Biggest property website battle
A recent Property24.com radio commercial said: “South Africa’s biggest property website is now also the best. We’ve been voted the best South African property portal at the 2007 CNBC International Property Awards. Property24.com”.
Property24.com’s claim to be the biggest property website in South Africa did not go unnoticed, and the advertising agency Black River FC, on behalf of PropertyGenie, lodged a competitor complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) against the radio commercial.
PropertyGenie felt that the claim was unfounded as it was in fact the largest property portal at the end of February, with 147 859 listings.
Attorneys Jan S. de Villiers, on behalf of Property24, responded, saying that the Property24 website was a portal which provides news, articles and services to the real estate industry and property market.
“In light of this, the amount of property listings cannot be the only consideration when determining whether a particular website could be regarded as the biggest or largest property portal. The contents of the website as a whole must be considered, including the amount of listings, the information and extent thereof, the links, the unique browsers and website traffic, the resources, tools and so forth.”
“No other South African property website contains the same amount of information and resources [as Property24],” de Villiers said.
Property24 further argued that the amount of unique browsers it received on a monthly basis was an objective criterion on which it could rely in substantiating its claim of being the biggest website.
According to Alexa.com statistics, Property24’s claims hold water as it has a significantly larger reach and number of page views that PropertyGenie.
The ASA was however unimpressed with Property24’s defence, and said that the claim “South Africa’s biggest property website” in its current context was unsubstantiated.
The ASA upheld PropertyGenie’s complaint, ordering Property24 to withdraw the claim with immediate effect.
Local property website discussion
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