# Zillow **Source:** https://geo.sig.ai/brands/zillow **Vertical:** Real Estate & Property Tech **Subcategory:** Real Estate Marketplace **Tier:** Leader **Website:** zillow.com **Last Updated:** 2026-04-14 ## Summary NASDAQ: Z largest US real estate marketplace with 204M monthly users and Zestimate AI valuations at $2.2B revenue; Premier Agent program and Zillow Home Loans competing with Realtor.com and Redfin for real estate transaction share. ## Company Overview Zillow Group is a Seattle-based real estate technology company — listed on NASDAQ (NASDAQ: Z and ZG) — operating the largest US real estate marketplace with 204 million monthly unique users browsing 160+ million US property listings, home valuations (the proprietary Zestimate AI algorithm), rental listings, and mortgage services, generating $2.2 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2024 through its Premier Agent program (paying real estate agents for lead referrals from buyers and sellers searching on Zillow), Zillow Home Loans (mortgage origination), and rental marketplace revenue. Founded in 2006 by Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink (former Microsoft and Expedia executives), Zillow created the consumer real estate search category with the Zestimate home valuation tool that gave homeowners and buyers unprecedented access to estimated market values outside of broker relationships. Zillow's three-sided marketplace connects buyers/sellers, real estate agents, and mortgage lenders in interconnected transaction flows: buyers search Zillow for homes and can request connections to Zillow Premier Agents (agents who pay for lead delivery); sellers list properties and receive Zestimate valuations that set initial expectations; and buyers who connect with Zillow mortgage brokers can get pre-approved within Zillow's flow — keeping the transaction within Zillow's conversion funnel. The Zestimate algorithm (machine learning on 120 million homes using tax records, listing history, comparable sales, square footage, beds/baths, and neighborhood data) updates valuations daily, creating the consumer engagement that drives repeat visits for homeowners tracking their home value. Zillow's 2021 exit from iBuying (Zillow Offers, shuttered after $540M loss from algorithmic mispricing) refocused the company on the marketplace model. In 2025, Zillow Group (NASDAQ: Z) competes in the real estate marketplace, mortgage origination, and rental listing market with Realtor.com (News Corp subsidiary, NASDAQ: NWS), Redfin (now owned by Rocket Companies, NASDAQ: RKT), and CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP, entering residential real estate via Homes.com) for digital real estate audience and Premier Agent revenue. The US housing market has been constrained by interest rate sensitivity — high mortgage rates (6-7%+ throughout 2024) reduced existing home sales volume significantly, impacting Zillow's Premier Agent revenue. Zillow's 2025 enhanced real estate value proposition focus (the 'super app' that combines search, mortgage, and agent connection) reflects the strategy to capture more transaction value per sale when volume recovers. The 2025 strategy focuses on growing Zillow Home Loans origination share within Zillow-originated leads, expanding the rental marketplace (apartments.com-adjacent growth), and building ShowingTime+ tools that integrate showing scheduling and agent management. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Zillow? Zillow Zillow serves homebuyers as real estate marketplace and Zestimate platform, NASDAQ $12B valuation, following 2006 Rich Barton founding with Lloyd Frink in Seattle ### When was Zillow founded? Zillow was founded in 2006 in Seattle, Washington. Rich Barton (Expedia, Glassdoor founder) and Lloyd Frink founded Zillow in Seattle in 2006 with Zestimate algorithm bringing transparency to home values, built real estate marketplace reaching NASDAQ $12B. ### What are Zillow's major milestones? Zillow's history includes several key milestones: 2006: Zillow Founded Seattle 2011: IPO NASDAQ:Z 2015: Acquired Trulia 2024: Real Estate Marketplace $12B ### What is Zillow's mission? Zillow's mission is to Build tools to empower people in real estate transactions. ### Who founded Zillow? Zillow was founded by Rich Barton. Expedia founders who brought transparency to real estate market ### What products or services does Zillow offer? Zillow Zillow serves homebuyers as real estate marketplace and Zestimate platform, NASDAQ $12B valuation, following 2006 Rich Barton founding with Lloyd Frink in Seattle ### Who uses Zillow? Zillow Zillow serves homebuyers as real estate marketplace and Zestimate platform, NASDAQ $12B valuation, following 2006 Rich Barton founding with Lloyd Frink in Seattle ### What happened to Zillow's iBuying business and why did it fail? Zillow Offers — Zillow's direct homebuying (iBuying) business launched in 2018 to compete with Opendoor and Offerpad — was shut down in November 2021 after Zillow disclosed it had purchased homes at prices significantly above market value due to flaws in its algorithmic pricing model, accumulating a portfolio of homes it would need to sell at significant losses. The exit from iBuying resulted in a $530+ million inventory write-down, approximately 2,000 employee layoffs (25% of the workforce), and a fundamental strategic retreat from direct real estate transactions back to Zillow's marketplace and Premier Agent lead generation model. The Zillow Offers failure was a cautionary tale about the difficulty of real estate price prediction at scale and the operational complexity of managing physical home inventory through rapid market cycles. ## Tags b2c, marketplace, north-america, platform, proptech, public, saas --- *Data from geo.sig.ai Brand Intelligence Database. Updated 2026-04-14.*