Zillow

Zillow Group, Inc. (also used by Zillow ) is an American real estate services company. The company was founded in 2006 by Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink , former Microsoft executives and founders of Microsoft subsidiary Expedia .

Currently, Barton is the CEO of Zillow.

History

Barton was inspired to create Zillow while working at Microsoft. That's when he realized the real estate industry was going to change. Zillow was incorporated in December 2004, and the Zillow website launched in February 2006. In 2010, Spencer Rascoff was appointed CEO of the company. Barton remained executive chairman. In April 2018, Zillow entered the on-demand home buying market with Zillow Offers.

In 2018, Zillow signed a partnership with Century 21 Canada to begin listing Canadian properties on the site.

In February 2020, Zillow shares rose 18% after a four-year decline. In March of that year, Zillow's CEO announced a 25% cost cut and a hiring freeze due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2021, Zillow announced plans to increase its workforce by 40%, hiring more than 2,000 employees nationwide by the end of 2021.

Zillow began buying houses in 2018-2019 with the goal of becoming a market maker. In November 2021, Zillow CEO Rich Barton announced that the company would close the e-shopping portion of its business, sell existing inventory, and lay off 25% of its employees. When Barton announced the company would stop buying homes, Zillow had about 7,000 homes. Zillow's Offers division, which is responsible for purchasing and selling homes, caused the company to lose $420 million in the third quarter of 2021.