Insurancewide, known to be the first insurance comparison site on the internet, is in trouble. The company is due to close on 31st August 2009 unless it gets help.
Insurancewide’s legal battle with Customs and Revenue (HMRC) has finally taken its toll and the company is struggling to stay afloat. They issued a press release this morning.
“It is a great personal disappointment to me and to all the team that after nearly ten years of breaking new ground in the insurance aggregation market we will have to cease trading unless we can find a suitable investor to acquire the assets of the business.”
The irony is that Insurancewide won the case with the HMRC but the various appeals were too costly. Trader Media (who run autotrader) are also invovled in the same legal battle.
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Didn’t Q4 recently put itself up for sale too? And the backers of Confident Cover (Saga was it?) pulled the plug on any development there. uSwitch are also rumoured to be giving up on insurance and out-sourcing it. Money Extra haven’t been able to launch their own insurance comparison tool and Lloyds TSB are pulling insurance.co.uk and Lloyds TSB Compare out of the market.
Looks like we’re heading for a true oligopoly – CTM, MoneySupermarket, Confused, GoCompare and Tesco Compare.
I wonder how long the likes of Beat That Quote, Money Expert and the like can continue to run their own comparison tools cost effectively? I wonder if anyone from Insurancewide is happy to comment on their situation and how they see the future of the market.
I expect Beat That Quote & Money Expert will probably switch to white label versions of MoneySupermarket, Confused or GoCompare
@Gerard – but don’t Beat That Quote pretty much only get traffic by buying data and providing white label solutions themselves to people like as MSN (and until recently, Experian).
BeatThatQuote.com would like to clarify to readers of this blog that our insurance comparison service has seen increases in quote volumes consistently since launch. We are also continuing to add insurers to our panels. We would further like to point out that in Q4 2008 BeatThatQuote.com was the UK’s fastest growing aggregator (source: Hitwise) adding to our previous accolade for 2007 where BeatThatQuote.com was the UK’s fastest growing aggregator for that year. (Source: Nielsen Ratings). It is clear, therefore, that BeatThatQuote.com is outperforming every other UK aggregator
@Steve, thanks for the completely unprompted sales pitch!!
I’d like to clarify for the readers of this blog that I can’t see how anybody can take you seriously when you claim to be out performing all of the UK aggregators! If I set up a random site tomorrow and get 1 quote, and then 4 the next month, will that mean my 400% increase in qualified traffic is out performing all other UK aggregators??
Trust me, BTQ are no way near the same league at GC, CTM, MS and Confused.
On this basis, I suspect BTQ are struggling too. They’ve always been known for their aggressive sales approach and their reputation in the industry is not great. I can’t see that changing very soon. Perhaps some waste bits from the Insurancewide fall out can be picked up but that’s the best BTQ can hope for IMHO.
@ Ernest
Well, it was in response to comments above about the possibility of us badging the system of another aggregator, so I don’t think it was by any means unprompted! (I’ve been a long time reader of the blog, but first time I’ve made a comment)
In hindsight, yes, it was a little stilted in tone, but I wasn’t claiming we were bigger than the four sites you cite, what I was pointing out is that we are still growing (witness our latest White Label partnership with Daily Mail) and our plans are to continue in this vein. The “struggling too” aspect does not apply to us.
What, however, do you mean by “… reputation in the industry is not great”? In what sectors and in what way? That’s certainly not the feedback I get from our panel – we speak regularly and have very good working relationships, but maybe you know better?!
Ernest, I think that I can speak for many in this industry in saying that it was a great sadness to receive James Harrison’s press statement. I had lunch with him on Friday and he seemed to be up-beat despite the great frustration and disappointment that he feels in winning his appeal against HMRC and yet not getting any of his costs back!
Despite being in competition with James over the last 9 years, this feels like the loss of a friend and I do very much wish him well.
By the way, our insurance comparison site launches very soon and yet again your “insiders view” is more short sighted than any out sider. Do you ever use google?
I thought i better just jump in and clarify the Quotezone.co.uk position too!
We are continuing to expand quite raidly in terms of panel size (we have more than 15 additional brands due to launch shortly on car insurance alone) , product offering (we have a number of new comparison systems in development) , and quote volume (we have seen our quote volumes on car insurance more than double within the last 12 months) . I believe we are somewhere around the position 6 mark in terms of car traffic volume at present.
Whilst there have undoubtedly been some casualties in what has become an increasingly competitive aggregator market, I dont think its time to call it a 5 horse race just yet!
On a related note, Im sure with James’ considerable business expertise he will be able to put this set back behind him and I wish him the very best in his next venture.
@Mason:
Despite being in competition with James over the last 9 years, this feels like the loss of a friend and I do very much wish him well.
The loss of a friend?! Sounds very terminal Richard?! As @Greg Wilson has alluded, I suspect you’ll be seeing more of James Harrison if his contacts and expertise are anything to go by. But, it is still a massive shame to see Insurancewide go to the wall at the hands of HMRC. They were one of the first and probably one of the best for the white label market even if they didn’t crack into the top league.
By the way, our insurance comparison site launches very soon and yet again your “insiders view” is more short sighted than any out sider.
…or we simply regard “talk” of a Money Extra insurance comparison tool as being of little substance? ;o) We’ve heard talk of Money Extra building a combined personal finance tool for customers for about 4 or 5 years now, and we’ve “seen” nothing. So you’ll have to forgive us if we don’t comment on more “talk” about future releases until they are exactly that …released.
We’ll be more than happy to review whatever Money Extra release to the public. But be sure to tell us if an early releases are still in Beta or if you don’t quite consider it to be the polished article – so that we can give it a fair review.
@Greg Wilson,
Many thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment Greg. And congratulations on your recent successes. I’ve not looked at your panel recently but brands are one thing, having the right insurers to cover as many risks as possible is another. Let’s hope you’re on the right road.
Even if breaking into the top 6 seems like an impossible task, I wasn’t insinuating that everyone else should pack up and go home. I’m sure you’ve managed to position Quotezone into a health and attractive position – perhaps for investors, which is probably what it would take to push into the big league. Or you could consider white label partnerships to add to your current traffic levels.
How are you aiming to achieve growth and catch up with the big boys in the playground if you don’t mind me asking?
@Ernest
I agree with you regarding brands and insurers – these new additions to our panel will give us increased coverage in both.
We actually do have a number of whitelabel partnerships at present, but we also have a number of other marketing initiatives in the pipeline.
We’ve recently expanded our staff levels particularly in our marketing department and as a result, you should see a lot more of Quotezone in the coming months.