Century 21 Canada sues Zoocasa
From Global Edge
By Global Edge, Friday, September 11, 2009.
Editor's note: This item is republished with permission from Global Edge Marketing Ltd. The original post can be viewed here.
Century 21 Canada is suing property portal Zoocasa for scraping its Canadian real estate listings without permission, reports the National Post.
Don Lawby, president of Century 21 Canada, is quoted as saying, "I am opposed to anybody taking, just independently, scraping data or removing data without permission … We have spent millions of dollars and an exorbitant amount of effort to get that data on to our sites."
He then adds, "I wouldn't go to RE/MAX's site and scrape data off it and put it on mine."
Zoocasa is owned by the largest telecommunications company in Canada. Their marketing chief, Saul Colt, describes his role as "head of magic."
There are numerous portals in the world that scrape agent sites without permission. Is it wrong or is there no harm in it?
Copyright © 2009 Global Edge Marketing Ltd.
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Submitted by Candid RE on September 12, 2009 - 8:27am.
Why? Quit trying to live the old-school way. The days of being the gate-keeper of listing information are long gone and that’s good news for all. So what if a company scrapes your listings. It just means more exposure for your clients. And that’s what it’s about right? How does it benefit your clients by not allowing their home to be posted on other sites? Are you trying to protect their interest or maybe yours? Rethink your strategies for the world we live in or perhaps it’s time to retire from the real estate industry. And I have news for you – scraping is occurring in many other industries. Have you heard of indeed? They scrape every job posting site on the planet from the small sites to the majors. So I ask you – why are suing zoocasa? Seems like the only ones that will benefit will be the attorneys who will line their pockets with your company’s cash. It certainly won’t be your clients benefiting. Actions such as this are a waste of time, money and it’s embarrassing to real estate professionals.
Submitted by Terry LeClair on September 14, 2009 - 4:58am.
Here's why scraping company websites is not cool. There is a VERY large newspaper company in Canada as well called Torstar. They have papers in every small community in the country. They just purchased a website aggregator and named it HomeFinder.ca. This site is just that. It aggregates leads and get properties good exposure...that's good. They are convincing brokers to upload their listings (usually automatically from the MLS Board) to their system...that good too. Where it's not so good is now they have a captive audience in a bunch of Realtors who now have to pay for a "premium listing" "open house ad" or "featured listing"...so now agents are being sold an upgraded service and pressured to do do so because if they don't and their competition does then how does that look to the consumer. Don't get me wrong I am all for free enterprise but creating eyeballs and a business using my inventory and then basically selling it back to me under pier pressure is not cool...
Terry LeClair
CEO, TLC Innovations Inc
www.RealtySitesPLUS.com
Submitted by Candid RE on September 15, 2009 - 9:34am.
Talk about being forced to pay - look at Realtor.com. They basically do the same thing – get listings and then sell various upgrades. And they do this to their own members. These are members that already pay costly local and national yearly fees. Oh and you want access to your local MLS – an essential tool to conduct business – well then you will need to pay-up and join the local realtor association. And by the way if you join then your broker will have to join as well cha-ching! It’s called forced membership. But hey it keeps the cash flowing to the National Association of Realtors. You should see their headquarters – beautiful place! I’ll take a scraper any day over a group like NAR. At least with a scraper I really do have a choice to pay or not.
Submitted by Terry LeClair on September 16, 2009 - 6:35am.
Great point...the problem with scrappers is once they get the data and eyeballs without a acquisition cost to getting the content they will have a marketing advantage over Realtors who pay heavy fee's and educational dollars to do business...in the long run it eliminates the need for Realtors and what consumers feel are high fee's for something they or some other company (scrapper) can do cheaper or free...oh by the way Realtor.com is absurd..
Terry LeClair
CEO, TLC Innovations Inc
www.RealtySitesPLUS.com