Daft.ie Blog

Irish Rents May Have Reached the Bottom

Eamonn Fallon — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:23:45 +0000

The latest Daft rental report is just out and it shows that rents rose by 1% in January. It’s probably still too early to call as rents are still down 25% from peak, but the rental market may have reset to a new level and stabilised.

Read the press release here

Daft.ie iPhone App – The Stats

Eamonn Fallon — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:56:00 +0000

We’ve been developing for mobile for many years now. We launched one of the the first WAP sites on the digifone portal back in 1999. In 2005 we launched on i-mode. Despite being backed by huge outdoor ad campaigns, i-mode and WAP never really lived up to their promise. We had more people visting daft.ie via their desktop browser in one minute than an entire month on i-mode/WAP. So by and large, mobile has been a total waste of time for us, that is, until now.

The Daft.ie iPhone App was launched on Christmas Eve 2009 after a six month development effort. We expected it to be popular but the usage stats have blown through even our wildest expectations.

To date the app has been downloaded 13,627 times, which is great, but download data doesn’t tell us very much about usage behaviour. Luckily, Google launched google analytics for mobile in November, so we’ve been able to track the app usage in the same way we track usage on the main Daft.ie website.

In January, the Daft.ie iPhone app was launched over 81,000 times and users browsed nearly 2.5 million pages. This compares to 3 million visits and 129 million page views on the main Daft.ie website.

54% of the page views were from people browsing through photographs. This incredible usage of photo browsing reinforces the need for advertisers to post as many high quality photos on their ads as they can. Besides price, the best way to generate interest in your property is to post good photos and lots of them.

18% of the page views were generated by people browsing through search results and property details pages.

Only 1% of the pages were from people using the nearby feature. This goes to show that people browse content on their iPhone just like they would on a desktop pc, even though you would think that location based search would be more useful i.e. most people search using the standard refine features such as area, price, bedrooms, rather than GPS location.

One of the amazing things about the iPhone is that for the first time ever we can record how many phone calls we are generating for our advertisers. In January we generated 2,036 phone calls from iPhone users, which is an average of 65 phone calls a day.

In addition we generated 1,116 emails in January from iPhone and iPod touch users.

Given that 14% of visitors came from iPod touch devices, the ratio of phone to email of 1.82 is probably a little higher on the main Daft.ie website.

In January 107,304 emails were sent by users to advertisers using the main Daft.ie website. So if we extrapolate iPhone user behaviour to our stats on the main Daft.ie site and using the 1.82 multiplier that means we generated at least 195,293 phone calls for our advertisers or 6,300 phone calls per day. Including emails and iPhone activity, that’s at least 9,863 leads per day that we generated for our advertisers in January!

We will soon start work on version 2.0 of the Daft.ie iPhone app and hope to release some new features that have been requested by our users. We are also very excited about developing for the yet-to-be-released iPad and we think it will be a great tool for estate agents to show properties to prospective buyers. It may even replace the need for a printed brochure.

Why not try out the app and let us know what you think?

Daft.pl Launches in Poland

Judyta Holubowicz — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:45:25 +0000

We are very pleased to announce that we have just launched Daft.pl in Poland! The site is going live with about 60,000 properties across every major city and town in Poland. Approximately ten times larger than the Irish market, Poland has a population of 38 million. We are hoping to benefit from the positive brand recognition of Daft.ie amongst the hundreds of thousands of Polish people who came to work and live in Ireland over the past 10 years.

The website has been fully localised into Polish and should look very familiar to Daft.ie users . In conjunction with our partner in Poland, Szybko.pl, we have over 60,000 properties available for sale and rent right now – and are adding to that by about 10,000 new properties per day.

We hope that all of the Polish people who have had positive experiences using Daft over the last few years will help us spread the word back home. As always we would love to hear what you think of the site so get in touch with any feedback!

Read the official press release here.

www.daft.pl

Daft Launches iPhone App

Eamonn Fallon — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:00:03 +0000

Just in time for Christmas and after 6 months in development, we are very happy to announce the release of the Daft.ie iPhone app.

The app should feel very familiar to regular users of Daft.ie as we worked hard on mirroring the usability and functionality for the main Daft website.

With the app you can:

- Browse our entire database of properties (sales, lettings, sharing, holiday homes and commercial).
- Browse photos
- Email and call advertisers directly from the app
- View location of property on a map
- Get directions to a property
- View nearby properties
- Refine searches based on price, number of bedrooms and location
- Save your favourite searches and properties to browse through at a later date.

Download the Daft.ie iPhone app from iTunes now >>

Please leave your feedback and suggestions on this blog or email us at support@daft.ie, we’d love to hear from you.

Find out more at www.daft.ie/iphone

Daft Media Ranks 8th in the EMEA Deloitte Fast 500

Eamonn Fallon — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:08:07 +0000

We are just back from the Deloitte Fast 500 awards in London and we are very happy to have been ranked as the 8th fastest growing technology and media company in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The full list is available here:
http://www.deloitte.co.uk/fast500emea/fast-500-winners/winners-2009/

Congratulations also to the 18 other Irish companies that ranked this year.

Full press release:

Wednesday, 24th November 2009 – Daft.ie, Ireland’s largest property website, has today announced that it has been ranked 8th on this year’s Technology Fast 500 list, Deloitte’s ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Deloitte’s Fast 500 rankings are based on the percentage of fiscal year revenue growth during the five-year period from 2004 to 2008, during which Daft grew by 8,453 per cent. The awards are considered to be one of Europe’s most objective rankings for the technology, media and telecommunications industries and are open to both public and private sector. This year companies from 26 countries were included on the ranking. Daft.ie is the only Irish company to be ranked in the top 10.

Daft credits its growth to a continued focus on innovation, commitment to delivering the highest standard of customer care and a talented team of employees. Eamonn Fallon, CEO, Daft.ie said, “It is extremely gratifying to accept this award which is a fantastic achievement given the current challenges in today’s property market. This is a testament to the hard work and commitment from each member of our team.”

David O’Flanagan, partner with Deloitte Dublin said, “Daft has achieved significant success despite the challenges in the property sector. It shows that innovative companies will always win through.”

Daft was founded in 1997 and has grown to become Ireland’s largest property website with over 1.2 million monthly unique visitors. It recently expanded its business into Northern Ireland with the launch of Daft.com and already has almost 25% of properties for sale or rent advertised on the site. Daft Media also owns two other property related websites, Rent.ie and Property.ie.

In addition to ranking on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 EMEA list, Daft achieved the top spot on the 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Daft also topped the Fast 50 Rising Star category two years ago.

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Christine Roche on 085 717 1742 or christine@daft.com

About Daft Media Ltd
Daft Media is one of Ireland’s largest online media groups. Founded in 1997, its flagship title, Daft.ie, is Ireland’s largest property website with over 1.2 million monthly unique visitors. It also owns three other property related websites, Rent.ie , Property.ie and Let.ie. In 2008, Daft Media invested in Boards.ie, Ireland’s largest community website and Adverts.ie, a social classifieds website. In May 2009, Daft Media launched Daft.com, a property website focused on the Northern Ireland market. The combined audience of all the websites in the group totals over 2 million unique visitors per month.

About The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA
The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA programme is the region’s most objective industry-ranking standard to focus on the technology field. It was created in 2000 to recognize the effort and dedication of the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in EMEA and includes all areas of technology, from Internet to biotechnology, from medical and scientific to computers/hardware. It includes both public and private companies. The awards, which have been running in EMEA for seven years, are based on five-year average percentage revenue growth. Frequently asked questions are answered on www.fast500emea.com. Details of the winning companies including breakdowns by country, industry sector and ranking will be available at www.fast500emea.com after the event, or please contact us (see below) if you need information in advance. This year the program has been supported by UK Trade & Investment.

Daft.com launches in Northern Ireland

Odhran Ginnity — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:54:57 +0000

In November 2008 we acquired the domain Daft.com and over the past few months we have been working on extending our reach into Northern Ireland. This week we (officially) launched the Daft.com site and after a 3 month soft launch we are already making huge progress in the market.

Today over 20% of all properties currently available for sale or rent in Northern Ireland are now listed on Daft.com. Our experiences developing Daft.ie over the past 10 years are helping us to achieve rapid growth in this new market.

Heading up the Launch of Daft.com in the province is Mark Pollock who earlier this year completed a 1,000 kilometer quest to race to the South Pole. His credentials speak for themselves – since his latest adventure, Mark has now packed away his polar wind suit and joined Daft Media to champion our brand in Northern Ireland. Watch this space!

Mark Pollock, Daft.com

Read the official press release here

Playhouse Winner

Eamonn Fallon — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:21:11 +0000

For anyone who didn’t spot the post over on the playhouse blog, the winner of the Daft.ie €1,000 playhouse prize was TA3. He is a hugely talented street artist based in Dublin and I would encourage you to check out his website and browse through some of his previous work.

Here is the animation he submitted.
http://playhouse.daft.ie/gallery.php?view=218&clip_id=1064

Daft Media ranked first in Deloitte Technology Fast 50

Odhran Ginnity — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:33:51 +0000

We were very excited last night to hear that we ranked Number 1 in the 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Ireland!

The Fast 50 programme, now in its tenth year in Ireland, ranks the fastest-growing technology companies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland based on average percentage revenue growth over five years.

The awards took place in Clontarf Castle and industry figures speaking at the event included Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland; Michael Dwyer, Founder and CEO, Empathy Marketing Limited (Pigsback.com); and Jim Sloane, Lead Technology Partner and Vice Chairman, Deloitte UK.

In 2007 Daft.ie was awarded the Fast 50 Rising Star Award which recognises young companies with the fastest growth in turnover, so we were pretty made up to have ranked first in the fast 50 this year. All the credit for this award has to go to our team at Daft.ie who work very, very hard to make us the very, very best site we can be.

Needless to say there was a few fizzy pops had by all to celebrate last night – so there are lots of tired heads in Daft towers today. But we were pretty well behaved … we even brought our award (and our CTO) home in one piece!

We would also like to congratulate all the other winners on the night.

Details of the final Technology Fast 50 ranking list are available to download at www.fast50.ie.

Daft Layar comes to the iPhone!

Paul Conroy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:13:02 +0000

As of yesterday evening, the augmented reality browser Layar is now available for the iPhone 3GS.

This application includes Ireland’s first property search layer, powered by the listings on Daft.ie. This means that Irish iPhone users can now search through the widest selection of properties for sale, to rent or to share anywhere in Ireland direct from their phone.

What is Augmented Reality?

Daft Property Search Layer

Augmented reality is the term given to the overlaying of data on top of your phone’s camera view. So, for example, you could point your phone at a house which is for sale on Daft and immediately see the price, photographs of the interior, and the contact details of the owner.

Aside from property search, there are a number of other interesting uses for this technology – there are layers available in various countries showing everything from nearby restaurants, ATMs, post boxes and even nearby twitter users!

Layar have been at the forefront of this new technology since releasing the Layar app to the Android marketplace in August this year. We at Daft were selected as one of the pre-launch development partners for this system, and have been actively developing on it over recent months.

How does the Daft layer work?

Property Detail

The Daft.ie Property Search layer allows you to view sale, rental or shared property near to your current location. As you pan your phone around you, nearby property is indicated by blue dots on the screen. The bigger the dot, the nearer the property!

If you’re tired of your daily commute, you can fire up the Daft layer while you’re in work, tell it that you want to live within 5km of the building and you will see all of the properties currently available nearby!

The dot nearest the centre of the screen will also show you an image of the property, and brief summary information, including:
- Property address
- Rent/price of the property
- Property type summary, e.g. “2 bed apartment”

"Take me there" feature

Once you’ve found a property you’re interested in, pressing the image on-screen will allow you to:
- View More Information: see the available photographs and read the description of the property
- Phone Advertiser: with one press of a button, you can use your phone to directly contact the advertiser
- Take me there: get directions to the property from your current location, powered by Google Maps

All sale, rental and shared properties listed on Daft.ie will automatically be available via the Layar application as soon as they go live on the site.

How do I get Layar?

The Layar app is free to download. You can get it for your iPhone 3GS from the App Store, or if you have an Android phone, via the Android Marketplace.

Once you’ve downloaded the application, you can find the Daft layer by searching for “property” or “daft”.

The World’s Largest Twitter Client

Eamonn Fallon — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:55:50 +0000

Using the playhouse app platform, Tim Redfern has built what is probably the world’s largest twitter client. To get your tweets broadcast on liberty hall just put in the #playtweet hashtag into your twitter message. Your message will stream across the top marquee and your profile picture will bounce up onto the main display. Messages will be moderated and will be streamed to the building from tonight until Sunday. Check out the test display broadcast last night:

As always, in between the twitter messages the user generated animations will still be displayed. Here’s a nice youtube video showcasing some great animations, if you haven’t seen the building yet: