Zillow Earns First Profits; Ups Rascoff to CEO

Zillow, after five years and $87 million raised, says it is now in the black for the first time, after focusing more on revenues. It also announced that Spencer Rascoff has been appointed CEO, replacing  Expedia Founder Rich Barton, who becomes executive chairman and focuses on a heavy portfolio of vertical investments, such as Avvo.com, the legal site.

Rascoff and Barton, in a phone call yesterday, told us that the company is currently driving revenues on Zillow.com, Yahoo Real Estate and Mobile from five key revenue streams, including its Mortgage Marketplace, display, national advertising, local advertising and mobile advertising. The latter channel has become especially critical and now accounts for 20 percent of usage on weekends, says Barton.

“Real estate is the ultimate local shopping experience,” suggests Rascoff.

The mortgage marketplace, especially, has become one of the company’s fastest growing areas as well, with 314,000 mortgage leads being processed on the site, up six fold from August 2009 , when it was introduced. This compares in the balance to 4 million homes being listed, and 150,000 rental listings.

Twenty-five percent of home shoppers are now looking at home rentals as a point of comparison, says Rascoff.