Look out! Amazon and Facebook Enter Real Estate Market

Tech giants don’t seem to be slowing their roll. If you’re a non-tech-related business owner, brace yourself because they might be coming for you.

Combined, Amazon and Facebook have acquired over 100 companies since their inception.

Apparently, that’s not enough.

Recent reports suggest both the online shopping and social media giants are venturing into the real estate market.

With a combined valuation of close to $1 trillion USD, it’s still nothing compared to the over $30 trillion USD real estate market valuation in the U.S. alone. But then again, expansion in real estate was unexpected from these two powerhouses.

What could be their motivation?

Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos earlier this year was the richest man on the planet for a few hours.

We think Bezos would have loved to hold on to the title for a little longer. Just kidding.

We believe Amazon’s move is simply a progression from the existing value they’re providing their customers.

Mark Zuckerberg, on the other hand, is pretty aggressive about ad revenue. He recently made a statement that Facebook needs to move faster at monetizing messenger:

“I want to see us move a little faster here but I’m confident we’re going to get this right”

It’s safe to assume that, ultimately, value and revenue is the motivation for these unexpected expansions.

Amazon’s Stealthy Attempt to Expand into Real Estate

In July this year, Amazon quietly launched “Hire a REALTOR®” page on their site. Located within the Amazon’s Home and Business Services section, the page had nothing more than title “Hire a REALTOR®,” a “Coming Soon” banner and a space to input your ZIP code.

When news of Amazon’s potential expansion broke, Zillow, an online real estate database company’s stock price reportedly dropped from $46.15 USD a share to $44.54.

The page was quietly taken down a day after it appeared but it had already caught the attention of many industry players including the National Association of REALTORS®. The association confirmed to Housingwire that Amazon didn’t receive the necessary permission to use the trademark REALTORS® on their site.

Zillow’s stock price has since recovered but we know Amazon won’t go down without a fight. We strongly believe the tech giant is gearing up for a relaunch of this service.

Facebook Launches Dynamic Ad Retargeting For Real Estate Listings

Last month, Facebook launched a new tool for real estate ads. With Facebook’s new advertising tool, realtors can now advertise their listings on both Facebook and Instagram.

Just like dynamic ads for e-Commerce and travel, realtors are now able to retarget users who’ve visited their websites with ads of listings similar to what they checked out.

Facebook combines a number of factors provided by realtors and what it collects from realtors’ websites through integration to display the most appealing listings to users.

In conclusion, competition is good.

It’s great for consumers.

With Amazon and Facebook’s enormous resources, we could be seeing a breath of new life into this centuries-old industry. Whether or not they’ll succeed in this unknown territory, only time will tell.

What do you think of Amazon and Facebook’s latest move?