Online Real Estate Technology

A report from the Inman blog has advised that on line search portal Zillow.com has cut 25% of it’s staff due to the global financial crisis. In a move designed to cut it’s expenses, the company says it is gearing up in anticipation of a prolonged recession. In an earlier post I wrote about Zillow and their relationship with key newspapers in the US, here’s a link to that story: http://mikeandrewrealestate.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/real-estate-portal-in-bed-with-newspapers/

Here’s quote from Rich Barton the groups founder:

“Unprecedented economic events … have made a prolonged recession likely, in our judgment,” said Rich Barton, Zillow founder, chairman and chief executive officer, ”We are a young company that is not yet making a profit. Despite having sizable cash reserves, we deemed the responsible course was to meaningfully reduce expenses, so that Zillow emerges from the other side of the recession in a very strong position, even if the recession lasts many years.”

Inman reports, Barton said the decision to cut staff was a difficult one because although the company’s revenues do not yet cover expenses, Zillow continues to grow. The 5.4 million unique visitors to the site in September represented a 42 percent increase over the same time last year, and revenue is growing “at a rapid pace.”

According to the online metrics company Hitwise, Zillow.com was the third most popular real estate related Web site in September, with 2.52 percent share of all traffic in the category.

If you’d like to read the full article here’s the link:

http://www.inman.com/news/2008/10/17/zillow-lays-25-percent-workforce