Earlier this week, Zillow became the first company to take questions via social media during our earnings call. We were thrilled with the way this allowed us to connect with the investment community in such a transparent way.
In total, 11 people submitted 23 questions. Twenty-two came through Twitter, and one through Facebook. CEO Spencer Rascoff was able to answer nine of these during the call. You can listen to a replay of the webcast to hear those answers, but just because we ran out of time on the call doesn’t mean we can’t answer more questions. While it will never be possible to answer every question posed on social media, we’re happy to continue the conversation here on our blog.
Question by Jed Godsey, through Facebook: For the conference call: Do you see Zillow’s future as replacing/disrupting sellers traditional print-marketing efforts, or as complementing them? Will Zillow be a “one stop shop”?
Answer: In every category across the Internet, we see print marketing dollars moving online. And with 91% of home shoppers starting their search on the internet, it makes sense for agents and brokers to spend online.
Question via Twitter: @TheRECoach: RT @jburslem: $Z revenues up but posts $3.7M loss in Q1 http://t.co/X1IUKR6WAV <- What’s wrong with this math?? #Confused
Answer: Happy to explain. As you might know, we spent the latter part of 2012 testing TV advertising. We’re happy to say it works for Zillow. Combine that with the enormous brand whitespace in front of us (27% of consumers can’t even name one real estate website when asked) and we’ve decided to step on the gas here. We are already the clear category leader, but by doubling down on advertising we have a real opportunity to break away from the pack.
Thank you for your questions on the #ZEarnings call. We will do it again next quarter. See you around the web.