www.gumtree.com has sprouted baby sites in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Edinburgh and Dublin. Over 800,000 regular users visit the site in London, which has recently achieved its millionth posting, to date, find friends, jobs, find accommodation or buy and sell everything from white goods to rugby tickets.
A horse and a boa constrictor have been sold through the site, TV companies use it to find contestants, people fall in love and occasionally get married through the dating and casual relationships section, and the message boards provide an instant barometer for the hot topics of the day. People seem to get addicted to it quite easily, comments Michael Pennington, founder of www.gumtree.com. I think it’s because it covers practically every aspect of people’s lives - practical, social, love, work...what else is there?
It’s an honest, un-commercial site, says Michael Pennington. Users love it because it has been led by them and reflects what they are interested in. If I had to give advice to someone who wanted to create a great community site, I’d say find a great community, don’t interfere, and you’ve done it!
Gumtree.com in London receives a staggering 40m page impressions a month and has had 5,000 new flat share ads, 2,000 dating ads, 4,000 buy and sell ads and 2,000 job vacancies posted on it every week since its inception in March 2000. The new sites will offer the same free ad posting.
Founders Michael Pennington and Simon Crookall have both lived overseas, and created the sites around the difficulties they had experienced in settling in a new city. The success of the London site has shown that a strong online community can help people settle into a city extremely effectively, says Michael.
www.gumtree.com has sprouted baby sites
Over 800,000 regular users visit the site in London
