Rightmove boss joins board of PropTech marketplace app firm

Rightmove’s chief executive officer, Peter Brooks-Johnson, is joining the board of an offshoot of a global classified listings operation.

He is to become an interim non-executive board director of MPI - Marketplaces International. 

This is the company that operates Shpock, an app that majors in small ads but also includes homes to let - it is regarded as one of the most successful ‘marketplace’ apps in the UK with 1.8m downloads a year in this country, and 50m worldwide.

Recently ZPG and OnTheMarket announced, separately, that they were going to list rental properties on Facebook’s Marketplace section. At the time, Rightmove issued a statement saying: “This is not something we’re involved in. We’ll continue to advertise agents’ properties to the biggest home-hunting audience on Rightmove.”

MPI is the preliminary business name of an international online classifieds operation owned by Schibsted ASA.

Schibsted may be little known in the UK but it employs 8,000 people in 22 countries. 

It operates in three fields, chiefly in online classifieds, but also in investment in businesses which operate through classified listings, and finally through mainstream media activities - it is the largest media group in Scandinavia and owns newspapers in Sweden and Norway. 

MPI will be spun off and established as an independent, listed company, Rightmove says in a statement.