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Paul Verwilt COO Mediahuis group |
Growing through solid brands
Macroeconomic factors had a significant impact in 2022 on the results of our marketplaces and on the activities and prospects of Mediahuis Ventures. We should expect that these same factors will continue to apply in 2023. Let’s take the marketplaces first. 2022 was the first year after Covid: economic expectations were high, interest rates were low and there was a lot of money in the market. This translated into good results for our jobs, property and automotive businesses in the first half of the year. However, the war in Ukraine, huge price hikes for raw materials and energy and higher interest rates created a climate of economic uncertainty. This put pressure on the job and property markets, among others, and hence on platforms such as Jobat and Zimmo. We saw a more stable situation in the job market as companies looked closely at their workforce, with increased balance between supply and demand. The result: fewer vacancies. There was a similar evolution with property. Due to higher interest rates and commodity prices, there were fewer transactions, both in the market and on our platforms.
Fortunately, at Mediahuis we have solid, leading marketplaces that are relatively resilient to market fluctuations, allowing us to look back with satisfaction on the results we achieved in 2022. That said, conditions are quite unpredictable and we need to manage our business carefully. There are three priority issues. First of all, our markets and brands are mature; it’s therefore a question of continuously balancing revenues and costs. Second: growth remains essential! To achieve growth, we need to develop more services on the margins of supply and demand activities on our platforms. Third, we need to look for interesting investments that allow us to build new positions. This could be in our existing or new markets.
For example, in 2022, we took our first steps into the online comparison market with the acquisition of the Irish platform Switcher. Price comparison platforms are experiencing steady growth in several countries and we don’t want to be left behind. With the acquisition of Carzone, also in Ireland, we strengthened our position in the car market. The key now will be to bring our three car-related brands – CarsIreland, Cartell and Carzone – together wisely to ensure an even stronger position. Finally, in Finland, we invested in Skenariolabs, a start-up that predicts the future value and sustainability of real estate and aligns well with our marketplace business.
A final focus for our marketplaces is better collaboration with Mediahuis’ news brands. To effectively generate sufficient reach, it’s no longer enough to simply give marketplaces visibility on our news platforms. Data is the future here, too. The knowledge we have about our readers’ interests should be better used to effectively direct them to relevant offers and information on our marketplace platforms. We believe this approach is a win not only for our marketplaces but also for our news brands, who can offer their readers more services and targeted information.
The current macroeconomic context also has implications in the venture capital world. The rise in interest rates has drained a lot of money from the market, which is detrimental to many scale-ups seeking capital. For Mediahuis Ventures, however, the situation has some advantages. There are fewer investors and the valuations of scale-ups are lower, giving us more prospects for potentially interesting deals. The good businesses are of course still sought after and it remains a challenge to become part of their story.
A key issue for Mediahuis Ventures is to define the markets we want to operate in. They must be areas with sufficient growth potential and in which we can play a significant role as investors. One market we strongly believe in is education technology. That’s why, in 2022, we invested in Perlego, the world’s largest online subscription service for textbooks, and in the promising German scale-up Tomorrow’s Education. A third investment in 2022 was our entry into HiPeople, another German scale-up, this time operating in the HR technology market. The way we work today and the tools we use to do so are undergoing a huge evolution. That makes HR technology an interesting growth market and one that we want to participate in.
