News Corp’s digital real estate services, which include Move’s realtor.com and Australia-based REA Group, announced its third quarter fiscal year 2018 results Thursday, which boasted $2.10 billion in revenue — a 6 percent increase from the year prior.

News Corp’s digital real estate services, which include Move’s realtor.com and Australia-based REA Group, announced its third quarter fiscal year 2018 results Thursday, which boasted $2.10 billion in revenue — a 6 percent increase from the year prior.

The global media company also reported a net loss of $1.1 billion, compared to zero dollars the year prior. Non-cash impairment charges and write-downs were largely responsible for the company’s net loss.

In Q3, digital real estate services grew 27 percent year-over-year, due to product innovation at realtor.com and increased yield from REA. The total segment EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was $182 million, a $33 million decrease from Q3 2017.

Move revenue increased 15 percent to $115 million, up from $100 million a year ago. Meanwhile, traffic to realtor.com grew 10 percent year-over-year to over 61 million users, half of which came from mobile, the company noted.

Much like Q2 2018, Move chief executive Robert Thomson said much of the company’s growth can be attributed to its digital real estate offerings, which include realtor.com and REA Group.

“The third quarter once again highlighted the strength of our global digital real estate platform,” Thomson said on the call. “The segment posted robust 27 percent growth in revenues, as both REA Group and realtor.com benefited from product innovation and higher yields while becoming more holistic sites for homebuyers and sellers.”

Thompson also announced an upcoming feature on realtor.com called “Realsuite,” which is a mobile-based system that aims to help agents build better ads, faster responsiveness and better leads.

The CEO also briefly mentioned Zillow’s expansion of Instant Offers to include buying and selling homes, putting Zillow in direct competition with iBuyers such as former partner, OfferPad, and Opendoor.

“Understandably, Realtors and brokers are eyeing this update with concern,” Thomson said as he reassured listeners and users that realtor.com will continue to put its user base first — a slight dig at Zillow’s longstanding stance that its not aiming to infringe on agent’s businesses.

Lastly, Thomson said he expects realtor.com to continue to be a “core and increasingly” important part of News Corp’s success — further proof that its acquisition of the company was indeed the right decision.

“That was a significant investment,” Thomson said a month ago during a Deutsche Bank conference.

“Folks in the digital world were rather skeptical about it, but I think it’s fair to say that we turned what was the no. 3 company into a very strong no. 2 and, depending on the quarter, depending on the metric, in some quarters the fastest growing. Obviously we’re in a competition, long term, to be no. 1, but that was what you might call a counter cyclical — if not counter cultural — investment, and the team has proved the naysayers wrong.”

Email Marian McPherson

Show Comments Hide Comments
Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines
What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman.
Success!
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines.
Back to top
Only 3 days left to register for Inman Connect Las Vegas before prices go up! Don't miss the premier event for real estate pros.Register Now ×
Limited Time Offer: Get 1 year of Inman Select for $199SUBSCRIBE×
Log in
If you created your account with Google or Facebook
Don't have an account?
Forgot your password?
No Problem

Simply enter the email address you used to create your account and click "Reset Password". You will receive additional instructions via email.

Forgot your username? If so please contact customer support at (510) 658-9252

Password Reset Confirmation

Password Reset Instructions have been sent to

Subscribe to The Weekender
Get the week's leading headlines delivered straight to your inbox.
Top headlines from around the real estate industry. Breaking news as it happens.
15 stories covering tech, special reports, video and opinion.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
It looks like you’re already a Select Member!
To subscribe to exclusive newsletters, visit your email preferences in the account settings.
Up-to-the-minute news and interviews in your inbox, ticket discounts for Inman events and more
1-Step CheckoutPay with a credit card
By continuing, you agree to Inman’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

You will be charged . Your subscription will automatically renew for on . For more details on our payment terms and how to cancel, click here.

Interested in a group subscription?
Finish setting up your subscription
×