Auto Trader Group plc, commonly known as Auto Trader, is a British automotive

online marketplace An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a wa ...

and

classified advertising Classified advertising is a form of advertising, particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals, which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Classified advertisements are much cheaper than larger display advertisements use ...

business. Auto Trader is listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

trading under the ticker symbol AUTO, and is a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

History

Early history: twentieth century

Auto Trader was founded by John Madejski, Paul Gibbons and Peter Taylor as ''Thames Valley Trader'' in 1977. It was rebranded Auto Trader in 1988. The first title was followed by the publication of a second one, ''Southern Auto Trader''. The company launched a website, Autotrader.co.uk, in 1996, giving people the ability to buy or sell a car online. British international investment firm

BC Partners BC Partners LLP is a British international investment firm with over $40 billion of assets under management across private equity, credit and real estate in Europe and North America. Its global headquarters are in London. The firm invests across ...

bought a stake in the business from John Madejski in July 1998 for £260m; then

Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'', and formerly ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the fin ...

, who had acquired Automart in 1982, merged that business with Hurst Publishing in May 2000 so creating Trader Media.

21st century and evolution to digital only

Auto Trader launched a mobile website in 2002, initially using the WAP protocol. In July 2008, Auto Trader launched a .mobi site, and in July 2009, separate versions for differing handset capability levels were released. Auto Trader developed its mobile offering further from March 2010, releasing

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

enabling users to search for vehicles on

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, Android and

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA). Designed to be the portable equivalent of the Windows desktop OS in the emerging Mobile device, mobile/port ...

devices using

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

features. In April 2011 a group called the Motor Traders Advertising Union launched an online petition and proposed a mass pull out by auto dealers who objected to an increase in the fee for a dealership to advertise a car, from £7 to £8.50, before any discounts for bulk advertisers. Sales of the print magazine dwindled in line with the decline of the print industry. By July 2012, circulation had dropped to an average of 87,000 copies a week and down to 27,000 in March 2013. In June 2013, after thirty six years, the final editions of the printed magazine were published, with the company concentrating on its online business. In October 2013, '' AutoTrader.co.za'' (Auto Trader South Africa) a subsidiary of the Auto Trader Group, was sold off to become an independent South African company. In January 2014,

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of March 2024, the firm had raised and adv ...

bought the business from Guardian Media Group for £600m. In March 2014, the company rebranded, and became known as Auto Trader, and in March 2015, Auto Trader Group launched an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

, with a market capitalisation of about £2bn and floated on the London Stock Exchange on the FTSE250. In 2020 it was reported that Auto Trader had created a

data lake A data lake is a system or data repository, repository of data stored in its natural/raw format, usually object binary large object, blobs or files. A data lake is usually a single store of data including raw copies of source system data, sensor ...

and intelligence platform using services including

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...

and Google's Looker, and was working to foster a ‘culture of data’ internally by setting up a data academy for employees. Auto Trader granted four months of free advertising to its retailer customers to support them during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2022, Auto Trader began a partnership with the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

sharing its used car pricing data to power its official measures of inflation, including the Consumer Prices Index. Also in 2022, Auto Trader acquired Autorama, owner of Vanarama, one of the UK’s largest transactional marketplaces for leasing new vehicles.

Acquisitions

Marketplace and products

Online marketplace

At the core of Auto Trader is its online marketplace, where consumers buy and sell cars and other vehicles, and where car dealerships advertise and sell their stock, both new and used, to consumers. Retailers pay to advertise vehicles, and consumers also pay a fee unless the transaction is less than £1,000.

AutoTrader.co.uk website

The Auto Trader website was ranked first in the UK in the vehicles category by Similarweb and Eighth globally in January 2024.

Mobile app

As of February 2024, Auto Trader's mobile app had ratings of 4.8/5 on the

Apple App Store The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be download ...

and 4.2/5 on

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

YouTube channel

Auto Trader operates a

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel where it publishes videos such as car reviews, car comparisons, drag races, and buying guides.

Television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people ...

and automotive

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Rory Reid joined Auto Trader as YouTube Director in December 2019, and fronts the videos on the channel.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Mass media companies established in 1977 British companies established in 1977 Automotive websites Automotive companies of the United Kingdom Online marketplaces of the United Kingdom Online automotive companies Used car market Automobile magazines published in the United Kingdom Online magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1977 Magazines disestablished in 2013 Mass media companies of England Online magazines with defunct print editions Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies in the FTSE 100 Index Apax Partners companies