With every latest product coming into the market, the consumers grab the power of choice. The right to information and the freedom to choose are the two main goals every company wants to provide. And, this idea to make people aware of information led to the establishment of Zillow. Founder of Expedia, Richard Barton and the Former Senior Vice President of Expedia, Lloyd Frink developed Zillow. Zillow is an American online real estate company established in Seattle, Washington. It is mainly a database company that generates its revenue by selling advertising on its website. The idea of Zillow and how it came up is really interesting.
About the Founders
Richard Barton is one of the most famous American entrepreneurs. Apart from Expedia, he is mainly known as the founder of Expedia and Glassdoor. Lloyd Frink acquired a degree in economics from Stanford University. He started his career life from working at Microsoft as a Group Program Manager. He worked there for twenty-five years. In 1996, he joined Expedia as SVP and left the company in 2004. After he left the company, a lot of ideas popped up in Richard’s and Lloyd’s mind for the next start-up.
The Next Idea
The thought of building a new business came up when IAC acquired Expedia in 2003. They could have easily started working for some MNCs. But, for them and especially Frink starting a new start-up would have been far more exciting and challenging.
The first idea that came into their mind was what we call today’s cloud storage. A space to store high-resolution photos and it resembled Dropbox. But, they dropped the idea soon. Because they figured out after a point of time companies like Microsoft and Google would provide it for free.
Finally, they came up with Zillow when they needed some market-related information and won’t able to fetch it. Lloyd and Barton thought of creating a database containing such information. That’s why they founded Zillow.
The Hard Work
After Expedia, it was their second start-up. The founders admit that the journey wasn’t a bed of roses but they were certainly relaxed about it. After they were finally decided what to go for, they started doing thorough research and studies.
The idea of opening a website bothered them a little bit. It happened because they did not have enough expertise in the area of brokerage and real estate. But, they figured out opening a website and then learning to connect with people will be more effective. So, they launched the website in early 2006.
Withstanding Recession
It’s really hard for a start-up to be in the game when the global financial crisis hits after a couple of years of establishment. Still, Zillow managed to survive the big catastrophe. When the recession hit the market, Zillow already had 3-4 million users every month. Around 150 employees working at Zillow at that period.
So, at this moment they just needed to take a big decision and kind of sacrifice. They declared the layoff of one-third of the company. It was a hard decision to make but the team stood together and came out of it stronger. Lloyd also mentioned they were kind of in a bad situation due to their fault. The reason he showed was they just hired too many people too soon.
But, today Zillow has emerged out as a company making billions over a year. The company has made a lot of acquisitions since 2011.
Acquisitions
Zillow started off the list with Postlets in April 2011. In December 2011, Zillow acquired Diverse Solutions which was followed by RentJuice in May 2012. The company also acquired Buyfolio, Lincoln, and HotPads in this year. One of the biggest acquisitions of the company was in 2015 when it acquired Dotloop for $108 million.
Zestimate
Zestimate is one of the most interesting products of Zillow. The product mainly determines the value of a home in a neighborhood considering all the available information. So, the value might vary from place to place depending on the kind of information available.
In 2011, the replacement of Zestimate’s calculated algorithm took place. It estimates the values of over a million houses in the country.
Success of Zillow
Instead of many controversial remarks from Wall Street and other lawsuits, Zillow has become successful. According to the statistics of 2016, Zillow served around 140 million active monthly users.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more