A fourth quarter surge in revenue hasn’t stopped US listings platform Zillow from posting a calendar year loss of US$158 million in 2023.
According to the Zillow’s consolidated financial results for the year ended December 31, 2023, the group has a good final quarter for the year but it failed to completely offset earlier struggles.
According to the figures, fourth quarter revenue was up 9 per cent year-on-year to US$474 million and above the company’s outlook range by $31 million.
But that didn’t stop full-year revenue dropping 1 per cent to $1.9 billion.
Residential revenue climbed 3 per cent year-on-year in Q4 to US$349 million, while rentals revenue jumped 37 per cent, year-on-year, to $93 million, primarily driven by multifamily revenue rising 52 per cent in the last three months of 2023.
Mortgages revenue also rose 22 per cent, year-on-year to $22 million.
But that didn’t stop Zillow posting a $73 million net loss in the fourth quarter, with that figure increasing to $158 million for the 2023 year.
Yet Zillow Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Rich Barton remains optimistic.
“We reported great revenue numbers across the whole of our increasingly diversified and growing business,” he said.
“This is evidence of the progress we’re making to transform the way people buy, sell, finance and rent homes by continually adding more functionality, software and services to Zillow’s housing super app.
“Our progress in crafting an integrated customer experience in our early markets has given us the confidence to press on the accelerator and expand this experience to more markets in 2024.
“We have the leading real estate audience and a brand that is a household name, and we have barely scratched the surface on a real estate market with $2 trillion of total transaction value.”
Looking forward, according to Zillow’s Shareholder Letter, the group is investing across five for-sale growth pillars: touring, financing, seller solutions, enhancing our partner network, and integrating our services.
The group has also added rentals as an additional growth pillar this quarter.
“These growth pillars serve as a roadmap to achieve our goals to grow customer transaction share from 3 per cent to 6 per cent by the end of 2025 and grow our revenue alongside that transaction share growth,” Mr Barton said in the letter.
