Zillow

About

Zillow is a real estate and rental database application that connects renters and buyers with realtors, landlords and brokers.

History

In December 2004, Rich Barton founded Zillow.^[1][2] It launched its website roughly a year and a half later in February 2006.

Features

According to Forbes, a key element of Zillow's success was the satellite view. They write:

As the founders tell it, Zillow’s future changed dramatically during a weekend email exchange among colleagues. One participant noted that Google Maps’ satellite view, launched just months earlier, gave a unique, bird’s-eye view of every neighborhood in America. Another wondered if they could put a price on every rooftop they saw.

This was a major advancement for the time and let users see not just the roofs of houses, but also all four sides.^[3] The site also provides basic information about the house, such as square footage, the number of rooms and renovations.

The website access public data on housing markets in the United States. With this data, Zillow gives buyers, sellers and renters the opportunity to see prices and filter properties by price. These prices are called the "Zestimate."

Related Memes

In 2020, references to Zillow increased significantly on TikTok, with the hashtag Zillow reaching more than 17 million views on the site. These memes tend to focus on architecture (shown below, left). Other memes reference how some people casually use the app to see the inside of another's home (example below, center).

Some videos feature people making fun of houses on Zillow. For example, on July 29th, 2020, TikToker @gabisramirezz posted a video mocking the home of YouTuber Jeffree Star. The post received more than 968,000 views, 197,000 reactions and 900 comments in less than one month (shown below, right).

On August 17th, New York Times writer Taylor Lorenz tweeted about the videos on TikTok. She wrote,^[4] "In my day we didn’t have Zillow so the only way to know what ur crush’s house looked like inside was to be invited over." In the thread, she included several examples of the trend (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/5n70nC6RQX

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) August 17, 2020

Search Interest

External References