Trulia, in its first earnings report integrating the business metrics of its subsidiary Market Leader, reported a fourth-quarter 2013 net loss of $11.1 million on revenue of $49.7 million. The firm grew its revenue by 142 percent from a year ago, setting a quarterly record for the firm.
Trulia also added 3,300 subscribers in the fourth quarter, growing its subscriber base to 59,700 (as of Dec. 31), a 145 percent increase from the 24,400 subscribers Trulia reported at the end of 2012.
For 2013 as a whole, Trulia reported a net loss of $17.8 million on $143.7 million in revenue, a jump of 111 percent from 2012’s total revenue.
The boost in both Trulia’s revenue and subscriber count comes from the addition of Market Leader, the real estate marketing and tech firm Trulia acquired in August for $355 million.
Market Leader, which signed a technology partnership with the large brokerage NRT LLC in January and maintains other, similar partnerships with franchisors Keller Williams Realty, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and Century 21 Real Estate, provides marketing and tech tools like a customer relationship management platform, websites and leads to agents and brokers.
In January, Trulia released its first product built in conjunction with Market Leader, “Trulia Seller Ads” — a tool that helps agents capture seller leads.
Trulia CEO Pete Flint announced that the firm will launch a strategic marketing campaign in 2014 to get Trulia’s name out to consumers.
“We believe (the campaign) will make Trulia top of mind with serious homebuyers and sellers, allowing us to connect even more transaction-ready consumers with real estate professionals,” Flint said in a statement.
With the campaign, Trulia will be playing catch-up in that arena to larger rival Zillow, which doubled its marketing spend in 2013 with a campaign that included its first-ever national TV commercial. Zillow noted in its earnings call yesterday that it plans to spend heavily again on marketing in 2014.
Trulia reported that monthly unique visitors to its site averaged 35.3 million in the fourth quarter, a 49 percent increase from the same period last year. Average monthly unique visitors from mobile devices was 14.3 million in the fourth quarter, representing approximately 40 percent of the site’s traffic.
In conjunction with its earnings release, Trulia introduced a new look for the desktop version of its website today. The revamp features a more image-dominated design and links to connect consumers with agents, local market info and a rent-or-buy calculator.
Source: Trulia
