Hello Gumtree!
In January 2009, I became the new-kid-on-the-Gumtree-block when I signed up as Managing Director & General Manager. To say that I was excited about joining was an understatement – Gumtree is UK’s largest and most vibrant classifieds community, and every single day, it is changing the way people connect with each other to buy, sell, swap, share and rent everything from cars and homes to skills and services.
Behind all this is a passionate community which wholeheartedly believes in the power of connecting. I share that passion, and made one commitment to the team here: to help build Gumtree into the leading online classifieds website; the best community notice board the internet has to offer. We’ve been developing our thoughts on this and are continually drawing upon the feedback we receive to make Gumtree even better. And this will continue to be the case.
Over the course of the year, we’ve been listening to our community via our forums, our customer service teams and our surveys. With community feedback at the forefront of our decision-making, we started bringing home some of our biggest and most exciting developments. I’m so happy to be able to share these with you and get your thoughts on how we can build an even better Gumtree.
Looking back, 2009 has been, in many ways, one of the greatest years in Gumtree’s 9 year history. And this is why:
- This year, you’ve made Gumtree the UK’s largest website for car sales with over 120,000 new listings posted every month
- Our 50 millionth listing was posted in Manchester by Dan, who was looking for a new job
- Our community grew 34% to 13.7 million
- Site visits increase by nearly a third compared to 2008
- Our revenues grew by 40%, which allowed us to invest in growing our customer service and trust & safety teams by 239%.
All of the above was made possible due to a number of changes to Gumtree. For example:
- We made it easier for you to post an ad
- It’s easier than ever to get your car registration details online. We introduced a feature that allows you to import your information about your car, like the model, make, colour, engine size and more. We’re really pleased to see that 40% of our community make use of this feature
- We reduced the loading time on our homepage by 60%, thanks to new search engine and site optimisation
- We launched our Urgent feature, which sellers welcomed as a way to indicate the speed at which they wish to sell goods, helping to identify potential bargains to buyers
- We made changes to our fraud protection systems, which helped to decrease fraudulent rental ads by two thirds compared to the same period last year
Not all of this was easy. Along the way, we made some very tough decisions. Some of you protested that you kept seeing the same ads appear on top of the page every time you visited. In response, we introduced Bump Up to stem back this poor buy-side experience. We don’t like introducing barriers on Gumtree, but sometimes they are required; a good experience is ultimately what will make our sellers most successful.
Today, I’d like to invite you to join us in testing the beta version of our new Gumtree website. Not only are we giving Gumtree a cleaner look to enable easier searching and browsing, we are committing to bringing your local area to life.
What we’ve done is given each of our Gumtree cities a new location homepage, and if you can’t find what you want in your neighbourhood, we’ll show places nearby where you can find it. You can even widen your search, so you can see what’s available across the whole of the UK. What’s more, we’ll remember your location, so the next time you visit Gumtree, you’ll land straight into your local Gumtree homepage.
This is just the beginning. Tell us what you would like to see and, throughout 2010, we’ll work with you to get it right. We want to know what works for you.
Suchi
36 Responses to “Hello Gumtree!”
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Not sure how to make contact with you, hope this message goes to the correct department, I recently placed an add with you Ref: 52546164 however for the past two days it does not show on the Fakenham listings, notice says NO listings for Fakenham. I have renewed my advert twice too try to move it to the top of the search with little sucsess it would seem, please advise, many thanks.Additional ref: 52580294, this is a room for rent/house share advert not flat.
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There are some interesting points in this article but I dont know if I see all of them middle to heart. There is some validity but I will take hold judgment until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner too.
You say Ebay bought you 5 years ago? That explains soo much, it was such a happy place before. Relaxed and fun, it is no more.
That day of 820 was a spam attack!
Yes, 5 years ago
so its true then,ebay have taken over gumtree,.
thats the end of that then,therell mass culls of members,millions of pc rules,profit will be squeezed in until gumtree is no more.(maybe thats the plan though eh?)
bye gummy,it was fun while it was run by the original team,now its going to be run by “intellectual experts” itll soon be as dead as ebay..
HI IVE NOTICED THAT THERE IS NO GAY RENT ON FLATS AND HOUSES,
SO WE CAN GET TO THE PUBLIC THAT WE WANT..
ALSO I DONT THINK ITS FAIR TO ALLOW AGENCY TO ADVERTIZE FREE IN OFFERED
ACCOMADATION,,THEY TAKE UP ALL SPACE EVERY DAY…
THIS STOPS PEOPLE FROM LOOKIN ON THAT SECTION..
IM NOT GETTING NEARLY WHAT USED TO IN REPLYS..
CHEERS
After you have been through Confessions and removed and threatened with a good banning all the harmless people looking for a date, there is, surprise surprise, hardly anybody left. Somehow it looks like you have managed to also chase away the sometimes highly original posters who used to leave witty and amusing ads, leaving behind just a mediocre dross.
Same story pretty well over at the forums. You had a thriving ‘community’ there two years ago with anything up to 820 people online. Now it struggles to reach 120. Excuse my maths but isn’t that a precipitous decline of over 80%? Reason, probably a load of bannings and introduction of a new puritan approach which few users want.
Do you actually care about what you’ve done? I guess it’s your site and you can do what you want but it’s a shame, a real shame. If you want to reverse the decline, and perhaps you don’t really care, there is only one answer. Listen to what your users want and reinstate those parts of the site you have closed.
In the meantime,
Bye Gumtree.
It seems to me the Law of Unintended Consequencies applies very strongly here. The more you try to make it better the worse it gets. You should have left it alone, none of this fancy stuff has been a significant improvement, it was great before you started messing around. Like renovating an old property you have simply stripped out all the character and put nothing in it’s place.
Forum Watch! Max ever online was 820 at 10.02am on 21.5.08, ie nearly two years ago. This morning at 10.02am the number was 106. Can anyone think of a reason for this decline in usage?
The forum user figures are interesting. Under the previous management they reached a maximum of 820 at any one time in May 2008. Now in 2010 under the present team the figure quoted is usually under 170 and is often much less. The revamp just completed has not reversed the decline it would appear so far. Is this due to the end of F and D? Perhaps people interested in that aspect spilt over into the forums boosting the numbers and also presumably into other parts of the site?
In my opinion you have hugely spoilt this site. It used to be a pleasure to visit but you’ve gone all P.C. and have drained out so much of the fun and life that used to be here. The new Forums are cringe making and seemingly in hoc to big business in some areas notably accomodation. In fact it’s so bad as to be frankly embarrassing. Please bring back the old management or someone like them.
Personally I think you’ve spoilt the site by removing Friends and Dating. It really doesn’t feel any fun anymore and as to the Forums, well, over moderated would be an understatement.
‘We want to know what works for you’. Bring back Friends and Dating. That was the heart and soul of Gumtree.
hi im just wondering ive reported a lot of cars that are only links to another sight . you do ask for these adds to be reported as it is bad business for such a good site like gumtree. but you do keep letting this group of people advertise with you they are in the car section and are promoting a web site called http://www.irishrides.ie when you go to look at these cars you are guided away from gumtree site.
Searching for a shared house or flat I used to look under “Flats South of the River”, now I have to plow my way through all the adverts. Why has this changed?
Missus Gumtree,
I have work and Parents commitments and Gumtree Dating, was my main outlet for a social and love life !
With all that money earned, surely one employee can filter out the spammers that have spoit your site for many others like myself.
Mike
Not sure how to make contact with you, hope this message goes to the correct department, I recently placed an add with you Ref: 52546164 however for the past two days it does not show on the Fakenham listings, notice says NO listings for Fakenham. I have renewed my advert twice too try to move it to the top of the search with little sucsess it would seem, please advise, many thanks.Additional ref: 52580294, this is a room for rent/house share advert not flat.
Looks like hits are down dramatically, I wonder why. You’ve tried to open new topics under feedback obviously to counter this but really, what a joke they are. Eg, admin trying desperately to keep the ball rolling under motoring by saying petrol was cheaper years ago. Didn’t you know you were on a winner with F and D? You shouldn’t even have thought about deleting it.
it should be done in countys such as oxfordshire and nottinghamshire.
Its just pure annoying that it does it like oxford.
Why is there no customer service ? been advertising for ages on here and now I cant .. getting ignored from the emails im sending ??
Hi i love this site,i visit it every day,but i usually search to find properties and the old version i used to search by area,and with all these new change i cannot find the option to search by area,when i select the prices and the location which is London it come with more then thousands options of renting an exemple,which is useless for me,please give us an option to seach properties by area again.
Many thanks.
Suchi – I Like your statement: “Behind all this is a passionate community which wholeheartedly believes in the power of connecting.”
Perhaps you could tell us which bit of Gumtree you think was more about “passion” and “connecting” than the Friends and Dating section?
It would be nice if your words and actions were consistent!
”Over the course of the year, we’ve been listening to our community via our forums, our customer service teams and our surveys. With community feedback at the forefront of our decision-making, we started bringing home some of our biggest and most exciting developments. I’m so happy to be able to share these with you and get your thoughts on how we can build an even better Gumtree.” absolute rubbish !!!!!!!!! You have not listened to the Community at all andhave lost touch with it’s users. WE SAID WE WANTED FRIANDS AND DATING to contine. ARE YOU LISTENING? NO.
i think gumtree is a theif, you geet charged your fee eveen if they decide not to display the add, what a CON!
I’ve been searching on the web and have now found much more better and new gumtree alternatives…
when did gumtree become such a soulless coorporation? I get the impression that it has recieved a pay off from one of the many payfor friends and dating sites that try to cash in on people looking to meet people. sellouts
Dear Suchi,
I am afraid I have to agree with the feedback from the posters below on the lack of concern for feedback from Gumtree users. I myself wrote to you on Monday 4th January care of the Friends & Dating Discussion forum and to date have not received a reply.
As Gumtree’s Managing Director, you should be able to see things strategically, and at least show some concern over the public relations disaster that is unfolding over terminating the Friends & Dating section of Gumtree. There was a loyal community here built over many years that Gumtree evicted at the loneliest time of the year with less than 20 days notice before end of service.
To add insult to injury when one goes on Gumtree to the holding pages under Dating we are greeted with ads to make more money from us, very far from the ethos of the online community that has made Gumtree a success today. None of these ads offers a free replacement friends & dating classifieds lineage service that Gumtree used to offer. Instead we’re greeted by ads such as “F-Buddy” (and I’m guessing the “F” doesn’t stand for Friends.)
Yes, you’re very clear in stating that the Friends & Dating users are no longer welcome at Gumtree. But you can still maintain goodwill by sign posting shelter elsewhere. For example your sister website Craigslist dot co dot uk (part owned by your parent company Ebay) offers a very similar service to the old Gumtree Friends & Dating section, and you could still maintain goodwill and generosity by flagging this up in the Gumtree holding pages for Dating.
The current lack of generosity comes across as arrogant and high handed. However goodwill and generosity may be returned by the users of the old Friends & Dating section who may come back to use and support your other services.
I fully realise you have to balance the community aspect with the financial side. However it pains me to see Gumtree, a site I previously respected, make such a hash of things. The only decent thing to do now is to hear your response as Managing Director to all the feedback on this issue, and to do the right thing over this transition and signpost the many many users of Gumtree’s Friends & Dating to a similar service before they disband and become multiple isolated groups of Gumtree disparagers and naysayers.
Let not start 2010 and your re-launch by making enemies when you should be making friends.
With best wishes.
“Over the course of the year, we’ve been listening to our community via our forums, our customer service teams and our surveys. With community feedback at the forefront of our decision-making, we started bringing home some of our biggest and most exciting developments”.
Absolute bollocks! You haven’t listened to the community at all with regards to the Personals section. And that’s why so many of us are now going elsewhere.
Suchi,
Forgive me for saying this, but your comments about wanting to know what we’d like and about working with us to get it right will sound pretty hollow to an awful lot of us.
Over the last two weeks there have been hundreds of posts (attracting thousands of views) in the forums protesting about Gumtree’s sudden decision to remove the “Friends and Dating” category. The posts show the big impact that this section has had on the lives of a good many Londoners.
There has not been the slightest indication that you or anyone else in Gumtree’s management have taken note of this feedback, or been willing to review or reconsider the decision and look at alternative solutions. So much for the claim in your blog that community feedback is at the forefront of your decision-making.
Over the last year Gumtree’s clumsy handling of its user base is, in my view, destroying any differentiation its has from the hundreds of other free adverts sites on the web. Alienating so many of your users over the crass way in which the “friends and dating” section has been withdrawn simply shows that you and Gumtree’s management have lost touch with your large sections of your customer base. Barriers to entry in this market are almost non-existent and it will be interesting to see how long it takes your competitors to capitalise on this. Ebay is getting some seriously bad PR over its management of its relationship with Craigslist. I wonder whether its handling of Gumtree will be its next PR problem.
And now you’re about to lose all that community growth by dropping the friends & dating section.
What a truly brainless decision!
And now you’re about to lose all that community growth by dropped dropping the friends & dating section.
What a truly brainless decision!
keep the dating site
I miss ” flat offered for short let”
You have ” holiday rental” which is not quite the same.
Could it become “holiday rental and short let” or 1 of each.
1 month is long enough for an advert to be kept live.
thank you