Interview with Norman Meyer and Marc Schmidt
Mr Schmidt, Immonet is one of the leading property websites. Can you tell us about the most important milestones of your company’s success?
Marc Schmidt: Immonet is celebrating its 10th jubilee this year. This makes us very proud and is a good reason for looking back on a very successful development which includes many milestones. The company was founded in 1999 as Propertygate AG and has, since the 100% takeover by Axel Springer AG in 2006, been operating as Immonet GmbH. During the years which followed the property and service portfolio was continually expanded for example with the acquisition in 2007 of Wohnfinder.de, the leading property website in East Germany. In 2012 joint projects with eBay as well as the participation of the Madsack Media Group resulted in a considerable increase in reach in online and print media. For years we have also employed a multi-channel strategy whereby Immonet customers and users often use our own developed apps for the property search and marketing. In this way the number of Immonet employees has risen from 33 in 2003 to 260 and this figure is increasing. I am very pleased to be part of this great development since 2006. We plan to expand our strategic business areas even more in the future.
Mr Meyer, you founded Asset Profiler in 2011. On what experience is this idea based and how did it all begin?
Norman Meyer: The use of online tools in the property investment sector wasn’t very common at that time. The reservations concerning this were too great as the classic portals didn’t offer sufficient confidentiality and attention in detail in investments as here anyone can see who is offering what and who is looking for what. In my previous work in the investment business I oversaw transactions with a total volume of more than 600 million euros. Despite a very reserved and serious working manner we still often faced unwanted scatter losses. It was clear that an online platform required an approach which was innovative for this sector and also fulfilled the high demands concerning confidentiality and precision. I had been thinking about this idea already since 2004.
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Marc Schmidt: Immonet is celebrating its 10th jubilee this year. This makes us very proud and is a good reason for looking back on a very successful development which includes many milestones. The company was founded in 1999 as Propertygate AG and has, since the 100% takeover by Axel Springer AG in 2006, been operating as Immonet GmbH. During the years which followed the property and service portfolio was continually expanded for example with the acquisition in 2007 of Wohnfinder.de, the leading property website in East Germany. In 2012 joint projects with eBay as well as the participation of the Madsack Media Group resulted in a considerable increase in reach in online and print media. For years we have also employed a multi-channel strategy whereby Immonet customers and users often use our own developed apps for the property search and marketing. In this way the number of Immonet employees has risen from 33 in 2003 to 260 and this figure is increasing. I am very pleased to be part of this great development since 2006. We plan to expand our strategic business areas even more in the future.
Mr Meyer, you founded Asset Profiler in 2011. On what experience is this idea based and how did it all begin?
Norman Meyer: The use of online tools in the property investment sector wasn’t very common at that time. The reservations concerning this were too great as the classic portals didn’t offer sufficient confidentiality and attention in detail in investments as here anyone can see who is offering what and who is looking for what. In my previous work in the investment business I oversaw transactions with a total volume of more than 600 million euros. Despite a very reserved and serious working manner we still often faced unwanted scatter losses. It was clear that an online platform required an approach which was innovative for this sector and also fulfilled the high demands concerning confidentiality and precision. I had been thinking about this idea already since 2004.
Den ganzen Artikel lesen Sie in der aktuellen Print-Ausgabe oder im E-Paper.
