58.com today announced its merger with Anjuke, a Chinese property site launched in 2007. 58 Anjuke Property Group will be established to operate all real estate-related businesses of the two companies, according to an internal mail by Yao Jinbo (also known as Michael Yao), CEO of 58.com.
Starting off in second-hand residential real restate, Anjuke now also operates Aifang.com for new property, Haozu.com for apartment rentals and Jinpu for commercial real estate. Anjuke connects users and agents and charges the latter for performance-based advertising or search marketing.
58.com, one of the leading Craigslist-like listing platforms in China, has a sub-channel for second-hand real estate listings. 58.com’s overall business model is similar to Anjuke’s. 58.com poached Wang Zhenguang, former lead of second-hand property at the leading Chinese online real estate company Soufun, last year.
The financial services that 58.com has been developing will also be available for Anjuke’s customers, according to Mr. Yao.
Editing by Mike Cormack (@bucketoftongues)
