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”.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
“No other South African property website contains the same amount of information and resources [as Property24],” de Villiers said.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
According to Alexa.com statistics, Property24’s claims hold water as it has a significantly larger reach and number of page views that PropertyGenie. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The ASA upheld PropertyGenie’s complaint, ordering Property24 to withdraw the claim with immediate effect.<\/p>\n