprised price
Most websites provide the trading price of nearby property
SouFun provide automatic apprise tool
Offer reliable property apprisal done by our professional staff or partner on-the-spot
EJU & SouFun has home appliance vendors & decorators
SouFun has bank mortgage application online
Follow the competitors’ offerings but with selected suppliers who have partnership with the company
Online service support
Everyone provide service hotline Homelink provide online chat service
Follow the competitors’ offerings
SouFun has financial advisors
We have CSR and an advisory team:
lawyer, financial planner and real estate agent to help members
*Transaction risk control
guarantee
EJU.com offer 100% down payment refund guarantee for its voucher and auction
Provide up to CNY 100,000 transaction risk free insurance protection for every purchase made on MyRealty.com Figure 14: Product and Service Offering Differentiation List of MyRealty.com
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