Wallapop looks to dethrone Idealista and flood the market with property

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

Wallapop has been trying to sneak into the real estate market for months to further diversify its business. To achieve this, he has reached a very special agreement with the Yaencontré portal

The Catalan startup has been trying for months to get into the business of selling and renting flats to diversify its business and, if we follow the shop windows, it's getting there. The thing is that to give that impression, it must using a trick quite peculiar (and quite secret).

If you have been a regular user of Wallapop for some time, you have probably noticed this change. Since September 2018, the company has implemented a plan to try to convert the already varied catalog of the platform into a space friendly for the real estate market.

Getting to convince individuals, small real estate and landlords that this is the perfect place to develop your business, as they did with cars, is key to diversify your business and be solid in front of investors. But, in order for people to give that final push, they have decided to 'enrich' something by breaking the deck and pulling a specialized Catalan advertising portal in the sector: Yaencontré.

How have they done it? Well, you can check it yourself. If you use this 'app', you just have to enter, look for a property and see who the seller is to find the trick. And it is that the Catalan startup has created a profile to this portal owned by the Godó Group, which works as a copy of its website and in which they replicate all their ads monopolizing the section. The objective? That when you see the volume of existing ads you encourage you to also put your ad. In addition, it is a 'win-win', because with this Yaencontré also gains visibility and a new window through which to place their properties.

Wallapop confirmed the existence of this profile and they assure without fail that it is due to a public agreement. What's more, they rate it as a good decision to show users that their platform is a good place to sell their properties.

But the suspicions are more than justified. There is no statement that speaks of it and not even the profile itself has any signal that distinguishes it from the rest. Nothing that speaks of an account, that of Yaencontré, which is not, far from it, that of any user.

A robotic profile and 600,000 ads

At first glance, the profile of Yaencontré goes completely unnoticed, despite the fact that a large part of its ads appear on the first pages of the application's search. Only when entering your account are certain details that show that this seller is someone special.

The first signal appears in the ad figure. To this day, the profile accumulates more than 600,000. Its area of ​​influence focuses solely on Madrid and Barcelona, ​​inviting both rent and sell.

The most logical in such a profile would be to find a balance of your activity on the web, as would happen with any user. It is not like this. Yaencontre always keeps the same figure, both in sales and in purchases: zero. There are no valuations or anything that proves your identity. It seems that no one has passed by in years. However, there is a small green button on your profile picture that never goes out: someone is online every day, 24 hours a day.

We tried to talk to the mysterious user. We asked for a rental apartment in Embajadores street in Madrid. The answer arrives completely automatically, just press the send button: "Do you want more information about this floor? Leave your 'e-mail' so that a professional from the agency can send you more. "

Except that contributions your 'mail' and telephone, the same response continues to arrive in a loop: "Sorry, I have not understood your email well, can you tell me again?". Two hours later, an agent calls us to tell us all the details of the property. We asked him if the deal closes for Wallapop and he replies that the application only works as an intermediary.

From Wallapop, they defend each of these characteristics and assure that they are part of the agreement with Yaencontré. A deal that is helping them to try improvements that could later be generalized. "Taking advantage of this agreement, we have thought about trying new options like the 'chatbot' with them, we are always looking for innovations that improve the lives of our users and we believe that these 'bots' can be a great help. train them ", point from the company. The fault they do admit is that they should differentiate this profile from the rest in a clearer way.

Bulk ad uploads

Ad uploads are also automated. After analyzing the 1,222 pieces published between July 2018 and February 2019, we have been able to detect several massive increases on specific days, highlighting the rest on July 17, 2018 - two weeks after registering at Wallapop - with 110 properties in Madrid and Barcelona. That day only another user in the whole 'app' uploaded an ad in the real estate section.

On January 25, another 72 appeared; on January 31, 56 went up and on December 27 of last year, 54 properties. In just 19 days, 60% of homes are announced.

The pace is not arbitrary: the highest increases coincide with the periods in which most contracts end, in mid-July and from January 20, although November and December register more than a third of the ads.

From computer supports to classifieds

Where does this real estate portal that has allied with Wallapop to try to unseat Idealista (although it is far nationally, already exceeds in number of ads in Madrid and Barcelona)? His birth dates from 2001. Since then and until 2014, he dedicated himself to "the edition of sale and material as well as accessories and computer supports in any format". Interestingly, coinciding with the landing of Wallapop, the company was launched headlong to classified ads and "intermediation in real estate transactions."

In fact, its website offers several rates to highlight the ads. One of them is the 'Multipublication Pack', which allows, for 14 euros, to publish your ad on the Trovit search portal for a month. However, nowhere is the agreement with Wallapop reported.

Behind the real estate portal is Grupo Godó, father of 'La Vanguardia' and 'Mundo Deportivo'. The charges of Godó began to enter the board of directors of Yaencontré in 2009 with the arrival of Jaume Gurt - now general manager of the firm -, who at that time was the holder of 'Mundo Deportivo' and Godo Strategies.

In 2016, Grupo Godó went from having a 40.02% stake in the company to 70%. Now, the newspaper itself has the presidency in the board of directors through La Vanguardia Ediciones. For now, the relationship between Yaencontré and Wallapop remains in this agreement, or at least they have made it clear from the outside.

Luxury apartments, garages, premises ...

If Yaencontre exceeds in sales figure all users of the real estate category of Wallapop, it would not be less when it comes to establishing prices. The most expensive house for sale in Madrid is located in the neighborhood of El Viso. It is a chalet of 881 square meters with seven rooms, eight bathrooms, garden and garage that formerly served as an embassy. It is for sale for 8.7 million euros.

Its Catalan analogue is a rural estate with one hectare of land with three independent houses: 350 m2 farmhouse, guest house and apartment for service. There is also a pool, garden, orchard and chicken coop. The house is located in Besòs and el Maresme, 30 minutes from the center of Barcelona. Its price: 10 million euros.

However, not only housing lives Yaencontré. Even if they represent half of your offer, you have at least 10 more categories. Flats, penthouses and chalets, but also offices, lofts and warehouses. There are even hotels that are marked in Wallapop. The premises and the garages are the most popular spaces after the houses, assuming almost a third of the catalog.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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