Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG): Business Model Canvas [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking to understand how Zillow Group, Inc. is actually making money as it tries to build that elusive 'housing super app,' right? Honestly, after two decades analyzing these models, what stands out is their pivot: they're moving from just being a listing portal to owning more of the transaction, driven heavily by the Premier Agent program, which still accounts for about 70% of their revenue as of Q3 2025. With a massive 250 million unique users monthly, the potential is huge, but the execution risk in tying together search, agent leads, and Zillow Home Loans is defintely complex. Dive into the full Business Model Canvas below to see exactly where the dollars flow and where the next big bet is placed.

Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) - Canvas Business Model: Key Partnerships

You're mapping out Zillow Group, Inc.'s strategic alliances as of late 2025. These partnerships are critical for data ingestion, agent engagement, and the growth of the integrated mortgage offering.

The foundation of Zillow Group, Inc.'s listing marketplace relies heavily on data access agreements. The company secures the vast majority of its for-sale inventory data through these channels.

The Premier Agent network is the primary revenue driver from the agent segment, and its scale is substantial. For agents who opt into this model, the cost structure is now highly performance-oriented in many markets.

• The Premier Agent network involves 350,000+ real estate agents/brokers.
• The average cost per lead for agents in major metro areas is cited at $223.
• For agents in non-major metros, the average cost per lead is $139.
• Zillow Group, Inc. reported 227 million monthly unique users across its platforms in Q1 2025.

Zillow Home Loans is a core component of the Housing Super App strategy, showing significant growth in purchase activity. The partnership with financial institutions is key for funding and origination capacity.

The growth in Zillow Home Loans is directly tied to agent integration; buyers connecting with both Zillow Home Loans and a Zillow Premier Agent partner transact at an 80% higher rate versus using only a Premier Agent partner. This integration drove a 57% increase in purchase loan origination volume year-over-year in Q3 2025, resulting in total mortgage loan volume of $1.28 billion for that quarter.

In the Rentals segment, Zillow Group, Inc. is actively expanding inventory through strategic alliances. Specifically, a partnership announced in Q1 2025 with Redfin helps feed exclusive multifamily listings onto the Zillow platform. This complements the existing rental base, which stood at 1.9 million active rental listings by the end of 2024, aiming toward the estimated 140,000 total multifamily properties across the country.

For the underlying technology, Zillow Group, Inc. relies on major cloud providers. While the company's specific infrastructure contracts aren't public, the industry trend shows major players like Zillow Group, Inc. utilizing platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud. In fact, AWS and Google Cloud recently collaborated to launch a jointly engineered multicloud networking solution, which speaks to the industry-wide need for high-speed, automated connectivity between these environments.

The company's technology partners extend to third-party software providers via Zillow Tech Connect, allowing agents to integrate Zillow contacts into their preferred Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.

• The platform is integrating with technology partners to simplify the agent workflow.
• This integration allows for direct contact transfer into systems like Salesforce or Zoho via tools like Zapier.
• Newer technology integrations include AI assist chatbots powered by third-party companies like EliseAI for rental inquiries.

Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) - Canvas Business Model: Key Activities

You're looking at the core engine driving Zillow Group, Inc.'s strategy as of late 2025. It's all about integration, making sure that once a consumer lands on a property page, they stay within the Zillow ecosystem for financing and agent connection. This is the operational focus that management believes will drive them toward their long-term revenue target of $5 billion.

Developing the 'housing super app' with integrated services.

The primary activity is the continuous build-out of the housing super app. This isn't just a website; it's the container for all their services, designed to narrow the gap between their massive audience share and their transaction share. The success of this integration is measured by the growth in what they call Enhanced Markets, where the services are most fully realized.

Generating high-quality consumer leads for Premier Agents.

Zillow Group activities focus on feeding high-intent movers to their Premier Agent partners, often through premium offerings like Zillow Showcase. The Residential revenue segment, which benefits from these agent offerings, showed solid growth through the first three quarters of 2025. The company is clearly prioritizing the quality and conversion of these connections.

• Residential revenue in Q3 2025 was $435 million, marking a 7% year-over-year increase.
• Residential revenue in Q2 2025 was $434 million, a 6% year-over-year increase.
• Residential revenue in Q1 2025 was $417 million, up 6% year-over-year.

Origination and servicing of Zillow Home Loans mortgages.

This is where the integration efforts really show up financially. Zillow Home Loans adoption is a key performance indicator, especially within those high-focus Enhanced Markets. The growth in this segment has been outpacing the overall residential market growth, which is exactly what the integrated strategy intends.

The adoption rate of Zillow Home Loans within Enhanced Markets is reported as double-digit, which is a clear signal of success for the integrated approach.

Continuous refinement of the proprietary Zestimate valuation model.

The activity here involves the ongoing maintenance and enhancement of the Zestimate, which underpins the entire consumer experience, from initial search to agent connection. While the specific accuracy metrics for late 2025 aren't in the latest public reports, the model's role in driving audience engagement-which was 250 million average monthly unique users in Q3 2025-remains central to the value proposition.

Scaling Enhanced Markets to 35% of connections by year-end 2025.

This is the most concrete scaling metric for the super app strategy. Zillow Group is methodically expanding these integrated service areas. They are clearly on track to hit their year-end target, having already surpassed the halfway mark.

• Target for year-end 2025 connections: more than 35%.
• Connections in Q3 2025: 34%.
• Connections in Q2 2025: 27%.
• Connections in Q1 2025: 24%.
• Long-term goal for connections: at least 75%.

Also, note that in the Enhanced Markets experience as of Q3 2025, virtually all connections are managed through Follow Up Boss, which is key for agent workflow.

Finance: review Q4 2025 cash flow forecast against the Q3 $1.4 billion cash and investments balance by Monday.

Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) - Canvas Business Model: Key Resources

You're looking at the core assets Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) uses to run its business as of late 2025. These aren't just line items on a balance sheet; they are the engines driving market share and revenue across their integrated platform.

The sheer scale of consumer attention is the foundation. Traffic to Zillow Group's mobile apps and sites in Q3 2025 hit 250 million average monthly unique users, marking a 7% year-over-year increase. This massive audience generated 2.5 billion visits during that same quarter. Honestly, that kind of reach means Zillow Group is the primary starting point for nearly every real estate journey in the US.

The data asset is immense, covering the physical properties themselves. While the specific total count of 160 million+ homes and rental listings is a stated resource, we see concrete numbers in the rental space, with 2.5 million average monthly active rental listings reported in Q3 2025. Furthermore, the company's AI/ML capabilities are evidenced by the Zestimate's performance; the median error for on-market homes was reported around 1.9% as of mid-2025.

The integrated transaction strategy relies heavily on Zillow Home Loans. In Q3 2025, purchase loan origination volume grew 57% year-over-year to $1.3 billion, driving Mortgages revenue up 36% year-over-year to $53 million. This financial engine is supported by a strong balance sheet, with cash and investments reported at $1.4 billion at the end of Q3 2025.

The brand itself acts as a powerful resource, with an estimated 80% of U.S. residential real estate transactions involving agents who use at least one of Zillow Group's products. This ecosystem strength translates directly into financial performance, as seen by the Q3 2025 total revenue of $676 million and an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 24%.

Here are some key operational and financial metrics underpinning these resources as of Q3 2025:

The platform's reach is further detailed by segment performance:

• Rentals revenue reached $174 million in Q3 2025, a 41% year-over-year increase.
• Multifamily properties advertising across Zillow reached 69,000 at the end of Q3.
• Residential revenue was $435 million in Q3 2025.
• GAAP net income margin for Q3 2025 was 1%.

The company's ability to capture transaction value is reflected in the For Sale revenue per Total Transaction Value (TTV) metric, which stood at 10.1 basis points on a trailing 12-month basis at the end of Q3 2025.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) - Canvas Business Model: Value Propositions

You're looking at the core reasons why Zillow Group, Inc. keeps dominating the consumer mindshare in real estate, even as the market shifts. The value proposition isn't just one thing; it's a stack of integrated services designed to capture every step of the housing journey.

For Consumers: Seamless, end-to-end digital home transaction experience.

The goal is the housing super app, making the entire process simpler. This massive audience is the foundation for everything else. You see the scale in the latest traffic numbers:

• Average monthly unique users across Zillow Group's mobile apps and sites hit 250 million in Q3 2025.
• Total visits during Q3 2025 were up 4% year-over-year, reaching 2.5 billion.

For Consumers: Free, transparent home valuation via Zestimate.

This is the original disruption, giving consumers instant, transparent data. The algorithm is sharp; as of mid-2025, the Zestimate median error for on-market homes sat at approximately 1.9%. That level of precision builds trust for the initial search.

For Agents: High-intent, qualified leads via the Premier Agent program.

The Premier Agent program remains a core revenue driver, feeding agents the traffic Zillow generates. The strength of this segment is reflected in the revenue figures, showing agents are still paying for access to this audience. Here's how the 'For Sale' category performed in Q3 2025:

That's solid growth, outpacing the broader industry transaction value growth of approximately 5% in the same period.

For Landlords: Access to a rental audience of over 2.4 million active listings.

Zillow Group is aggressively building out its Rentals marketplace, which saw revenue growth of 41% year-over-year in Q3 2025, hitting $174 million for the quarter. This growth is fueled by supply, which is key for landlords. As of Q2 2025, Zillow reported a total supply of 2.4 million active rental listings.

For Agents: Integrated software tools like Follow Up Boss for lead management.

The acquisition and integration of software like Follow Up Boss (FUB) is central to keeping agents within the Zillow ecosystem and improving lead conversion. This integration is becoming mandatory for top-tier partners; for instance, FUB became required for Flex teams starting September 1, 2025. The effectiveness of this centralized workflow is clear:

• More than 90% of connections in Enhanced Markets were managed through Follow Up Boss by early Q4 2025.
• During pilot testing, messages sent via the Zillow Messages tool, exclusively available in FUB, saw reply rates increase by 6% to 20% compared to standard texts.

It's about making the work easier so agents close more deals.

Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Relationships

You're looking at how Zillow Group, Inc. manages the massive, diverse relationships across its ecosystem-from the individual home browser to the professional agent and the mortgage applicant. It's a balancing act between high-volume automation and targeted, high-touch service, all aimed at driving transactions through their integrated platform.

Automated, data-driven personalization of the app experience

The sheer scale of Zillow Group, Inc.'s audience demands automation for personalization. This relationship management is rooted in keeping users engaged on their platform, which remains the dominant destination for housing search.

The platform's ability to keep users coming back is evident in the traffic numbers:

• 250 million average monthly unique users across Zillow Group, Inc.'s mobile apps and sites in Q3 2025, marking a 7% increase year over year.
• The platform generated 2.5 billion visits in Q3 2025, which was up 4% year over year.
• For the Rentals segment specifically, Zillow saw approximately 35 million average monthly unique visitors between July 2025 and September 2025.
• The Zestimate median error for on-market homes was approximately 1.9% as of mid-2025, showing the level of data refinement driving user experience.

Dedicated B2B sales and support for Premier Agents and lenders

For Zillow Group, Inc.'s professional partners, the relationship is transactional but supported by dedicated resources to maximize their return on investment. The Premier Agent program is the core revenue driver here, and its success is tied directly to agent transaction volume.

Here's a look at the performance metrics tied to these B2B relationships as of late 2025:

The integration strategy is key here; buyers transacting through Zillow Group, Inc. who connected with both Zillow Home Loans and a Zillow Premier Agent partner closed at an 80% higher rate than those using only a Premier Agent partner in Q1 2025.

Self-service tools for landlords via Zillow Rental Manager

Landlords and property managers use Zillow Rental Manager for self-service listing, screening, and payment tools. The focus here is scaling the inventory and revenue from this segment.

The growth in the Rentals segment shows strong adoption of these tools:

• Expected full-year 2025 Rentals revenue growth is projected to be approximately 40%.
• Rentals revenue in Q2 2025 was up 36% year over year, reaching $159 million.
• Multifamily properties on the platform grew from 37,000 at the end of 2023 to 50,000 by the end of 2024.
• Multifamily revenue growth in Q2 2025 was 56% year over year.

High-touch, human-assisted service for Zillow Home Loans customers

For Zillow Home Loans customers, the relationship shifts to a more traditional, high-touch model centered around loan officers guiding applicants through financing. This is a critical component of the integrated transaction strategy.

The financial results for Q3 2025 demonstrate the success of this assisted service:

The company is making it easier for buyers to choose Zillow Home Loans, which is the main growth driver for their mortgage revenue.

Community and forum engagement for user support

Zillow Group, Inc. fosters community engagement through specialized forums, such as the New Construction Forum, which brings together builders and buyers. While specific user support metrics for general forums aren't readily available, engagement in specialized areas shows a focus on direct, topic-specific interaction.

Insights from the New Construction Forum in 2025 suggest that buyers are highly engaged digitally before engaging with sales offices:

• 82% of prospective buyers considered new construction in 2025, the highest share in years.
• 52% of prospective buyers actually prefer new construction homes.
• Showcase listings, which feature immersive media, are more likely to go pending within 14 days and sell for 2% more on average than similar non-Showcase listings.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) - Canvas Business Model: Channels

You're looking at how Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) gets its value proposition in front of customers and partners as of late 2025. The Channels block is all about the pathways they use to reach you, whether you're a home buyer, seller, or a real estate professional.

The foundation of Zillow Group, Inc.'s channel strategy remains its massive digital footprint. The primary digital channels are the Zillow mobile apps and websites. You saw traffic hit 2.6 billion visits in Q2 2025, which is a huge volume of intent flowing through their ecosystem. This digital dominance is supported by 243 million average monthly unique users during that same quarter.

For the financing side, the Zillow Home Loans direct-to-consumer mortgage channel is a key integration point. This channel saw significant growth in Q2 2025, with Mortgages revenue increasing 41% year-over-year to $48 million. The engine behind that revenue was a 48% increase in purchase loan origination volume, totaling $1.1 billion for the quarter. It's clear they are pushing this integrated financing option hard as part of their overall strategy.

The Premier Agent network is the direct link to local real estate professionals. This channel is designed to connect high-intent users with agents who pay for those connections. Zillow Group, Inc. has a goal to grow its customer transaction share to 6% by the end of 2025, up from 3% in 2023. Agents who actively use the Premier Agent service close 60% more transactions than those who don't. Back in 2022, the plan was to double the Premier Agent business by 2025, which would mean an additional $1.5 billion paid by agents. They are also focusing on an integrated experience, aiming to get 35% of customers exposed to the combined Zillow Home Loans and Premier Agent offering by the end of 2025.

ShowingTime+ is the technology layer that streamlines the physical showing process for agents and brokers. This platform is quite widespread; ShowingTime products are used by over 190+ MLSs and associations, covering more than 900,000 real estate professionals across the U.S. and Canada. However, the traffic channel itself shows market dynamics; for instance, the Showing Index for the United States in September 2025 reflected an 11.3% decrease in showing traffic compared to one year prior.

Social media and digital advertising campaigns are used to drive traffic back to the primary digital properties. While I don't have the specific 2025 spend or reach numbers right now, the strategy is clearly about using broad digital reach to feed the high-intent funnel. You can see the results of this massive digital marketing effort in the sheer volume of site visits.

Here's a quick look at some of those key Q2 2025 channel and segment performance metrics:

The company also uses specific agent-facing tools to enhance its professional channel relationships. These include:

• Zillow Premier Agent lead generation services.
• ShowingTime+ for showing and transaction management.
• Integration tools like SkyTour for enhanced home tours.
• Follow Up Boss with implemented AI features for agent support.

If you're an agent, your interaction point is often through the Premier Agent platform, which varies between the standard upfront payment model and the Flex model in enhanced markets, where payment is success-based upon closing. Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Segments

Home Buyers and Sellers (the largest segment).

Zillow Group aims to increase its customer transaction share to 6% by the end of 2025. In 2024, over 400,000 customer transactions were completed on Zillow. For March 2025, sellers put more than 375,000 homes on the market, an increase of nearly 9% compared to March 2024, while about 265,000 listings went into a pending sale. Zillow forecasts existing home sales to reach 4.09 million in 2025, representing a 0.6% increase over 2024. The average mortgage rate in March 2025 was 6.65%.

Real Estate Agents and Brokers (paying Premier Agents).

Agents who use Zillow Premier Agent close 60% more transactions on average than those who do not. In 2021, over 1.4 million buyers were connected via Premier Agent. The average cost per lead in major metro areas was reported as $223, while non-major metros saw an average cost of $139. One agent reported achieving a 4-6x return on their Zillow spend.

Renters and Landlords/Property Managers (a high-growth segment).

This segment is showing strong acceleration. Rentals revenue reached $174 million in Q3 2025, marking a 41% year-over-year growth. The number of renter households using Zillow to find homes reached a record-high of 46 million in 2025. The total supply of active rental listings reached 2.4 million in Q2 2025. The count of multifamily properties on the platform hit 64k at the end of Q2 2025, a 45% year-over-year increase.

Mortgage Seekers (for purchase and refinance loans).

Mortgages revenue increased 36% year-over-year to $53 million in Q3 2025. This was primarily driven by a 57% increase in purchase loan origination volume to $1.3 billion in the same quarter. In Q1 2025, purchase loan origination volume grew 32% year-over-year to $791 million.

Home Builders and New Construction developers.

Growth across the company's agent and software offerings, including within the New Construction marketplace, contributed to Residential revenue growth. In Q3 2025, Residential revenue was $435 million, up 7% year-over-year.

Here's a quick look at the platform's overall reach and segment performance as of late 2025:

The platform's overall traffic is substantial; over 50% of all real estate portal visits in the U.S. go to Zillow Group. For context, the Q3 2025 total revenue was $676 million, up 16% year-over-year.

• Buyers were more likely to start with contacting an agent (39%) than contacting a lender (13%).
• 47% of buyers hired the first agent they contacted.
• The typical buyer's annual median household income is approximately $97,600.
• The Zestimate median error for on-market homes was reported around 1.9%.

Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) - Canvas Business Model: Cost Structure

You're looking at the core expenses that fuel Zillow Group, Inc.'s platform and agent services as of late 2025. Honestly, for a company this size, the cost structure is dominated by technology investment and the massive effort to acquire and support the agent and consumer audience.

Technology and Development

This is where a significant chunk of capital goes, supporting the AI ambitions and the sheer scale of the property database. You're paying for the compute power to run the Zestimate, the AI tools for agents, and keeping the whole super app running smoothly nationwide. For the twelve months ending September 30, 2025, Zillow Group's Research and Development expenses hit $602M. This spend underpins the continuous integration of new features, like AI-powered virtual staging, which is key to their strategy to capture more transaction revenue.

The investment focus is clear:

• Invest heavily in cloud infrastructure.
• Fund the engineering teams building proprietary AI models.
• Maintain and enhance the core data science advantages.

Sales and Marketing

Acquiring eyeballs and converting them into agent connections is expensive, which is reflected in the Selling, General, and Administrative (SG&A) line item. For the twelve months ending September 30, 2025, Zillow Group's total SG&A expenses were $1.347B. Sales and marketing costs are a major component of this, covering advertising to attract users and the headcount-related expenses for sales, customer support, and mortgage loan officers. The goal is to maintain their leading brand position, which attracted an annual high of 241 million unique users in July 2024.

Partnership Costs

To power the platform, Zillow Group needs access to the most current listing data, which means paying up. Data licensing fees from Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) are a necessary, non-negotiable cost of doing business in this sector. While I don't have the specific dollar amount for 2025 data licensing fees, you know this cost is baked into the technology spend and is essential for the Bridge Listing Output platform that brokers use to access MLS data via API.

Personnel Costs

Salaries and related expenses are a fixed, large component of the cost base. The prompt specifies the employee count you should use for this model block, which reflects a point in time before the latest reported growth. You are modeling for salaries for 6,263 employees, covering engineers, sales staff, and loan officers. To give you context on the actual scale, Zillow Group had 6,856 employees as of December 31, 2024. The company is mindful of compensation costs; for instance, stock-based compensation expense was down 8% year-over-year in Q3 2025, with an expected 10% year-over-year decrease for the full year 2025.

General and Administrative

This covers the corporate overhead that keeps the lights on and the business compliant. For Zillow Group, this includes legal compliance, corporate functions, and office space costs. The company has shown discipline here; for example, in 2024, General and Administrative expenses decreased by $29 million, or 5%, largely driven by a $31 million reduction in rent expense due to changes in office space use.

Here's a quick look at some of the key financial figures that frame these costs:

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Zillow Group, Inc. (ZG) - Canvas Business Model: Revenue Streams

You're looking at the core ways Zillow Group, Inc. makes money as of late 2025. The model is heavily reliant on its agent network, but the growth engines are clearly in Rentals and Mortgages.

Premier Agent Program: This remains the bedrock, historically accounting for approximately 70% of total revenue, though the company is diversifying. This revenue comes from fees agents pay for leads and advertising placements across Zillow Group's high-traffic sites. The broader For Sale category, which includes Premier Agent, generated $488 million in revenue for the third quarter of 2025, representing a 10% year-over-year increase.

Rentals: This segment is accelerating fast. For the third quarter of 2025, Rentals revenue hit $174 million, which was up 41% year-over-year. A big driver here is the multifamily business, which saw its revenue jump 62% year-over-year in Q3 2025. The company ended Q3 2025 with an all-time high of 69,000 multifamily properties on its apps and sites.

Mortgages: Zillow Home Loans brings in revenue from loan origination fees and interest income as part of the integrated transaction strategy. In Q3 2025, Mortgages revenue grew 36% year-over-year to reach $53 million. This was supported by purchase loan origination volume soaring to $1.3 billion in the quarter.

Other: This bucket captures revenue from display advertising, which is less central, and software subscriptions that help agents run their business more efficiently. Software offerings include tools like ShowingTime+ and Follow Up Boss. The Residential revenue segment, which was $435 million in Q3 2025, benefits from these agent and software offerings.

Here's a quick look at the Q3 2025 revenue breakdown by segment:

The overall financial expectation for the full year 2025 is for revenue growth to land in the mid-teens range, at the higher end of the initial outlook.

Key financial targets and metrics underpinning these revenue streams include:

• Full-year 2025 revenue growth target: Mid-teens percentage range.
• Full-year 2025 Rentals revenue growth target: Approximately 40%.
• Q3 2025 Total Revenue: $676 million, up 16% year-over-year.
• Q3 2025 Adjusted EBITDA Margin: 24%.
• Estimated percentage of U.S. residential transactions involving an agent using at least one Zillow product: 80%.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.