Fairfax to partner with Mozo on money comparison sites
Fairfax is to hand the running of its moneymanager.com.au personal finance site to consumer comparison site Mozo.
The deal will also see Mozo – the brainchild of former Virgin Money boss Rohan Gamble – developing a series of financial comparison sites across the Fairfax Digital network including under the smh.com.au and theage.com.au mastheads.
The arrangement is the biggest example yet of a new Fairfax Digital strategy to build partnerships with specialist niche players.
Mozo will also build a home loans comparison service on Fairfax’s property site domain.com.au. The new sites will have much the same functionality and layout of the existing Mozo.com.au site.
Mozo (short for Money Zone) is the work of entrepreneur Rohan Gamble, who previously launched Virgin Money in Australia.
Fairfax’s moneymanager.com.au site is not currently a big player in terms of traffic. According to Nielsen Intelligence, it averaged 1690 unique browsers a day during Ausust, and delivered 182,718 page impressions. Mozo says it averaged 50,000 unique browsers last month
Anton Stanish, Fairfax Digital’s Director of Sections – Media, told Mumbrella that Fairfax had initially identified seven potetnial partners before narrowing that to five in May who took part in a competitive process.
He would not reveal the commercial arrangement with Mozo but said: ‘It’s good for both of us. There’s an element of revenue and profit sharing. And it’s a very deliberate strategy that we will both benefit from any growth. This is not a supplier relationship.”
He said: “They have the strongest consumer insights and acquisition marketing know‐how. Financial comparison websites in Australia are quickly growing to become a significant marketing channel.”
He said Fairfax plans to use its large audience reach to work with specialists in consumer comparison sites. In the mobile and broadband sector, the company is already working with Whistle Out. And a similar deal covering the best deals from electricity suppliers is also in place with Go Switch. Stanish said: “There’s already been industry deregulatiion in Victoria and we think it’s only a matter of time in New South Wales.”
This is ridiculous. I think what fairfax is trying to say is, ” that whilst we may struggle ahead with our realestate, employment and car plays, we aren’t any good at online finance – with just 1600 visits a day. (Many other comparison sites would have more traffic than this. )
Seriously, isn’t finance and business content the most core competence of fairfax? Just because it requires some technology and not print production, they are going to outsource it! Anyway whats the deal? …..No traffic and no proposition + no traffic and no proposition = no traffic and no proposition. This is not newsworthy its embarrassing for Australian media!
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Tim,
A couple of small points I should have clarified:
– MoZo will be producing the Comparison Table sections of Moneymanager.com.au, but not the articles or guides sections which will continue to be produced by Fairfax Digital.
– there is potential for confusion comparing a daily UB figure (1,690) for moneymanager and a monthly figure (50,000) for mozo. Over the last year, Moneymanager currently had an average 64,000 Australian UBs per month. Naturally, with the launch of the new comparisons in smh.com.au, theage.com.au, brisbanetimes.com.au, watoday.com.au, businessday.com.au and domain.com.au we will be a multiple of those figures. A great outcome for consumers and banks.
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Hi Anton,
Thanks for that clarification.
The first point came from the information provided by Mozo, but it’s good to have the detail on that.
And fair point on the second issue.
Thanks for clarifying.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella