That’s right! We are driven by a strong focus for innovation and that drive is certainly fueled by passion. Now that we are in the sixth month of the year, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane over the happenings of the last five months.
We started off the year with the launch of our inaugural publication, Malaysia Top Property Developers 2011/2012. The 250-plus page limited edition publication, sold at RM 99 at leading bookstores, features 36 of the country’s top property developers, inspiration and concepts of their signature developments has received overwhelming response from the general public.
In February, we launched our new mobile strategy and development team. The formation of the new team was in line with our company’s objective of becoming an organisation that is mobile-first in its outlook.
The team has since been working towards developing highly innovative apps that would further enhance the property search experience for consumers.
In that same month, we also revealed the findings of our Asia Sentiment Survey Report which was very well received by the media. Conducted from November 2011 to January 2012 and gathering a total of 8,499 respondents, the first cross market online property survey of its kind revealed that despite the worldwide economic uncertainty, a majority of these survey respondents had optimistic views on the property market in Asia.
In March, we launched our REACH, ENGAGE and CONVERT campaign in Malaysia. The campaign was put together as a platform to provide customers the opportunity to reach and engage a wider target market of consumers into learning more about the property developments.
The team in Malaysia also successfully launched the very first MAPEX PENANG 2012 together with REHDA Penang. The three day EXPO raked in over RM 90 million in sales.
In Indonesia, the team rolled out our very first property ads tabloid named Rumah123.com Property Ads. This 32-page full colored monthly publication has been well received and is set to take Rumah123.com to greater heights as property hunters now have another avenue to search for properties and obtain the latest news in the property market. The publication also serves to provide agents and developers another platform to reach out to consumer and to generate more leads.
In Singapore, we introduced Howard, our friendly mascot. He is a patient, wise owl with a keen sense of hearing and listening. Howard invites consumers to “Be In The Know” about the property market and not be left behind.
Another buzz of exciting news that took place was the formation of our partnership with MediaCorp’s TODAY newspaper, the country’s largest free newspaper.
Another significant accomplishment that we achieved in March on the innovation front was when the Malaysian team won Best App at the Facebook Mobile Hack Day in Singapore. The team developed an app called the Property Friend Finder, which enables users to find properties that are near their friends and family.
In April, we announced our first quarter results, which revealed astounding success. The Group’s year-on-year growth comparison between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012 saw a 69.4% increase in unique visitors, a 58.5% increase in pageviews and a 59.6% increase in leads across our portals.
Moving on to the month of May, the team in Indonesia launched the biggest online marketing campaign ever to be held online. The campaign is set to give one lucky Indonesian an opportunity to win a house worth 500 million rupiah!
Since the launch, findings have revealed that the consumer metrics in May 2012 saw Rumah123.com emerge as the clear leader in property portal space in Indonesia with over a 33% leap in unique visitors in just one month as compared to April 2012.
We also emerged the clear leader in Hong Kong with the formation of strategic cooperation’s with key leading developers. GoHome.com.hk continues to outperform other local real estate portals with the highest traffic, user and listing figures, making us most effective online advertising platform.
IProperty.com.my continued to be the clear leader in Malaysia and was also recently ranked the world’s 3rd most dominant portal when compared to other competitor portals by Property Portal Watch. Our property magazine in Malaysia was also voted Property Magazine of the year from Advertising + Marketing for the third consecutive year.
We also expanded our family with the acquisition of vproperty.com, Macau’s leading property portal. The acquisition extends the reach of the Group in the region with the Macau based portal being managed by the iProperty Group’s GoHome.com.hk business.
It also gives me great pleasure to announce that our property search app has been named one of Australia’s most innovative products in the Anthill Magazine Smart 100 Index.
In May, we also launched CommercialAsia.com in Australia to offer property agents there an opportunity to showcase their commercial properties to Asia-Pacific investors.
Now, don’t you agree that the last five months have been filled with exciting things! Our achievements continue to extend our leadership position in all the countries that the iProperty Group operates in.
We are certainly looking forward to the next 6 months of the year!
Have a great weekend!
