Ivalio Jordanov is the kind of guy you want to have around the office. He’s a half-Russian computer sciences graduate with an intimate knowledge of the international property industry. He’s also the founder of Zoomf and has a strong track record developing innovative property portals. We caught up with him to ask his advice about targeting Russian property buyers online.

Ashley Rigg (Editor and owner of Global Edge): How popular is the internet in Russia?

Ivalio Jordanov: It’s popular but internet penetration still lags behind other countries like the UK. There are around 30 million Russian internet users, which is around 20% of the total population. This is set to grow quickly and Russia is tipped to be one of the fastest-growing internet advertising markets in the world over the next few years.

AR: What are your favourite Russian property portals?

IJ: I really like Gdeetotdom.ru. They’ve photographed the outside of most of the property stock in Moscow and are expanding into other Russian regions. It’s a bit like Google Street View but without the panable images. They have significant financial backing as this is not a cheap exercise!

AR: What are the biggest portals that accept overseas property listings?

IJ: There is no one real dominant player like Rightmove in the UK. It’s much more fragmented. The biggest portal is probably classified listings site IRR. It’s bit like GumTree. The name means “hand to hand” in Russian. Private sales are much more common there than in the UK or US. It’s cheap to list but you will need a Russian speaker to help you and Russian property descriptions. It can be quite a cumbersome process.

The other big player is Rambler, a large portal which has real estate as one of its verticals. It’s more expensive than IRR but it’s easier to list property. Again, you will need Russian property descriptions and language skills to list your properties.

AR: I hear you’re launching your own Russian property portal. What can you tell us at this stage?

IJ: It’s called Domavin.ru. It will be free to list with up-sell opportunities for those wanting to pay for enhanced exposure.

AR: How will it be different from the portals you’ve just mentioned?

IJ: There are lots of property sites but the quality of listings is not as good as the UK. Also, it’s a fragmented market and no one player has a dominant share of property content. Our technology and business model will allow us to get to a point of critical mass quickly. We will be taking XML feeds and we have the technology to scrape agent websites, which makes things easier.

AR: How will you get it to market?

IJ: Mainly online marketing, SEO and paid search. We also have a budget for advertising in trade publications.

AR: Can overseas agents list on the site?

IJ: Unfortunately not immediately on launch. We do have plans to launch an overseas section in three to six months though.

AR: What’s your advice to overseas agents new to the Russian market?

IJ: If you’re serious about targeting Russians, you really need a Russian-language website. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just a simple template that translates database fields between English and Russian. That gives me an idea. We could create a system that is Russian on the outside (to buyers) but English on the inside (content management). We could adapt each site to use a specific logo and colours.

AR: Sounds interesting. How much would it cost?

IJ: It’s just an idea but there is no reason why we shouldn’t charge around US$100 a month for up to a 100 properties. We could have something ready in three to six months. I’ll let you know details in a few weeks if we push ahead with it.

AR: Which are the dominant search engines in Russia?

IJ: Yandex is the market leader and is the one I use when I search in Russian, but Google is also important.

Note: Readers can find search engine statistics for Russia here.

AR: How easy is it to achieve good search engine rankings in Russia?

IJ: It’s very competitive. You need to ideally buy links from local sources but it takes time. Paid search is a better option for most agents new to the market. If you manage this properly and track the metrics right you can generate good leads. Paid advertising on Yandex is a good place to start.

AR: You’re also working on Retaggr. It’s not Russia-specific, but it has a real estate angle. Tell us a little bit about it.

Retaggr allows users to create an online business card that allows you to aggregate your online identities in one place. The business card appears on your profile pages on sites like Linkedin, Active Rain and Facebook as well as on participating property blogs. Users are able to see the comments you’ve made and articles you’ve written. It helps build your credibility. In about six weeks, potential buyers will also be able to view all your available properties from your business card. It’s very popular in the US right now.

Ivalio Jordanov was speaking to Ashley Rigg on Tuesday 1st July 2008. Domazin.ru launches in five weeks and is likely to be available to overseas agents in the early part of 2009.