Zillow Group, or simply Zillow, is an online real estate database company that was founded in 2006[3] and created by Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, former Microsoft executives and founders of Microsoft spin-off Expedia. Spencer Rascoff is the current CEO of Zillow, Inc.[1]
Business model
Zillow has stated that it is a media company that generates revenue by selling advertising on its web site. In April 2009, Zillow announced a partnership to lend its real estate search engine to the web sites of more than 180 United States newspapers as a part of the Zillow Newspaper Consortium. Zillow shares advertising revenue from the co-branded sites with the newspapers and extends its reach into local markets.[4]
In February 2011, Zillow and Yahoo! Real Estate launched an exclusive partnership creating the largest real-estate advertising network on the web, according to comScore Media Metrix.[5]
Acquisitions
- In April 2011 Zillow acquired Postlets, an online real estate listing creation and distribution platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed publicly.[6]
- In November 2011, Zillow acquired Diverse Solutions for $7.8 million.[7]
- In May 2012, Zillow acquired RentJuice, a software-as-a-service company which allows landlords and property managers to market and lease their rental properties through a set of online tools. RentJuice was acquired for $40 million.[8]
- On October 31, 2012, Zillow acquired the real estate shopping and collaboration platform, Buyfolio.[9]
- Zillow acquired Lincoln, NE based mortgage technology company Mortech for $17 million on November 5, 2012.[10]
- On November 26, 2012, Zillow acquired HotPads for $16 million. HotPads, founded in 2005, lists real estate and rental listings on a map-based web interface.[11]
- On August 19, 2013, Zillow acquired StreetEasy for $50 million.[12]
- On July 16, 2014, Zillow acquired Retsly, a Vancouver, B.C.-based startup that helps developers access real-estate data from multiple listing services (MLS).[13]
- On July 28, 2014, Zillow announced a deal to buy Trulia for $3.5 billion.[1][14]
- On July 22, 2015, Zillow announced it would acquire Dotloop for $108 million.[15]
- On January 3, 2016, Zillow announced it would acquire Naked Apartments for $13 million.[16]
Website features
Zillow has data on 110 million homes across the United States, not just those homes currently for sale.[17] In addition to giving value estimates of homes, it offers several features including value changes of each home in a given time frame (such as one, five, or 10 years), aerial views of homes, and prices of comparable homes in the area. Where it can access appropriate public data, it also provides basic information on a given home, such as square footage and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Users can also get current estimates of homes if there was a significant change made, such as a recently remodeled kitchen. Zillow provides an application programming interface (API) and developer support network.[18][19][20]
In December 2006, Zillow launched three new pieces of functionality: allowing users to post homes for sale and set a “Make Me Move” price (an informal way to pre-market a home), as well as a real estate wiki. In 2006, Zillow teamed with Microsoft to offer Bird’s Eye View, a feature in Microsoft Virtual Earth, that shows (in certain areas) clearer aerial photographs taken from airplanes rather than conventional satellite imagery.[21] Zillow uses this functionality for entertainment-focused features on famous homes.[22]
In December 2009, Zillow expanded its services to include the rental market.[23] The addition of rental listings enabled users to list a home for rent and search for both rental homes and homes for sale.
In late 2013, Zillow began powering AOL Real Estate. In July 2014, Zillow also took over the real estate portal for MSN Real Estate.[24]
Zillow Mortgage Marketplace
On April 3, 2008, Zillow launched a service called Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. This service allows for borrowers to get custom loan quotes without revealing personally identifying information.[25][26]
Zillow Mobile
Zillow Mobile apps allow users to view nearby homes based on the user’s location.
- April 29, 2009 – iPhone application
- March 18, 2010 – Android application
- April 2, 2010 – iPad application
- March 31, 2011 – Blackberry application
- July 13, 2012 – Windows Phone application [27]
- November 27, 2013 – Windows 8.1 application
- November 2015 – Apple TV application
Zillow Advice
On December 16, 2008, Zillow launched Zillow Advice, allowing people to ask real estate questions online and get answers from the Web site’s community of experts.[28]
Real estate market reports
Zillow produces home value reports for the nation and over 130 metropolitan statistical areas. The reports identify market trends including, but not limited to: five and 10-year annualized change, negative equity,[29][not in citation given] short sales and foreclosure transactions.
Zillow also releases a Homeowner Confidence Survey.[30] The survey is conducted by Harris Interactive and measures homeowners’ perceptions about home value changes of their own home and the local market.
Report for the Bellingam area
On August 26, 2016 the Bellingham Herald published housing prices and rental statistics obtained from Zillow[31] which said that these statistics conflicted with those obtained from the Housing Finance Agency.[32]
Neighborhood Boundary Maps (GIS Data)
The Zillow data team has created a database of nearly 7,000 neighborhood boundaries in the largest cities in the U.S. and made them available via Creative Commons Attribute-Sharealike license.[citation needed]
