Record half-yearly revenue for Trade Me

Website Trade Me has reported record revenue of $114.9 million for the six months ending December 2016, an “excellent result,” according to Chairman David Kirk. Revenue for the Classifieds segment was up 9.9 per cent year-on-year. Trade Me Jobs was the strongest performer, where revenue increased 23.3 per cent to $12.8 million. Trade Me Property reported more sedate growth of 4.8 per cent to $16.4 million, due to the recent softening of the market. CEO Jon Macdonald said there was still good progress in the division. “We’ve made some exciting product gains in recent months, with the highlight being automated valuation estimates for residential properties across the country,” he said. Trade Me Motors reported year-on-year revenue increase of 7.5 per cent to $30.5 million. “We’ve focused on our business customers with premium revenue from our suite of products for dealers, increasing by 28.1 per cent over the past year,” Macdonald noted. “We’ve also upgraded our DealerBase vehicle management site.” Revenue for the Other category, which includes comprising advertising, dating, insurance and payments businesses, was up 5.1 per cent due to a growth in payments and advertising. Alan Clark, the former head of strategy, was appointed the new head of Trade Me Motors in mid-January, replacing Darren Wiltshire, who started as the sole Motors employee and grew the division to 50 staff. Trade Me recognised his service in the report. Macdonald reaffirmed the current guidance for investors, and said there is “no change” to previously stated growth rates for the 2016 full financial year.