Jaroslaw Swiecicki, CEO at MZN Property S.A., Morizon.pl

The 27th Property Portal Watch Conference was held in Madrid this past November; it was our largest event thus far, with 400+ C-Level leaders attending from 40 different countries around the world, among them, Jaroslaw Swiecicki, CEO at MZN Property S.A., Morizon.pl, who was kind enough to sit down for an interview with us. 

"We are currently the number two portal on the Polish market. We grew through a series of mergers, much like Zoopla did. Now, our main competitor is Naspers. What differentiates us from other portals is that we are very strong in mortgages; this is somewhere we had an early start, and now we are powerful in the area. We are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange," said Swiecicki.

"When we came into existence, we were the effect of the merger of three companies, the first one and the oldest, which was founded by me in 2000. We started as a software company; one of the software we developed was for the real estate market and, along with that, a real estate portal in existence since 2002," he added.

"As we grew, we concluded that, if we were going to grow, we needed to merge with other smaller competitors. Finally, after the mergers and growing organically, we passed the number two companies, and now we are competitors to Naspers."

On its website, Morizon.pl boasts over a million flats, houses, plots and commercial facilities from Poland and abroad in one place, listed by both property owners (direct ads) as well as realtors and developers, and nearly two million visitors.

"We have attended the Property Portal Watch Conferences several times over the years," stated Swiecicki. We asked him what he felt stood out most for him. Jawaski said that, at the 2013 Conference, the topic was how agents would be replaced, then around 2016, how to be around the transaction, and now how to be in the transaction. "The funny thing is that still, the very core idea of just letting people market properties via the property portal is the main thing to do, and without it, you cannot do anything else. It's interesting."

"If you have attended the conference several times, you find that the first [conference] is mind-opening. The following one, you start to focus on the trends. Then, you begin to make out if the directions from a few years back, were just a fad or if they evolved into something substantial," added Swiecicki.

"For my company, moving into mortgages and everything involved with the transaction has been excellent. We were the contender and not the leading player, we had to differentiate, and we see that it's very successful in our case. So now I am wondering what will be the case with iBuyer, which I feel was the main topic of this conference. But in this case, I am a bit skeptical, and I think that most people, both on stage and off stage, were as well. No one knows if the iBuying will be the next main thing which will transform the portals."

When asked what is next for his company, Swiecicki said, "Our goal has always been to progress year-to-year and to edge over the other competitors; our focus is to make ourselves a clear player who can be the only alternative to Naspers in the Polish market for the next few years. We achieved a significant step this year. We forged a partnership with Allegro.pl, the dominant player in the eCommerce market in Poland. We provide listings for their real estate part, this way we differentiate a lot from our competitors, and it is a powerful tool against Naspers."

Over 220 attendees are expected at our next event - the Asian Property Portal Watch Conference in Thailand. The Conference will be held in Bangkok from 26th to 27th February 2020, and it will run for two days, featuring expert Industry Speakers, Innovative Companies at the forefront of the online real estate industry. The Asian Property Portal Watch Conference also offers amazing Social Events, a perfect opportunity for networking.
We hope to see you there.

Join us February 26-27 for the Property Portal Watch Conference Bangkok 2020.