CUSTOMER SNAPSHOT
Efficiently delivering a growing number of property images to users on multiple devices
Rightmove.co.uk is the UK’s largest property website, advertising around 90% of all homes for sale via estate agents across the UK (Rightmove is not an online estate agent).
Rightmove continues to grow with over 50 million page impressions daily, often topping 55 million. Since its initial launch in 2000, almost 40 million properties have been listed, with a library of over 2.5 billion active and archived images. Rightmove customers, including UK and overseas-based estate and letting Agents as well as new home developers, are uploading 2 million images every day.
At any one time, there are over one million properties for sale or rent on Rightmove, worth around £270 billion.
People in the UK can search for residential resale, new homes, rentals, commercial and overseas properties on Rightmove.
Tools and information people can access on the site include sold prices, property valuation, market trends, maps, nearby schools, Street View and floor plans.
The Rightmove app is available for iPhone, iPad, Android (including Kindle) and Windows Phone or people can use the mobile site compatible with all smartphone handsets.
Their website and mobile platforms make searching for and researching properties to buy or rent, easy.
Tim Harding, Head of Operations at Rightmove, is responsible for ensuring these images are available to home hunters visiting the site at all times, no matter what device they are using or where they are located.
“Images are critical to giving people an idea of what a property looks like, what kind of features it has, and most importantly, the ability to picture themselves living in the property. Our ongoing success is predicated on being able to serve the buying and selling audiences with the images they need to decide whether they want to take the next step in the process.”
Tim Harding, Head of Operations – Rightmove
Rightmove’s Challenge
Reliably delivering the growing number of images across multiple devices.
After two years at Rightmove, Tim has seen a tremendous increase in the number of images posted per property, along with growth in Rightmove’s mobile distribution strategy to accommodate the increase in multi-device delivery traffic. Today, more than half of all property detail views are through a mobile device.
With the ever-increasing growth in content as well as the importance of reliability, Tim knew that the company needed to ensure the constant demand for its services could continue to be met. Expanding Rightmove’s multi-provider CDN strategy with the addition of Edgio’s CDN was key to meeting its growing demands.
“Continuous innovation across our platforms has increased engagement further with more home hunters spending more time searching for and researching properties. This has led to higher quality inquiries for our customers and more vendors insisting their agents advertise their properties on Rightmove,” says Tim.
Rightmove’s Solution
Expanding its distribution strategy and ensuring high performance.
An increase in images, page views, and mobile device delivery together with the need for absolute reliability, drove Rightmove’s move to a multi-provider CDN strategy.
With an immense reliance on images to support the business, Tim needed a solution that offered:
Easy integration
Rightmove needed a provider that could seamlessly integrate with their incumbent provider.
High-performing mobile delivery
With half of the site traffic coming from mobile devices across the UK (as well as some from overseas), Rightmove needed a delivery platform that would deliver to any device consistently and quickly.
Excellent service
They wanted a partner to aid their team during the integration process and be available should problems arise in the future.
Rightmove decided to augment its current CDN platform with Edgio Delivery. Edgio’s knowledgeable implementation team stepped in to ensure website availability would not be affected.
Seamless implementation
Edgio’s implementation proved to be a breeze and was completed in a matter of days.
Higher availability
Adding Edgio’s private CDN to their existing platform reduces risk and assures a safe, continuous, global connection to end-users.
Reliability in use
Edgio’s solution, once in place, is not high maintenance and does not require frequent attention enabling Rightmove’s team to focus on other projects.
Greater scale
Rightmove needed a more robust CDN model to maintain performance and support growth.
Cost savings
Rightmove added the ability to balance delivery traffic across their expanded delivery network, which provided the opportunity to handle traffic spikes cost-effectively.
Quality support
Edgio’s dedicated support team is available to collaborate around the clock and around the globe.