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Wanted: private equity buyers for unloved online marketplaces

Smarter operators in a depressed and AI-disrupted sector can still find an edge

The term “property porn” describes scrolling through endless pictures of glossy homes one is not looking to buy and never could, just for fun. But what about those less entertaining kinds of search, such as the grunt work involved in finding one’s perfect pad, car or air fryer? That will one day fall to an AI agent, able to scan myriad listings in seconds.

Hence the latest victims of the AI disintermediation trade: online marketplace companies. The UK’s Rightmove and Autotrader, Europe’s Hemnet, Vend and the London-listed Baltics Classifieds Group have seen their combined market value shrink by more than 40 per cent over the past six months.

Line chart of European marketplaces, aggregate market capitalisation, rebased showing Rough trade
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