So after the big announcement made by the REA Group that RealBusinesses was closing its doors (seen below), leaving hundreds of business brokers in the lurch, it appears that this is not the case at all, or is it?
“As a subscriber to our realbusinesses.com.au website, I want to let you know first hand of our intention to close the service on the 3rd March 2014.
During the past 12 months we have reviewed all aspects of our wider business to align ourselves to our long-term strategic goals and REA Group purpose; to help people to live their property dreams by making the entire process simple, efficient and stress free.
We carefully considered the site experience for our ‘business for sale’ consumers and customers and whether it was in line with REA Group purpose. In this context, we felt that the capital investment required to take the realbusinesses.com.au website into the future (including the development of a strong mobile proposition) could not be justified.
We are informing you of this decision 3 months in advance to allow you the time to transition to other marketing solutions for your business.”
Timed perfectly with the RealBusinesses doors closing, another site was launched called AnyBusiness (.com.au). This site is brand new and doesn’t rank for many search terms, but they are pumping a lot of cash in buying traffic (Adwords). Which I am sure they can afford because they have a lot of brokers already signed up. Is this a result of a fantastic cold calling campaign, or did they have access to the biggest database of business brokers in Australia?
After further research, I discovered AnyBusiness (.com.au) is owned/run by Bill Tamva, the National Sales Manager from RealBusinesses. Huh? Am I missing something?
While I don’t have any issues with a new site popping up, I do have an issue with the REA Group making the announcement that they are closing their doors, and then literally within days of RealBusinesses shutting down, a new site (which looks almost identical) called “Any Business” is launched, with a direct connection with the REA Group.
So was REA telling us ‘porkies’ and actually re-launched under a new name? The question is, why would they re-brand after all of those years?
Author : Peter Watson