As the portal wars have heated up, Realtor.com’s revenue has cooled off. During the fiscal year fourth quarter Move, Inc., the parent company of Realtor.com, recorded a 2% annual decrease in revenue to $143 million, according to an announcement on Thursday.
NewsCorp, the parent company of Move, attributed the decline to higher mortgage rates and macroeconomic headwinds.
Revenue from Move’s real estate segment, which makes up roughly 80% of Move’s total revenue, fell 2% year-over-year, as Realtor.com’s lead volume and website traffic growth remained flat annually.
According to internal data shared on the call, executives said Realtor.com’s website traffic came in at 74 million average monthly unique visitors.
Despite the drop in Move’s revenue, NewsCorp’s digital real estate segment still recorded strong results for the quarter, including a 21% yearly increase in revenue to $448 million.
As a whole, NewsCorp reported 2% annual growth in its revenue to $10.09 billion for the full fiscal year, while the digital real estate services sector reported an 8% jump in revenue to $1.6 billion for the full fiscal year, despite a 10% decline in Move’s full-year revenue to $544 million. Overall real estate revenues fell 11% annually for the full year as referrals and core lead generation output fell.
As the firm looks ahead, chief financial officer Susan Panuccio said the NewsCorp was working to diversify its revenue base.
“As we communicated last quarter, we are focused on best positioning Realtor.com for a housing recovery,” Panuccio said. “Our key strategic focus areas remain the same as we head into the new financial year and include modernizing our technology stack; investing in content for our product offerings, which most recently included the release of a new dynamic mapping feature; and leveraging News Corp’s network to drive audience share.”
Despite being a hot topic, Robert Thomson, CEO of NewsCorp, did not address the portal wars and Move’s lawsuit against listing portal rival CoStar. However, Thomson did praise Damian Eales, the CEO of Realtor.com for his leadership, noting that the firm was ready to handle to the upcoming business practice changes outlined in the National Association of Realtors’commission lawsuit settlement agreement.
“The market does seem on the cusp of a revival,” Thomson said. “I have to say that Damian has done an excellent job in taking full advantage of our media platforms to raise the profile of [Realtor.com] and drive traffic.”