It's a big product roundup this week at Online Marketplaces. This week's roundup starts with a major rebranding exercise coming out of Norway, and look out for an interesting business coming out of Zillow's alumni community.
Schibsted, the Oslo-based publicly listed marketplace operator, has rebranded its marketplaces business under the new name, Vend.
The company will continue to operate under the name Schibsted Marketplaces until the official launch of Vend in Q2 2025.
Schibsted, historically a combined marketplace operator and news and media business, underwent a major divestment last year when it sold its news and media segment to Tinius Trust. This left Schibsted as a marketplace-only business going forward.
The newly-crowned Vend covers names such as Finn.no, Blocket and Tori—all marketplace businesses in the Nordics.
Christian Printzell Halvorsen, CEO of Schibsted Marketplaces (Vend), said:
"In order to build our own identity and progress towards becoming “one company”, it has been important to create a new brand name and identity that clearly separates us from Schibsted, and signals that we are a standalone entity. A new brand and name will provide clarity and direction, help us align our strategy and structure, and foster a unified company culture.
"The role of Vend will not only be to replace Schibsted Marketplaces, but to gradually take on a larger responsibility as a consumer-facing and employer brand. However, it is important to note that Vend will not replace our strong local brands FINN, Blocket, DBA, Bilbasen, Oikotie and Tori. Instead, we will embrace an endorsed architecture. Vend will act as a parent/mother brand that represents the overall company.
"There are several parts of the process that still need to be finalized, but since the brand name now has been decided, we wanted to share it with our employees and the world, so that everyone can be included in the exciting journey towards becoming Vend."
Schibsted is set to divest from the recruitment sectors in Sweden and Finland citing overwhelming challenges in displacing the respective market leaders. Schibsted acquired JobbSafari from Denmark-based JobIndex in 2019 and Oikotie from Finland-based Sanoma the following year—but has announced these job boards will be closed.
Meanwhile, Tinius Trust is set to sell its shares in Schibsted Marketplaces.
Russian real estate portal Domclick has introduced a free soft credit check for mortgage pre-approval, a service the portal says is only available on its platform.
Aleksey Leipi, a director at Domclick, said:
"Our mortgage potential assessment service is a unique product available only on DomClick. This tool significantly simplifies the process of choosing and purchasing real estate, giving users the opportunity to calculate the maximum possible amount of a mortgage loan in advance. Thanks to this, clients can adjust their application, which, in turn, significantly increases the likelihood of mortgage approval by the bank."
Meanwhile, the portal, ostensibly state-owned as it is a subsidiary of Russia's largest national bank Sber, has updated its 'Deal Guarantee' offer to protect transactions based on Domclick's assessment of the property's value as opposed to its Land Registry valuation.
Domclick's 'Deal Guarantee' is a comprehensive protection of a real estate transaction at all stages. The service includes a legal inspection of the property, namely, the search for hidden risks and potential threats to ownership of the property and their elimination before purchase.
After the purchase, the buyer is protected by a guarantee certificate for the amount of the market value of the property. Users will be able to receive compensation for purchased housing within three years of the transaction, instead of one year.
This is a common issue in Russia, where over 300,000 real estate transactions are contested every year.
If a real estate transaction that has passed inspection and has been recommended for purchase is challenged, the buyer will be defended in court by Domclick's legal team. In the event of loss of ownership, he will be compensated for the full market value of the real estate up to 25 million rubles (USD 280,000).
French real estate portal Leboncoin Immo has introduced a wave of AI-driven enhancements and productivity tools aimed at professionals.
Among the standout updates is a new AI-powered property valuation tool, which leverages data from both listed and sold properties to provide more accurate pricing insights. Since January 2025, professionals can have been able to download detailed estimate reports and even incorporate their own valuations for added flexibility.
To boost listing visibility, the portal has also introduced push notifications, enabling real estate professionals to instantly notify their subscribers about new listings. Additionally, agents using call tracking can now track missed calls more precisely, improving lead management and response times. Professionals can now personalize contact forms by requesting specific information from potential buyers, such as property preferences, helping to refine lead qualification.
Leboncoin has also been improving the experience for its users adding map-based search and personalized listing recommendations on the homepage for logged-in users.
On search results pages, property highlights are now displayed upfront, along with EPC (energy performance) ratings for listings classified D or above, adding more transparency to the platform.
Serbian market leader 4Zida.rs is testing an AI tool that lets users search for properties just by typing in what they are looking for, rather than clicking through filters while browsing real estate listings.
The new search option is currently in beta testing and requires users to also use standard mandatory search fields such as transaction type (sale or rent), property type (apartment, house, garage, etc.), and location.
Users can carry out up to 20 AI searches per day free of charge but must register or log in to use the tool.
Three former Zillow executives have teamed up to launch HouseWhisper, a conversational AI that acts as a 24/7 personal assistant for realtors in the United States.
The co-founders are CEO Luis Poggi (former Zillow VP of product and engineering), board member Spencer Rascoff (Zillow co-founder and former CEO), and CTO Alex Kutner (former Zillow engineering leader).
Agents can call, text, and send a voice memo to a number and interact with HouseWhisper’s AI, just as with any human assistant. The technology also creates transcripts of conversations and extracts useful information for the agent.
The startup makes money through a subscription model, with different prices for different-sized teams.
HouseWhisper has been in beta for about eight months and says it is being used by over 4,000 agents nationwide. The business has raised circa $10 million in funding in stealth mode, including a pre-seed $6.7 million round led by Mayfield.
The company says it will use the funds to accelerate product development, team expansion, and AI enhancements.
Rascoff, who was part of the founding team at Zillow, says the industry is ready for a "smarter, more efficient way to work":
"We see a future where AI-powered assistants are as essential to a real estate agent as their cell phone, helping agents stay connected with clients through better insight, personalization, and efficiency."
Luis Poggi, CEO at HouseWhisper, said:
"Every agent would love to have an assistant. Not everyone has that because hiring people, managing people, training people is a lot of effort, and it’s expensive. We’re removing all of that. This is significantly cheaper than hiring a human and it’s already trained on real estate and everything that you do.
"We work with several Zillow teams and they love it."
Taiwan-based marketplace operator Addcn Technology has introduced a series of AI-powered upgrades to its real estate platform 591.com.tw.
Among the new features are AI-generated video and voiceover tools, which automatically create promotional content highlighting key property features. Another AI-driven enhancement focuses on optimizing listing descriptions to better align with user search behaviour to improve relevance and discoverability
Aside from its real estate portal, Addcn operates successful jobs and cars marketplaces in Taiwan but was recently forced to exit the Hong Kong market last year, shutting down property site 591.com.hk in July.
Singapore-based marketplace operator Carousell has announced its participation in OpenAI’s Operator Preview program.
The program provides early access to AI models and tools such as OpenAI's Operator agentic search agent, allowing companies to experiment with new applications tailored to their needs. For Carousell, this means exploring ways to enhance search, personalization, and user experience through AI-driven innovation.
Carousell has already integrated AI-powered features such as personalized recommendations and automated content moderation to streamline interactions and improve marketplace safety. This new collaboration with OpenAI is expected to accelerate the development of additional AI-based tools, though specific updates remain under wraps.
Carousell operates several marketplace websites across Southeast Asia including its eponymous Singaporean generalist marketplace as well as Mudah in Malaysia and Cho Tot in Vietnam.
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