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Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Finance and insurance |
Founded | 2006 |
Headquarters | Peterborough London United Kingdom |
Key people | Mark Bailie (CEO) |
Parent | BGL Group |
Website | www |
Comparethemarket is a UK price comparison website, founded in 2006, that is part of the BGL Group. The website also offers other on-line companies the ability to provide their customers with a co-branded or white labelled comparison service. [1]
In 2009, the company launched an advertising campaign featuring a series of meerkat characters, after which it became one of the "Big Four" price comparison website in the UK. [2]
The website was set up by Budget Group (now BGL Group) in early 2006, [3] following a decision to sell its high street business to Swinton. [4]
In 2012, Comparethemarket.com.au launched its comparison service in Australia. The Australian company's television advertisements also feature the meerkat characters Aleksandr Orlov and his Head of IT, Sergei. However, these ads differ from the UK's, with one such storyline revealing the meerkats have purchased comparethemarket.com.au.
In September 2017, it was announced the company was under investigation by the competition regulator surrounding allegations regarding most favoured nation clauses with home insurance providers. [5] [6] [7]
Comparethemarket allows customers to compare prices on a number of insurance products including car, home, van, life, pet, travel and over 50s insurance. It has also expanded in to the comparison of items that can be switched such as energy/utilities, broadband and digital TV, as well as a range of financial products such as loans, credit cards, current accounts and mortgages.
On 5 January 2009, the company launched an advertising campaign featuring a CGI meerkat character named "Aleksandr Orlov" [8] who pleads with viewers looking for cheap car insurance to stop confusing his meerkat comparison website comparethemeerkat.com with comparethemarket.com, due to the similarity between the words meerkat and market. As part of the campaign, Comparethemeerkat.com was created which does indeed allow visitors to compare meerkats. [9]
On 26 November 2012, the website started sponsoring the long-running soap opera Coronation Street on ITV in a three-year deal, costing around £30 million. [10]
In December 2012 another advert was launched this time featuring Maurice Wigglethorpe-Throom (played by Robert Webb) the founder of Compare the Market and his assistant Spencer who find out about Aleksandr (who makes a cameo appearance in a photograph) and Compare the Meerkat. [11]
In 2018, the BBC reported that the CMA found “most favoured nation” clauses in Comparethemarket's contracts with insurance companies which effectively banned them from selling their home insurance at cheaper prices on rival websites. [12] The CMA chief executive, Andrea Coscelli, said: “Our investigation has provisionally found that Comparethemarket has broken the law by preventing home insurers from offering lower prices elsewhere. This could result in people paying higher premiums than they need to.” In November 2020 Comparethemarket was fined £17.9 million by the Competition and Markets Authority for breaking competition law as a result of their investigations. [13] [14]
RSA Insurance Group Limited is a British multinational general insurance company headquartered in London, England. RSA has major operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia & Canada. It provides insurance products and services in more than 100 countries through a network of local partners. It has 9 million customers. RSA was formed by the merger of Sun Alliance and Royal Insurance in 1996.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic regulator. The intention was for the OFT to make markets work well for consumers, ensuring vigorous competition between fair-dealing businesses and prohibiting unfair practices such as rogue trading, scams, and cartels. Its role was modified and its powers changed by the Enterprise Act 2002.
Admiral Group plc is a British financial services company headquartered in Cardiff, Wales. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, and markets the Admiral, Bell, Elephant, Diamond and Veygo insurance brands, as well as launching the price comparison services Confused.com and Compare.com. The group employs more than 10,000 people across its brands.
Moneysupermarket.com Group plc is a British price comparison website-based business specialising in financial services. The website enables consumers to compare prices on a range of products, including energy, car insurance, home insurance, travel insurance, mortgages, credit cards and loans. The company's subsidiaries include the Travel Supermarket and Moneysavingexpert websites. Moneysupermarket Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Simon James Greenall is an English actor, presenter and voice over artist. Among his television appearances are as the Caretaker on Trapped!, Richard in Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, and as Michael the Geordie in the Alan Partridge programs and films. He also voices Captain Barnacles in the Octonauts franchise, the twins in the Shaun the Sheep films, and Aleksandr Orlov and Sergei the meerkats in the comparethemarket.com adverts.
Bennetts is a specialist insurance broker for motorcycles headquartered in Peterborough, with a contact centre in Coventry, owned by Lucida Group since May 2021.
BGL Group is a financial services company based in Orton Southgate, Peterborough, England. Its main lines of business are vehicle and home insurance, with a range of supplementary products such as breakdown cover, legal protection and personal accident cover.
Confused.com is a UK based financial services comparison platform launched in 2001 and specialising in comparison of insurance and financial services, including car insurance, home insurance, energy, van insurance and life insurance. Confused.com's platform includes a website and app.
BeatThatQuote.com was a British price comparison site specializing in personal finance products. The site was disabled in 2013 after being acquired by Google.
Uswitch Limited is a UK-based price comparison service and switching website founded in 2000. Users can conveniently compare prices across various sectors of energy, personal finance, insurance, and communications
Moneyfacts Group Plc is a financial information company founded in 1988 based in Norwich in the United Kingdom, employing over 80 people.
Compare the Meerkat is an advertising campaign on British and Australian commercial television for comparethemarket.com, a price comparison website, part of BGL Group. The adverts feature Aleksandr Orlov, an animated anthropomorphic Russian meerkat, and his family and friends. Orlov is portrayed as being of aristocratic stock and the founder of comparethemeerkat.com: the campaign originally centred on his frustration over the confusion between his website and comparethemarket.com, playing on the similarity between the words market and meerkat. Orlov's catchphrase is "Simples".
GoCompare.com Limited, trading as Go.Compare is a Welsh financial services comparison company based in Newport, Wales. Its website provides comparison details for financial products including car insurance, home and pet insurance and breakdown cover. Since 2021 it has been owned by Future plc. The company's advertising campaign in 2015 was voted as the "most irritating advertisement."
Darren Walsh is a British director, writer, animator and voice artist. He uses stop-frame animation, live-action, and CG in his work. He lives in London and is represented by production company Passion Pictures, having worked previously independently and for Aardman Animations.
Direct Line Insurance Group plc is a British insurance company based in the United Kingdom, formed in 2012 by the divestment of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group's (RBS) insurance division, through an initial public offering. The company owns a number of insurance subsidiaries, providing various insurance products, including Direct Line and Churchill, Darwin as well as the roadside assistance and vehicle recovery provider Green Flag.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the principal competition regulator in the United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-competitive activities. The CMA launched in shadow form on 1 October 2013 and began operating fully on 1 April 2014, when it assumed many of the functions of the previously existing Competition Commission and Office of Fair Trading, which were abolished. The CMA also has consumer protection responsibilities and will also be taking on new digital markets regulation responsibilities in late 2024 under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
Compare.com is a comparison shopping website for intangible products, most notably car insurance, with headquarters in Richmond, VA. Compare.com was owned by its founding investor, Admiral Group plc, owner of the United Kingdom's first car insurance comparison site.
Comparethemarket.com.au is an Australian price comparison website operated by Compare the Market Pty Ltd, part of Innovation Holdings Australia Pty Ltd and BHL Holdings Limited. It offers a service for customers to compare a range of general insurance, health insurance, life insurance, energy and personal finance products.
Douw Gerbrand Steyn, is a South African billionaire businessman, the founder of BGL Group, a UK-based insurance and financial services company, and the parent of Comparethemarket.com. Steyn has links to South African politics, having housed former South African president Nelson Mandela at the Saxon Hotel, Villas & Spa.
Meerkats have been subject to numerous cultural depictions, and have featured in television programmes, films, books, and other media.
The four price comparison websites with the greatest market share. They are moneysupermarket.com, gocompare.com, comparethemarket.com and confused.com.