SIME follow up

We didn't make it to the stage... but at least we made it to the screen at the largest Internet conference in Sweden. (Congratulations to Jaycut for beating us.)

Much has been written about the SIME event, like 1, 2 , 3 (in English), 4, 5 (in English), 6. and 7 (most comprehensive).

My reflections
This was my second SIME event and it's a conference that differs a lot from all other (real estate) events I attend every year. The SIME crew (and especially Ola) makes this more to show and entertainment. But one has to keep in mind that this is a media event focused on the Internet.

It's great to visit an event that has a different approach to Internet and gives you examples of the web that you haven't seen before. For example how the Swedish pop band Ace of Base is letting their fans alter their music and create videos on their site. They don't fight Internets implication on the music industry, they use it.

The best I take with me besides all the great meetings was the presentation by Japp Favler (Forrester) on 'Recession marketing'. Looks like a great knowledge for 2009....

 

Datscha nominated for SIME Award

(Disclosure: I'm the Product Manager at Datscha and rarely write specifically about Datscha,
but this is to good to be true...)

Datscha is nominated for the prestigious SIME Award 2008 in the category 'Best System Supplier'!

Being the Product Manager for the last 8 years this make me very proud indeed. It has for sure been quite a ride.

SIME 
SIME is the largest Internet event in Sweden which gathers 1 200 attendees every year. The 2008 event will be held on the 12-13th of November in Stockholm.

SIME Awards
The SIME Awards was established in 1996 to celebrate online excellence. The category 'Best System Supplier' focuses on;

"What B-2-B hardware, software or application supplier is delivering the best value to its customers? The prize will be awarded for innovative use of new and existing technology to achieve a superior solution, significant for the customer's core activity."

Hand over the prize...
For right obvious reasons I strongly believe that Datscha fulfil those criterias. We score 90% satisfied customers, in average over 5 years. Not to mention that we have 1 500 users when it costs (from) 10 000 USD per seat and year to log in! It has to be significant. 

Well, at 2 pm on Thursday, we know the answer.
I'm actually already nervous...

 

Residential comps for free at Booli

Booli, the Swedish search engine for residential listings, continues to create brilliant functionality for buyers (maybe not for the brokers and sellers). Their latest step is to offer residential comparable sales for free.

The comparables are listed with information on:

    • price  
    • date  
    • name on buyer and seller  
    • address  
    • real estate broker  
    • difference compared to asking price  

Below is an example from a small village in Sweden. The red symbols are comparable sales; the blue are listings.


How it works
The information is purchased from the Swedish Land Register and updated every night (I suppose, since new data is released daily). The service does only include single family houses (not apartments).

The price for sold apartments is not available through the Land Register. However, it is manually collected through the company Mäklarstatistik, which is owned by Mäklarsamfundet (The Association of Swedish Real Estate Agents ) and the two largest brokerage firms in Sweden; Fastighetsbyrån och Svensk Fastighetsförmedling. The data is not published for free, but available through products from Värderingsdata.

First with national coverage
The idea to provide this data for free is not new. The local newspaper MittI started with this service in Stockholm earlier this year, but Booli is first with national coverage. It could also be seen as a response to the newly introduced service from Boligan.se who displays differences on asking price.

Introduction of a new business model
Information on comparable sales has been available for many years through PC or Client/Server products from companies like Ljungqvist, Värderingsdata and Svefa. However, those services have been for business clients and attached with a fee.

Two of them have provided free versions like Villvärdet (see example) from Ljungqvist and BoPriset from Värderingsdata (see below for an example). However, none of them are as comprehensive or user friendly as Booli's version. And none of them also displays the listings. On the other hand, Booli is the first to bring in advertisement (which is part of the business model).


More info
Is found at the Booli blog and from coverage in mainstream media like Ny Teknik and Veckans Affärer.


Inman on a European research tour

In preparation for their global event in January (New York) the Inman organisation is going on a European research tour. They will be visiting;

  • London              October 17-20
  • Amsterdam     October 22
  • Paris                 October 27
  • Berlin                October 30

Interested in meeting them?
Drop a line to Joel Burslem at Inman, joel@inman.com

Unfortunately, they will not be visiting Sweden.


Joining Inman 'International Advisory Group'

It's official, I'm now part of the Inman 'International Advisory Group'.
Makes me proud just to be on the same list like the people below.


The Inman events
I went to my first Inman event this summer (remember, I'm located in Sweden!) and it was brilliant (coverage). If you're interested in the field of IT meeting residential real estate this is the place to be.

Events
I'm happy to help organisations like Inman to further develop their events. Because I strongly believe each country (and then a few global ones) needs an event like those. Both where end-users can meet suppliers, but also where believers could meet up and share the energy.


I'm soo Spotified...

Yes! 
I've got my own Spotify account!

It's in Private Beta and is for sure the most wanted service to sign up for in Sweden.

I've previously got a demo of the service and got directly hooked.
It's like 'iTunes on crack!'. (This may seams like a post out of topic but for me is this a great example of the use of Internet.)

The service
Spotify is a music service that on demand steams the songs to your computer. You do need to download a software in order to use it. However, you are able to log on to your own Spotify account on any computer with the software downloaded.

Read about the founders, a video, the office, and description (in Swedish) another one (also in Swedish).

The beauty
The easiest way to explain the beauty is to imagine an iTunes account where you save your songs in 'the cloud' and you can easily play them from any computer (after the small download).

The cost
When going live it is said rumoured to be in two versions;

  • ad based (both visual and audio)
  • subscription based costing 300 SEK/month   (~50 USD)

The ultimate service for me would be to pay for this service and having the free distributed to the musicians based on the songs I play.

The looks
The service is brilliant in it's simplicity. You pretty much search, play and create play lists (which could be shared). All is extremely straight forward and amazing fast.


One more thing
Be aware if you have the possibility to try it.
It's seriously addictive...


Have you been Squarespaced yet?

 Do you think Wordpress is the 'the stuff' when it comes to blogging? It's time for you to get 'Squarespaced'!

I've been using this SaaS blogging platform since 2006 and has been more than happy. Tonight I (finally) sat down and tried out all the new version5 functionality. (As you may notice from the redesign of my blog.)

And have they improved!
Below is how the screen looks like when changing design template, number of columns and navigation. Just click and draw. A picture tells you more... you have to see this video.


You want more details?
This video shows the Squarespace team showing of by rebuilding the 37signals blog in 18 minutes(?).

It has been some improvement since I, in 1996, wrote my first site using notepad... 


Boligan.se displays price changes to the listings

Earlier this week the Danish residential listing service Boliga.dk made its debut on the Swedish market under the name boligan.se. (Bolig is Danish for home.)


Boligan has two major differences compared to the other listings in Sweden (for example Hemnet, Bovision, Booli & Bospindeln):
   * changes in the listing price 
   * number of days on the market

Changes in the listing price
Any changes are displayed not only in the information for a listing but also directly on the map. A small red arrow point down indicates a price reduction. (For the other way around, it's a green arrow upwards.) There is also a list on the start page with the largest price changes during the day.


Number of days on the market
Another type of information that isn't shown on any other listing service is the number of days a listing has been on the market. This is displayed on the listing and could also be used as a search parameter.


Background
The site is run by a company called Boliga Sverige Aps but behind the service is the Danish company Boliga.dk, which started in Denmark in January 2007.  Their start in Denmark was controversial creating an upset among the brokers. Read more here (the Boligan site), here (Swedish article) and here (Danish article). However, they have also won the prize for best new website in Denmark.

In June 2007 Euroinvestor bought (in Danish) 51% of Boliga.dk.

Impressive mapping functionality
From a technical standpoint, what impresses me most is the mapping functionality. Especially the way to browse without need to first make a choice of municipality. Brilliant when you looking in an area where you're unaware of the boundaries of the municipalities (or states for that reason).

The market for listings are heating up
This is the third large listing service that has entered the market in less than 10 months! It will be most interesting to see where the market is going.