More attempts to clone OnTheMarket name

| Rosalind Renshaw

Two more new names have been spotted using ‘On The Market’ in their titles.

One is called ConTheMarket.com

This morning Russell Quirk of online agent eMoov  confirmed that he had registered the domain names of ConTheMarket.com and also co.uk but he denied being behind the Twitter account. The domain names were registered by Quirk last November but this morning he said: “Many think the Twitter account is me. It’s not.”

The Twitter account with which Quirk denies involvement uses an abbreviated version of OnTheMarket’s bullseye logo. On Twitter its tagline is: “Reducing consumer choice since January 26th 2015.”

It seems to take a swipe at not just OTM but other portals too. It doesn’t seem to like agents either, describing them in one tweet as “unscrupulous, the lot of them”.

Its first tweet appeared on January 16, when it said that with just two weekends to go, “we’re busy building our state of the art systems to handle all the traffic”.

There does not appear to be an active website, despite Quirk’s registrations,  but ConTheMarket is on twitter here

The second new business to have launched is called Place on the Market.

It describes itself as a dating site between estate agents.

According to its launch ‘press release’ – not received by Eye but carried on Facebook – it offers owners the ability to provide basic information about their home and upload photos for £1.

The ‘press release’ states that  agents can review and make proposals to market those homes, and when a match is made the agent can download the property information and photos into their own systems or website.

For estate agents the service is free and it can be seen here

Place on the Market has been on Facebook since last August, but posted only two entries last year before declaring that it went live at the end of last month.

On Twitter, it claims that its followers include Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee and C4 presenter Cathy Newman.

As already reported by Eye, iProperty – a portal for private sellers and developers but not agents – is also behind onthemarketdirect.com

We reported it here

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23 Comments

  1. The Outsider
    February 9, 2015 at 08:09

    Well I’ll be the first to say that the conthemarket account has made me laugh.

    We take ourselves far too seriously at times and this reminds us to laugh at ourselves every now and again.

    it’s just harmless fun in my eyes.

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  2. RealAgent
    February 9, 2015 at 08:42

    If I were Russell I would be a little bit less concerned with waging a campaign against OTM and a little more concerned about the fact that he is now losing the space his type of business occupies, to Purplebricks. He thinks he’s a golden ticket and can say what he likes, I think his egotistical mannerisms are likely to be a liability for his company and any investors it might want to attract.

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    1. PeeBee
      February 9, 2015 at 09:02

      “If I were Russell I would be… a little more concerned about the fact that he is now losing the space his type of business occupies, to Purplebricks.”

      And what an awful, embarrassing admission that would be if you had to make it, RealAgent! ;o)

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      1. RealAgent
        February 9, 2015 at 09:18

        Now I love the way your comment got a dislike PeeBee and mine didn’t, what that all about then?!

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        1. PeeBee
          February 9, 2015 at 09:25

          The Quirkster?  Mr Purple or Mr Bricks – who knows?

          It’s not like they are the only candidates to ‘dislike’ my every breath… ;o)

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          1. RealAgent
            February 9, 2015 at 09:32

            Well as you are now up to 3 I guess it could be all of them!

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            1. PeeBee
              February 9, 2015 at 09:59

              Trust me – those three are probably just the tip of a mahoosive iceberg! ;o)

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              1. RealAgent
                February 9, 2015 at 10:09

                Well you know that you are striking a blow with some home truths when you get that as of course one  does when threats of lawyers get strings on here taken off!

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        2. Robert May
          February 9, 2015 at 11:30

          That will be those folks who don’t have the wit or words to post anything meaningful, sarcastic or funny but feel they need to express themselves.   Clicking the dislike button is all they have!

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  3. NewsBoy
    February 9, 2015 at 09:11

    Hardly a surprise. As a rat in a corner he has to keep fighting dirty. As you say not the sort of behaviour I might fancy seeing if I were an investor! Mind you he might be a better bet than Wrongmove or Z.

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  4. David B
    February 9, 2015 at 09:48

    It appears to me that Russell is rather upset that Agents’ Mutual rules will not allow his Company to list with On The Market. He is probably nearly as upset as the agents who backed Rightmove and paid 10s of millions to put them where they are today only to be stabbed in the back by them. I still cannot understand how such a massive company like Rightmove would risk upsetting by far the majority of their customers for such a small financial gain in allowing Russell and Co on to a platform that they paid nothing to establish. And without even bothering to poll it’s customers to ask them what they want !
    Here’s an idea. Why don’t the internet only brigade gang together and use some of the investor millions to create their own property portal? After all, it is only fair.. or so they keep telling us!
     

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    1. wilko
      February 9, 2015 at 17:23

      “Why don’t the internet only brigade gang together and use some of the investor millions to create their own property portal?”…..Russell already has a great domain name for it!

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  5. Woodentop
    February 9, 2015 at 09:57

    And isn’t this just the type of conduct the consumer dislikes. Hypocritical of Russell to behave this way when he complains of others. Registering the domain if OK but using it is another. There is high court rulings over the use of a similar name to a registered trade mark. Mr Quirk need so look at his bank account for it is likely to be needed to be very deep. His biggest mistake was to post his views on the matter, a case of thank you for the evidence. All that AM have to do is now go to OFT and they will take over, no need for expensive court costs.

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  6. PeeBee
    February 9, 2015 at 10:29

    Hmmm…
    Just dug around a little (as I do…).  I see that The Quirkster’s Marketing Minion has posted something today on his Tw@tter page… so I’ve checked out his blog that he kindly links to thereon –  and look what’s on there –

    http://stephenjury.com/2015/01/26/onthemarket-com-tv-advert-marketing-thoughts/

    All I’ll say is – whoever did the artwork for THIS page should have done it for the other one – or didn’t do as good a job…

    To YOU, audience… I’ll just sit back and watch my ‘Dislike’ score rack up a new PB! ;o)

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    1. Robert May
      February 9, 2015 at 11:36

      “Google and the internet has made us all experts” errrr no it hasn’t. You really don’t understand what you are on about do you?

      Report
    2. stephenjury
      February 9, 2015 at 12:20

      Thanks for the blog promo. Glad you liked the picture of my mother in-laws property.

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      1. PeeBee
        February 9, 2015 at 13:35

        SO… Mr Jury – welcome back after what can only be described as a conspicuous absence.

        Great artwork!  Although it appears to be posted a full ten days after this Tw@tter page first appeared, compared to their cr@ppy effort it looks a million dollars.

        THEY should employ your talents – you’re clearly wasted at ewhassname.

        Or is this conthejobby simply a bit of ‘homework’ for the gaffer?

        Feel free to absolutely categorically deny being in any way, shape or form involved – the floor is yours.

        I’m sure that whatever you agree to commit to stating won’t come back and bite you on the @ss…

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        1. stephenjury
          February 9, 2015 at 16:28

          not guilty on this occasion. My blog was done a while back on my marketing views for the launch.

          Not sure it’s worthy of an article on here. Oh well, back to my day jobbie

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          1. wilko
            February 9, 2015 at 17:38

            Stephen, you omitted to state the fact that r and z both show sstc property. And onthemarket showing 5 available? That is 5 more than e moov have within a much larger radius of your search area,  across all price ranges so I would concentrate on improving your proposition if I were you. Clients have never been impressed with companies that whine about unfair opposition, even if you do have a point. As I’ve said loads of times before…online agents should spend time convincing sellers that they are as good as agents but at a lower price….Instead of rubbishing general high st. residential practice(which 98% of the public still prefer) as a means to further your own company aims…….Lastly, how did you get permission to use the trademark?

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          2. PeeBee
            February 9, 2015 at 21:03

            Your denial of any involvement in the setting up or running of this piece of ridiculousness is noted, Mr Jury.

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  7. agentx
    February 9, 2015 at 12:04

    eMoo ? Never heard of them. Is this just another bitter failing empire going down the pan and attempting to get a bit of free desperate advertising during its final throws of existence.

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  8. Paul H
    February 9, 2015 at 12:05

    Russell’s twitter account on the 25th January shows him proudly getting something off his chest!

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  9. Jonnie
    February 9, 2015 at 16:40

    For a chap that doesn’t think OTM is going to fly he hasn’t half got a bee in his bonnet about it all, putting aside his odd combination of telling us we are all idiots and should give in to him and close up now and being a feisty little one man press release he clearly doesn’t think we have the right to exclude him but then all these budget jobbies seem the same, we have this iproperty lad telling us we are all banned from his website (please let me on mate, its so brilliant), @easychris got all bent out of shape a while back preaching to us and @hatched although going quiet and far from being the worst gob on a stick also loves a ruck with EAs…………..seems to be a sector full of these sorts obsessing about us and what we do, strange boys. Just had a quick squint on RM aswell, budget agents market share round my way…0% – Jonnie

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