Airbnb Origins and Pivot
This cluster focuses on Airbnb's early history as a for-profit couchsurfing clone, its pivot to vacation rentals, growth strategies, business model debates, disruption of hotels, and criticisms of its scale and practices.
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I ran into the AirBnB guys around the time they were in YC. It was a bad idea then, and it is still a bad idea. They were pitching a for-profit couchsurfing clone. And that idea never did take off, really. What happened is they persisted and were positioned to pivot to vacation rentals and then create a new segment of pseudo-hotel operations at a time when real estate values crashed and the economy was down. The combination of lots of investment real estate under water and a down economy is what
Airbnb was supposed to be a platform for sharing your house, not starting your own distributed hotel.
You've got to be kidding me. Are you not aware of AirBnB's history and how they built their userbase?
Airbnb is a potential industry changer
"airbnb abandoning it shows it's bad, but other companies using it successfully doesn't sbow it's good!"
Funny, a similar post in the opposite direction from Airbnb is also in the front page right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16422763
What existing market did Airbnb destroy?
Airbnb actually disrupted them https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/airbnb
Is this situation somehow related to 'improper' coverage of recent airbnb's issues at the time of its 1 billion valuation? ^_^
Is AirBnB "at scale"? Why does it need to be?