Globrix Limited (www.globrix.com), a next generation property
search website, today announces that it has secured a multi-million
pound funding round from national media company, News International
Limited. Globrix will launch nationwide in early November and intends
to use the funding to take Globrix into the top tier of property
search sites within 12 months.
Globrix is a new type of property search website - unlike existing
market players, it doesn't charge estate agents to list and therefore
will cover virtually every agent in the UK. Rather than having to
search across multiple property sites, Globrix will enable
house-hunters to search across virtually all UK properties from a
single site.
Globrix brings a new business model to the property search market.
Rather than relying on agents to pay for listings in a traditional
classified property advertising model, Globrix will automatically list
and link to properties from thousands of agents' websites, generating
revenues from the sale of advertising space around the results in the
same way as search engine businesses such as Google.
Founded by two recognised technology experts with backgrounds at
leading global search companies, Globrix applies proprietary
technology to deliver advanced property search. Whereas the vast
majority of competitors only allow users to search by price, postcode
and number of bedrooms, Globrix's technology enables users to delve
deeper and search by other criteria such as garden, parking, distance
from transport or period of property.
Daniel Lee, CEO of Globrix, said: "Globrix is about answering a
fundamental need in this marketplace - creating a Google-style model
for the property search industry. By enabling agents to list for free
we cover virtually every property in the UK, which in turn provides a
hugely compelling proposition for consumers and creates a new
opportunity for an ad-funded model."
"News International is clearly the partner of choice for a
business of this sort. As well as the scale and resources they can
offer us in the UK and, potentially, through News Corporation,
overseas, they also bring a massive experience of property markets to
the table."
Clive Milner, Group Managing Director, News International, said:
"Through its digital and print media, News International is one of the
largest single players in the UK property media market, so this
investment is about us remaining at the forefront of what's happening
commercially and technologically.
"Globrix is set to be a truly disruptive business in the online
property search marketplace - it essentially turns the economics
upside down and creates an unparalleled consumer offering from an
innovative business model."
About Globrix
Globrix (www.globrix.com) is a new type of property search
website. It covers virtually every property for sale or rent in the UK
and it allows you to search for property by a huge range of criteria
such as price, region, outside space, parking or period.
Globrix has brought a new business model to the property search
space. It doesn't charge agents to list and instead runs an
advertising supported model. Its technology automatically searches
across virtually every estate agent's website in the UK, meaning that
it can deliver an unparalleled number of properties to buy or for
rent.
Founded in 2007 by two experienced Internet search technologists,
Globrix is backed by News International Limited and is based in
London, UK.
News International Limited is the main UK subsidiary of the global
media company News Corporation. Times Newspapers Ltd (TNL) publishes
The Times and The Sunday Times and News Group Newspapers Limited (NGN)
publishes The Sun and News of the World. TNL and NGN are part of the
News International group.
News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) had total
assets as of March 31, 2007 of approximately US$62 billion and total
annual revenues of approximately US$28 billion. News Corporation is a
diversified entertainment company with operations in eight industry
segments: filmed entertainment; television; cable network programming;
direct broadcast satellite television; magazines and inserts;
newspapers; book publishing; and other. The activities of News
Corporation are conducted principally in the United States,
Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and the
Pacific Basin.