I’m not a fan of Angie’s List or HomeAdvisor; as a DIYer, I’m cheap and I like to work with my hands. But the fact is, I don’t have time to do all of my home repairs myself, asserts Ben Shepherd, contributing editor to Personal Wealth Advisor.
ANGI Homeservices (ANGI) owns Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor and, thanks to a recent acquisition, Handy. All of those services are geared towards connecting collecting reviews on tradespeople and making them available to folks that need, well, tradespeople.
ANGI is controlled by InterActive Corp. (IAC), which also happens to own Tinder, Investopedia and the Major League Baseball team the Braves, and has an 83% controlling interest in the company.
InterActive saw a niche and merged the formerly freestanding Angie’s List with its own HomeAdvisor in 2017, creating a powerhouse in the online services brand.
That acquisition has been successful, especially since finding a tradesperson isn’t quite as easy as just picking up the Yellow Pages anymore. That difficulty has driven better than 19% revenue over the past few years as more homeowners have turned to smartphone apps to find the plumbers and electricians they need.
And it’s not just apps. You can also find service professionals through ANGI on the web, on apps, through phone services — through 12 different platforms. It has made itself the go-to service when you’re looking for a trade professional.
Granted, that takes a lot of advertising, since the platform itself has to keep its name in front of folks. But that cost is mostly offset by the fact that any pro booked through its platform pays a booking fee.
On top of that, the pros essentially buy a subscription to appear on the platform to begin with. So, the more folks that book their pros through any of ANGI’s platforms drive up overall revenues.
And more folks will be booking the pros at ANGI Homeservices. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are fewer and fewer people entering the trades, to the point that there’s a shortage of tradespeople developing.
That would seem to be a negative for ANGI, but those new people striking out on their own, with their own businesses, need to build up a clientele, and ANGI offers them an easy way to do that. ANGI represents the perfect middleman, connecting consumers with the providers of services they need.
