If you’re a student in Germany, chances are you live in a WG – a Wohngemeinschaft or ‘living community’; a shared apartment, in other words. Searching for either new roommates or a new place to live is big business and ImmobilienScout24, the country’s largest online real estate platform, is belatedly adapting its WG portal NokNok to better work on mobile devices.
NokNok has been relaunched with the ability to adapt to any display, be it smartphone or tablet; automatically adjusting thanks to ‘responsive Web design.’ The site has also incorporated other new designs and features.
There are some 2.4 million students currently enrolled in towns and cities across Germany – and most of them are the perfect type of potential user; young and tech savvy. It also means the battle for a spot in a good WG can be extremely competitive. Time is of the essence, and that makes mobile an essential platform for students to stay on top of things as they can see what’s on offer and respond straight away.
The NokNok mobile website is a nice clean design which is undoubtedly easier to use than it was previously, although a dedicated app would also be beneficial. The targeted search has been refined and searchers can now see other suitable offerings from the ImmobilienScout24 database on the search map. Those offering accommodation can now also search online for suitable candidates.
Finding the right match of WG and roommate can be difficult, and so NokNok enables direct Facebook integration to both sides can get a better idea of whether they are a good fit than on other WG search platforms.
NokNok (not to be confused with the similarly-monikered Silicon Valley startup in the news recently) has been developed by a team from YOU IS NOW, ImmobilienScout24’s startup incubator. Co-founder Carsten Wagner said: “Finally, our customers can search for offers while in the classroom or on the tram, and so can always stay up to date.”
The most powerful took at NokNok’s disposal is surely the ImmobilienScout24 database (9 million users and more than 1.5 million different offers each month) but the startup is definitely onto something by giving students an edge in the WG search battleground. True, the site was accessible on mobile beforehand, but building a better UX should help encourage users to access it on the go.
Competition exists in the form of other letting platforms such as Studenten-WG.de, WG-Gesucht.de and immonet and the race is on to see who will be the first one to nail mobile.
