Bayut

Bayut is a market-leading, [1]UAE-based property website and a part of the Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG). It hosts real estate listings for residential and commercial properties across the UAE’s seven emirates with an extensive inventory from more than 1,200 agencies.

Bayut.com
Type of site
Online property portal
Available inEnglish, Arabic
Founded2008
HeadquartersBuilding 3, Dubai Design District,PO Box 333 300 Dubai,
UAE
OwnerEmerging Markets Property Group
CEOHaider Ali Khan
IndustryReal Estate & Internet Marketing
Employees200+
URLwww.bayut.com
Current statusActive

Additionally, Bayut has detailed content resources for buyers and tenants to conduct further research into their areas of interest. The website also has a popular real estate and lifestyle blog called MyBayut.

History

Bayut was founded in 2008 by the brothers Zeeshan and Imran Ali Khan, following their success with Zameen.com in Pakistan. Their elder brother Haider Ali Khan remained a strategy adviser to Bayut in its initial years but in 2014 he took up the role of company CEO full-time, following 20 years of experience with global giants such as Goldman Sachs, Silicon Labs and National Instruments. In 2015, Bayut.com gained additional investors in order to expand into other Gulf states.[2] In 2015, Bayut welcomed industry leaders SeLoger CEO Roland Tripard and Mitula Group Chairman Simon Baker — who has previously headed the REA Group as well as iProperty Group — into its team. In April 2016, Bayut.com participated in the International Property Show organised by Strategic Marketing & Exhibitions in Dubai.[3]

After the first few initial rounds of successful funding, Bayut's parent company, EMPG raised substantial funds of $100 million in early 2019, led by KCK Group, a Californian investment company, along with eight other investors, including Exor Seeds.[4] Following this Bayut acquired the Middle East assets of Lamudi[5] and went on to launch their first portal outside the UAE with Bayut.sa. [6] In April 2020, EMPG announced its merger with Netherlands-based OLX Group of its businesses in the MENA region. Following the merger, the Dubai-based classifieds website, dubizzle and OLX portals in Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Pakistan and Oman are operated by EMPG.[7]

Bayut moved its headquarters from Dubai Internet City to Dubai Design District in 2018. [8]

Services

Bayut hosts close to 100,000 commercial and residential property listings for sale and rent in the UAE including apartments, villas, townhouses, offices, shops, warehouses and more. Each listing includes information about the features of the property, nearby amenities in the area, floor plans and market trends, as well as a mortgage calculator for properties for sale.

Investment

Bayut is one of the GCC region’s most well-funded tech startup companies. Its parent company, Emerging Markets Property Group, has raised a total of $ 310M over several investment rounds. They were backed seasoned investors such as KCK Group and Exor Seeds, fuelling Bayut’s expansion and growth in the Middle East.[9]  

In April 2020, EMPG raised $150M in its latest investment round, taking the group’s valuation to $1B. [10]

Acquisition and Mergers

In 2019, Bayut announced the acquisition of Lamudi Middle East, including its assets in the UAE, Saudia Arabia and Jordan, strengthening its position in the GCC region. [11]

In February 2020, Bayut’s parent company, Emerging Markets Property Group, completed its acquisition of Kaidee, the leading online marketplace in Thailand. [12]

In April 2020, EMPG announced its merger with Netherlands-based OLX Group of its businesses in the MENA region. Following the merger, the Dubai-based classifieds website, dubizzle and OLX portals in Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Pakistan and Oman are operated by EMPG. [13]

In May 2020, EMPG announced that it had acquired Lamudi Global, which had assets in the Philippines, Mexico and Indonesia.

Marketing

Chris Hemsworth starred in a commercial as part of Bayut’s biggest marketing campaign[14], which was launched in September 2019. Along with the video commercial, Bayut also launched radio campaigns featuring the Hollywood star’s voice and hoardings on major highways.

The one-of-a-kind campaign was produced by Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), part of the Ridley Scott Creative Group, and was directed by the two-time Academy Award winner, Robert Stromberg.

The website’s campaign was recognised by the Middle East edition of Campaign as one of the ‘Top 10 Integrated Campaigns’ in 2019. [15]

In April 2019, Bayut hosted the inaugural edition of the Bayut Big Broker Event, also known as B3DXB, bringing together agents, brokers and leaders from the real estate industry in Dubai. The region’s first PropTech summit, B3DXB featured key industry leaders as speakers and panellists at the event. Bayut also unveiled BayutPro, its exclusive app for real estate agents in the UAE, along with state-of-the-art, innovative features such as TruCheckTM, SmartLeadsTM and Agent Reviews.

Awards

In November 2009, Bayut.com was declared the 'Best Property Portal' in CNBC Arabian Property Awards. Bayut.com won the award for Best Arabian Property Portal and was also nominated as the contender for “World's Best Property Portal” award. [16]

Bayut was also recognised as the ‘Best Property Portal’ by Forbes Middle East in November 2019 for ‘Transforming the Region’s Real Estate Sector’.[17]

Bayut’s CEO, Haider Ali Khan, won the People’s Choice Award for Entrepreneur of the Year at the Arabian Business StartUp Awards in 2018. [18]

In 2020, Bayut's Director of Marketing, Sahar Khan, won the ‘Storyteller Award for Top Marketing and Communications Executives’ by Forbes Middle East, for her leadership in Bayut’s marketing initiatives including the campaign featuring Chris Hemsworth and the Bayut Big Broker Event 2019.

gollark: I have vaguely worried about this, since laws aren't updated to go along with this.
gollark: Arguably revolutions are increasingly less practical because technology makes law enforcement easier.
gollark: Alternatively, just have better grid infrastructure?
gollark: Well, lots of infighting wouldn't be very good either.
gollark: Actually, this is somewhat true even with much less technology, since global trade has IIRC been required for *ages* to keep everything running.

References
  1. "Bayut continues on a steady upward trajectory with record-breaking traffic of over 3 Million sessions recorded in October 2019". Construction Business News Middle East. 2019-11-28. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  2. "UAE's Bayut Secures Investment". Property Portal Watch. 7 January 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  3. "Strategic Marketing & Exhibitions Presents the International Property Show 2016 in Dubai". EVENTFAQS Media. Retrieved 2017-10-12.
  4. "Property portal Bayut's parent company raises $100 million". The National. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  5. "UAE's Bayut acquires real estate portal Lamudi". The National. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  6. "Dubai-based property portal Bayut expands to Saudi". MENAbytes. 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  7. Godinho, Varun (2020-06-02). "EMPG and OLX Group merge MENA and South Asia operations to form $1bn Dubai-based tech company". Gulf Business. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  8. "Bayut.com Moves HQ to Accommodate Growing Business in Dubai". Al Bawaba. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  9. "Bayut.com parent company closes $100m investment in latest funding round". ArabianBusiness.com. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  10. "Property portal Bayut's parent company secures $150m investment". The National. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  11. Nagraj, Aarti (2019-04-09). "UAE property portal Bayut buys Lamudi Middle East". Gulf Business. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  12. "Bayut's parent company acquires property portals in Indonesia, Philippines and Mexico". The National. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  13. Staff, Entrepreneur Middle East (2020-06-03). "EMPG and OLX Group, Owners Of Dubai-Based Bayut And Dubizzle Respectively, Merge To Form Unicorn Company". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  14. "Chris Hemsworth stars in a new property advert filmed in Dubai". The National. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  15. "Campaign 2019 – Top 10 Integrated". Campaign Middle East. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  16. "Bayut.com emerged as a winner for Dubai's Best Property Portal in CNBC Awards". Pressport.
  17. "Forbes Middle East revealed the region's biggest listed and unlisted real estate companies". www.zawya.com. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  18. "In pictures: Arabian Business Start-Up award winners 2018". ArabianBusiness.com. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
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