Bayut and dubizzle: Highlights from the Stronger Together webinar

In April 2020, Bayut’s parent company EMPG announced a merger with OLX’s businesses in many key markets including Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt as well as dubizzle in the UAE. Being homegrown brands with a strong following in the country, the union of Bayut and dubizzle under the EMPG umbrella was a major, positive announcement for the UAE real estate industry. In the exclusive ‘Bayut and dubizzle; Stronger Together’ webinar held on Tuesday 23rd June 2020, the CEO of Bayut and dubizzle, Haider Ali Khan and the Chief Data Officer of dubizzle, Dobo Radichkov came together to share some insightful data about the combined strength of both brands.

Who was part of the Bayut Webinar?

The Bayut Webinar was moderated by Fibha Ahmed, the highly successful Sales Director of Bayut and dubizzle Property. She led the discussion on how the latest merger of Bayut and dubizzle will impact the real estate industry. Joining her in the conversation were the CEO of Bayut and dubizzle, Haider Ali Khan and the Chief Data Officer of dubizzle, Dobo Radichkov. They highlighted some of the key insights from the months of April and May for the UAE property market and discussed the path ahead for both the brands.

Bayut and dubizzle: Leading the way together for real estate innovation in the UAE

The session started with Haider Ali Khan sharing his excitement about the merger of the parent companies of Bayut and dubizzle and how activity is gradually picking up again in the UAE. He also shared an interesting anecdote about dubizzle’s strong presence in the market and the crucial role it has played in bolstering the startup and technology environment in the UAE.

“Everyone knows dubizzle. It is a strong brand that has been operating for the last 15 years in the UAE. It is a household brand and it has played a crucial role in a certain economy in the UAE over the years,” said Haider Khan.

Calling dubizzle a ‘de facto platform’, he further elaborated how the company has addressed the needs of the people in different verticals. Whether it’s electronics, furniture, jobs or other aspects of the community, dubizzle has played a major role in shaping the digital evolution of the UAE.

Talking about the merger, Dobo also expressed his joy and excitement over this new journey. 

“It’s been great to join the extended Bayut family. I’ve interacted a lot with the folks over there and we have some great ideas to add value for our users,” said Dobo.

A Timeline of COVID-19 events and its impact on the UAE

Along with highlighting the strength of both brands, Dobo also discussed the impact of the pandemic on life and business in the UAE. He shared some interesting insights on the timeline of the major COVID-19 events; including how the outbreak started in the UAE, how it evolved over the course of time, the swift actions taken by the UAE government and the property relief packages offered by Bayut and dubizzle to help partners in these challenging circumstances.

Dobo spoke about how April was the toughest month for most businesses in the UAE, but he also highlighted how things started to recover quickly in May 2020, with restrictions gradually easing and life returning to some form of normalcy.

Dobo shared detailed insights about dubizzle’s internal model which fetches data from across the world on the number of Coronavirus cases and how it extrapolates trends based on these analytics.

“While we don’t necessarily predict the future, the trends look positive and we hope that by early to mid-August, things could go back to normal,” said Dobo.

Facts and Figures: The combined strength of Bayut and dubizzle

In the next segment of the webinar, Haider Ali Khan shared some insightful facts and figures on the combined strength of Bayut and dubizzle.

In May 2020, the combined traffic to Bayut and dubizzle for property listings in the UAE (excluding room share) was an impressive 6.9M. Together, both portals also generated over 1.1M leads, helping our industry partners to quickly recover from the challenges faced in April and connect with more prospective customers.

Haider Ali Khan also shared projections for the month of June 2020 and said that the team expected traffic from both brands for property listings to rise to 7.3M while the number of leads generated is expected to exceed 1.3M!

Looking Ahead: Bayut and dubizzle’s plans for the future

Wrapping up the session, Haider Ali Khan highlighted the company’s focus towards building solutions that will simplify the lives of people. He shared some key objectives that Bayut, in collaboration with dubizzle, aim to achieve:

• To build simple and functional tools to support the needs of real estate partners working with Bayut and dubizzle
• Consolidating leads from both platforms so that partners can get a quick overview of leads available on both portals
• To offer a seamless user experience for consumers and partners
• To enhance our innovative solutions including SmartLeads by backing it up with data based on machine learning, fetched from various verticals
• To come up with more exciting ideas and innovations.

At the end of the Webinar, both Haider and Dobo expressed their mutual excitement for future prospects.

The merger between EMPG and the OLX Group will significantly change the real estate landscape in the region. Bayut’s parent company EMPG has played a vital role in initiating the new era in the UAE real estate market and beyond. If you are curious about how EMPG began, you can check out Bayut’s seventh webinar to know more the vision of the leadership team and how they have achieved these impressive milestones.