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Airbnb, a site for listing and finding rent lodging, has raised $1.5 billion, according to an SEC filing:
Back in June, the WSJ reported that Airbnb had raised a massive $1.5 billion round of funding. Today, the company confirmed those reports by way of an SEC filing.
The total offering and sold amount is $1,499,937,904.00 for those keeping score.
Airbnb's valuation is now at or above $25 billion, which is just staggering. It sounds like Airbnb is going to focus on strengthening itself overseas before even thinking about going public.
The company is also busy fighting fires here in the States, as cities have tried to put a cramp in their style with not much success.
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Airbnb Raises $1.5 Billion, Valued at Over $25 Billion
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And tomorrow will be like today, only more so.
-- Isaiah 56:12, New Standard Version
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Wednesday December 09 2015, @05:47AM
So this company is worth enough for $3 for every human being on the planet, and some more.
Would love to know where the revenue to justify that is coming from.
They're basically saying it's worth as much as eBay - but everyone has heard of eBay, and eBay's business plan is quite clear.
They're worth more than Marriot hotel chains. Which... is just weird.
Whereas airbnb is... a site that hooks up people who don't want to spend money on a hotel or even hostel room or rent a proper place.
And doesn't publish profit figures at all, if it even has any.
And has a lot of controversy around it (especially in terms of insurance).
Also, http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-math-of-airbnbs-24-billion-valuation-1434568517 [wsj.com] says it's going to lose $150m this year.
I know it's all a case of who's holding the potato when the valuation drops to zero overnight, and profiteering as much as possible before that... but... that's just an insane valuation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Wednesday December 09 2015, @09:21AM
Is this like like the "you're not a taxi so you don't have to fulfil all the professional, legal, and insurance requirements demanded of taxis, and we can starve the tax system of some money in the process" taxi service called "uber"?
You're not doing anything new, you're just doing an old thing and disregarding the laws that govern that old thing.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday December 09 2015, @03:45PM
The short term rentals for individuals is what is "new". If you have a spare bedroom, typically the only option was to rent it for months at a time.
AirBnB allows for shorter rentals and a centralized database (with more sophistication than Crag's List). If I want to keep my spare bedroom for my family Nov-Dec, I can list it on AirBnB for the rest of the year.
I've considered being a host myself, but the insurance and legal is a bit cloudy unless you live in a major area that AirBnB has already researched (for example, Portland, OR: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/875/portland--or [airbnb.com] ).
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday December 09 2015, @04:35PM
No. I've done that in the UK, Ireland, Finland (a dozen times in differnet towns over the last couple of decades), Germany, and several other places.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 09 2015, @02:00PM
All 'value' is arbitrary. Service companies especially so as they tend to have few hard assets.
Twenty-five billion dollars is definitely psychotic.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday December 09 2015, @04:36PM
> They're worth more than Marriot hotel chains. Which... is just weird.
I remember that about a decade ago, some small but noisy shareholder of Accor, the biggest hotel group in the world, was trying to strongarm them into selling all of their hotels and lease them from someone else. Because Non-Liquid Assets Are ALWAYS Bad, even when they are the core of your business. I thought that Wall Street was nuts.
Airbnb does just that: middle-man you into a room they don't want to own. They're worth more than hotel chains with assets: Wall Street is consistent.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday December 09 2015, @10:41PM
eh? eBay provides a place for folks to buy and sell stuff for a small commission. AirBnb provides a place for folks to rent out and book accomodation for a small commission.
I'd say there's similarity there. They're worth more than Marriot because they don't need to need to retain large and very costly depreciate-able assets to drive their revenue.
Yes, it is not a novel business plan. There's plenty of sites like their already before them. I personally like to use them as compared to local incumbent ones like stayz.com is because it has a cleaner UX and its not littered with annoying ads.