Blog values Zillow at $225 million

A tech blog estimates that online real estate valuation and marketing company Zillow is worth about $225 million, though the blog acknowledged that it lacked detailed financial information for the company.

This valuation, by the New York-based Silicon Alley Insider blog, is based on $87 million raised through three rounds of financing, the real estate market downturn, a "relatively flat growth rate," and "the challenge of compiling accurate estimates of house values." The blog said Zillow draws about 2.2 million unique U.S. visitors a month, based on Compete statistics.

Amanda Hoffman, a Zillow spokeswoman, said today that she couldn't comment on the accuracy of the blog's valuation. "As a private company we don't comment on our valuation," she said. Zillow's internal statistics indicate that the site had 5.2 million unique users last month, Hoffman also said.

Zillow had a 2.2 percent market share of all visitors to real estate category Web sites in March, ranking fourth on the list, metrics company Hitwise reported, and Zillow was ranked sixth among real estate Web sites in February, according to Web statistics by comScore Media Metrix.

Zillow did not secure a position on the Silicon Alley Insider's SAI 25 list, which ranks the top 25 "most valuable digital startups" in the country, though it appears in a list of "contenders."

Social networking site Facebook tops the blog list with a valuation of $9 billion, followed by Wikipedia at $7 billion and craigslist and Betfair at $5 billion. Other top-ranked startups include Mozilla Corp. at $4 billion, Yandex at $3 billion, Webkinz at $2 billion, LinkedIn at $1.3 billion, Habbo at $1.25 billion and Oanda at $1.2 billion.

The list, according to the blog, "is not a static brag-sheet, updated and published once a year ... it changes as facts and markets change -- and, in this industry, they change fast."

Zillow was not initially considered in earlier versions of the list, and Spencer Rascoff, chief financial officer of Zillow, commented at the site that Zillow was "disappointed not to be on the list," citing growth in traffic, "zero advertising spend," and high ranking by Hitwise.

The company, he also stated, has "basically single-handedly reignited the online real estate category's product innovation. I think several of the companies on the list are doing a great job (e.g. Yelp, Spotrunner), but to be honest -- I have never heard of about half of the companies on your list."

The Silicon Alley Insider blog was launched in July 2007 by Kevin Ryan, Dwight Merriman and Henry Blodget, and has since added bloggers Peter Kafka and Dan Frommer from Forbes and Michael Learmonth from Variety.

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