SEATTLE, Jan. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Zillow Group, which houses a portfolio of the largest and most vibrant real estate and home-related brands on mobile and Web, today announced the launch of two new initiatives designed to help China-based buyers connect with a local real estate agent to help them with their U.S. home purchase. China-based buyers can now connect with Premier Agents (Zillow Group advertisers) in the United States through two different portals: WeChat, the largest and most popular mobile messenger app in China, and NetEase, a leading China-based internet technology company that is one of China's largest web portals.

"China-based buyers continue to be a huge influence in the U.S. real estate market – they are growing in numbers and spending more every year," said Greg Schwartz, Zillow Group chief business officer. "These new partnerships will help us better serve these home shoppers and drive more business to those Premier Agents partners who have the language skills to navigate these transactions."

To provide Mandarin-speaking buyers with the best experience possible, Zillow Group has created a dedicated customer service team with Mandarin language skills and created a network of Mandarin-speaking Premier Agents in markets that have been of the most interest to Chinese buyers including Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Seattle.

Through the WeChat channel, home shoppers have access to content and market information translated into Mandarin as well as the ability to connect directly with Zillow Group and Mandarin-speaking Premier Agents. The Zillow channel is available on WeChat at: zillow_china.

Additionally, Zillow now powers the U.S. home search experience on NetEase, where visitors can search for homes in the U.S. on Zillow and connect directly with Zillow and Mandarin-speaking Premier Agents. This is the second home search experience powered by Zillow in China. Zillow also partners with Beijing Yisheng Leju Information Services Co. ("Leju"), an affiliate of E-House (China) Holdings Limited, a leading real estate services company in China.

Zillow Group
Zillow Group (NASDAQ:Z and ZG) houses a portfolio of the largest real estate and home-related brands on the Web and mobile. The company's brands focus on all stages of the home lifecycle: renting, buying, selling, financing and home improvement. Zillow Group is committed to empowering consumers with unparalleled data, inspiration and knowledge around homes, and connecting them with the right local professionals to help. The Zillow Group portfolio of consumer brands includes real estate and rental marketplaces Zillow®, Trulia®, StreetEasy® and HotPads®. In addition, Zillow Group works with tens of thousands of real estate agents, lenders and rental professionals, helping maximize business opportunities and connect to millions of consumers. The company operates a number of business brands for real estate, rental and mortgage professionals, including Postlets®, Mortech®, Diverse Solutions®, dotloop® and Retsly®. The company is headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow, Postlets, Mortech, Diverse Solutions, StreetEasy, Retsly and HotPads are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. Trulia is a registered mark of Trulia, Inc., dotloop is a registered trademark of dotloop, Inc.  

(ZFIN)

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SOURCE Zillow Group