Great Write Up About ListGlobally in The Australian
Yesterday ListGlobally, a Classified Ad Ventures incubator business, received a great write up in The Australian newspaper. Althought I am not so sure about the headline 
Here is the article.
Nerd goes global in real estate listings: Simon Baker’s attraction to the net has paid off
FORMER REA Group chief executive Simon Baker is a self-confessed “closet nerd”.
From a young age, the 43-year-old says, he has been fascinated with computers.
Baker previously ran REA Group, the owner of realestate. com.au, before starting his latest venture, Classified ADventures.
He studied computer science at Monash University, and his first job was a “tour of duty” at IBM in the sales division.
“I started off life as a programmer in sales and marketing,” Baker says.
“As such, you can’t help but get attracted to the internet and the opportunities it provides.”
He loves the fact that the online real estate market is not fully defined yet, and that new products and possibilities are arising on a daily basis.
That fascination has brought him to where he is today — running his own show as founder of online classifieds company Classified ADventures.
The company provides operators of online classifieds sites with consulting services and helps them get the most out of the internet to advertise their listings.
Among the websites in the stable are smartagentsites; Sobox (Social Media in a Box) and listglobally.
The last, launched a couple of months ago, aims to help real estate agents get global advertising exposure for their listings.
After talking to real estate agents around the world, Baker discovered there were people buying properties across borders.
When you look at the way the online advertising space is set up, he says, each country has its own realestate.com.au, but no one is seriously asking how to market a property across a number of countries to attract an overseas buyer.
Out of that idea, listglobally was born.
From there, Baker says, his team approached the real estate.com.au equivalents in 20 markets around the world to see if they could put listings on their sites.
In each market, the website has become one of the most popular.
For example, if you are in Britain and want to buy property in Australia, he says, your first port of call may be rightmove.co.uk (the equivalent of realestate.com.au).
Each month, 1.6 million searches are carried out on that site’s international section, he says.
“What’s funny is that the fifth most searched country is Australia and there are only 200 listings there,” he says.
“It’s all about saying how do I put Australian listings in front of English buyers or South African buyers or Hong Kong buyers.”
Essentially, with one click and a fee of $90, a real estate agent can put their listing on the equivalent of realestate.com.au in 20 markets.
By the end of the year, he hopes to be in 23 countries.
If all goes to plan, listglobally will be a $10-20 million-a-year business.
Baker’s fascination with computers started early, but the property link was accidental, and only developed several years ago, while he was working at realestate.com.au.
Not long after joining News Limited (publisher of The Australian), Baker says, he was asked to undertake a review the realestate.com.au business.
Not long after that, he joined the board of realestate.com.au and asked for a shot at the top job.
In 2001, he got his shot.
For the next eight years, he says, he spent morning, noon and night turning the online property portal around from a loss-making business to what he describes as a very profitable, dominant market player. In 2008, he departed as chief executive of REA Group and a week later started his own venture with some of his former colleagues.
He had two aims. One was to invest in companies through an investment fund known as CAV Investment Holdings, and the other was to build companies.
With the money he earned from his shareholding in REA Group, Baker invested in a number of businesses. But the main focus for him is Classified ADventures.
He identified about four or five ideas and created an incubator in which those new businesses could be formed, he says.
Three of those ideas have become reality: Sobox, smartagent sites and listglobally.
Baker says his team has very clear goals it wants to achieve, given its financial projections.
With distribution partners lined up, he says, the next goal is to increase the number of listings going through the system. “Our first goal is to get to 1000 listings a month, then we want to get to 5000 listings a month,” he says.
“We are the only ones doing this,” Baker says of his new online property classified website.
“We are the first one to go out and line up all these market leaders, link them all together, and provide them with a feed of properties.
“Either it’s going to be an incredibly good idea or I just wasted two years of my life.”
REA Group Senior IT Manager Joins IPGA as CIO
IPGA Ltd (ASX: IPP), the owner of Asia’s No. 1 network of property portal sites under the iProperty umbrella brand (www.iproperty.com), today announced that Andrew Kelk will join the group as Chief Information Officer (CIO). Andrew is currently a member of the Senior Leadership Team at the REA Group and was recently made responsible for the delivery of customer products for the REA Group flagship site ‘realestate.com.au’. Prior to that Andrew was the REA Group Lead Software Developer. Andrew will bring significant experience in the development of online businesses in the real estate segment and will add knowledge and innovation to IPGA’s current IT operations.
“To have Andrew join as CIO is a real win for the business. I have worked with Andrew before and was thrilled when he agreed to make the move. He has a fantastic track record of delivering innovative IT solutions to Real Estate agents and people using real estate websites. Andrew has also worked in Asia so we could not have hoped for a better fit as our business continues to grow in our core markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Along with a number of other recent appointments, Andrew further strengthens our senior management team’s skills, capabilities and leadership” said Shaun Di Gregorio, Chief Executive Officer of IPGA Ltd.
“We have a commitment to innovation right across the business and Andrew will provide that focus in our IT operations as we grow our market leading positions in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Andrew’s experience will certainly aid IPGA in achieving our goals” commented Di Gregorio
Andrew Kelk commented, “I am thrilled to be joining IPGA as Chief Information Officer. The business has a very clear strategy and I look forward to supporting that with the IT operations. There is a real commitment to innovation so it’s exciting to be joining a business that is growing rapidly and is focused on such a dynamic region”
The appointment of Andrew Kelk follows the appointment of the former REA Group General Manager, Shaun Di Gregorio, as CEO of IPGA Ltd in January 2009.
IPGA Appoints New Director and Chairman
February 4, 2010 – IPGA Ltd (ASX: IPP), owner of Asia’s No. 1 network of property websites under the iProperty.com brand (www.iproperty.com), announced today a number of changes to the composition and structure of its Board of Directors.
Non-Executive Director, Simon Baker has been appointed Chairman of the Board, with former Executive Chairman, Patrick Grove, moving to a Non-Executive role, and assuming the title of Deputy Chairman. The Board has also elected a new Director, Luke Elliott, to join its ranks.
Said Baker, “It’s an honor to take over the Chairmanship of IPGA. The business has established itself as a leader in online real estate advertising in the region and is well positioned to take advantage of the rapid growth online property advertising in Asia. I look forward to working with the Board and the Company’s management to realise IPGA’s tremendous potential.”
Former REA Group Senior Manager Joins IPGA as CEO
January 11, 2010 – IPGA Ltd (ASX: IPP), the owner of Asia’s No. 1 network of property portal sites under the iProperty umbrella brand (www.iproperty.com), today announced today that Shaun Di Gregorio has joined as Chief Executive Officer. Shaun was formerly the head of the Australian operations of the REA Group (2005-2008) and the General Manager of the REA Group’s international businesses (2008-2009).
“We are extremely excited Shaun is joining us. He is one of the most experienced Senior Managers in the global online real estate industry. During his 7 years at the REA Group (ASX: REA), revenues grew from A$6m to A$167m and the share price increased from A$0.15 to A$7.40. Shaun was an integral part of the leadership team that made it happen.” said Patrick Grove, Executive Chairman of IPGA Ltd.
iProperty.com beefs up Senior Management Team
The iProperty.com Group (www.iproperty.com), Asia’s leading network of property portals owned by IPGA Limited (ASX: IPP) (www.ipgalimited.com), has announced the addition of two key management team members – Denise Chu from Monster.com.hk and Matt Allanson from REA Group (Realestate.com.au).
Denise Chu, former Sales Director at Monster.com.hk, has been appointed as General Manager of its Hong Kong operations – the GoHome.com.hk network (www.gohome.com.hk). Meanwhile, Matt Allanson, former National Manager of Major Accounts (Commercial) at the REA Group, joins the group as Regional Head of Business Development and will be working with each country manager and all sales teams to drive up sales revenues across the group.
Prior to joining iProperty.com, Denise headed the sales team at Monster.com.hk. During her tenure there, she was responsible for developing and leading a team to grow its online sales footprint in new and existing markets. She was also in charge of expanding the business across the Greater China Region as well as driving regional and global deals for the company. Some of her notable achievements at Monster.com.hk include achieving the title of ‘Top Performer in year 2007’ and successfully developing a new sector in 2006 which generated strong revenue growth for the Hong Kong business. Denise holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting and Finance from the University of Hong Kong and a Master’s Degree in Communication and New Media from the City University of Hong Kong.
As the National Manager of Major Accounts at REA Group, Matt worked specifically on its commercial property portal helping to build it into a dominant and profitable market leader. Some of his key achievements during his tenure there include working across the merger and business migration of www.propertylook.com.au; controlling strategic and exclusive partnership agreements with CB Richard Ellis, Colliers, Knight Frank, Jones Lang LaSalle and Savills; online brand development. With more than 10 years of experience in new media under his belt, Matt Allanson has a deep history in growing internet based retail, wholesale and property businesses, has been a fulltime representative level Sportsman and is currently studying an MBA at Deakin University. The REA Group is the operator of Australia’s biggest residential and commercial real estate websites, and own online real estate properties across the world.
Patrick Grove, Executive Chairman of the iProperty.com Group said, “Both Denise and Matt are star players in their fields, with stellar track records and a wealth of very relevant experience. I am confident that the addition of these two veterans to the team will be instrumental to bringing the Group to the next level, helping us achieve our aggressive growth targets and further consolidating our position as Asia’s dominant No. 1 online property group. We are very excited to have Denise and Matt on board and warmly welcome them to the iProperty.com family”.
Both Denise and Matt will be reporting directly to the group’s Chief Executive Officer, Ken Tsurumaru.
The iProperty.com Group is Asia’s No. 1 online property group, with leading property websites in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and the Philippines. Its network of websites attracts over one million unique visitors every month. It is part of Australian Securities Exchange-listed IPGA Limited (www.ipgalimited.com), (ASX: IPP). In 2009, the iProperty.com Group made history by winning the highly prestigious CNBC Arabiya Asia Pacific Property Awards in the “Best Property Portal” category for six of its websites – Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, Philippines and iLuxuryasia.com.
