Airbnb: A Company Founded on the Idea of Strangers Sharing Their Homes with Strangers Is Now Worth $100 Billion
Fri, Dec 11, 2020 11:57 AM on International, Stock Market, Featured, Exclusive,
Shortly after moving to San Francisco in October 2007, former schoolmates Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia came up with the idea of putting a mattress in their living room and turning it into a bed and breakfast. This is how Airbnb was born.
Today, according to Airbnb's data, there are 2.9 million hosts on Airbnb worldwide in 2020. 14,000 new hosts are joining the platform each month in 2020. There are over 7 million listings on Airbnb worldwide in 2020. There are 100,000 cities with active Airbnb listings in 2020.
The company made its debut in the stock market yesterday and was instantly valued at over $100 Billion.
Instead of ringing the bell on the floor of the Nasdaq, which is the norm while a company trades on the floor for the first time, Airbnb released a slick video of hosts around the world ding-donging their doorbells.
"You gave us hope that the idea of strangers staying together, in each others' homes, was not so crazy after all," Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky said in the video. "Airbnb is rooted in the fundamental idea that people are good and we're in this together," said Chesky, whose stake in the company tops $11 billion.
Airbnb's IPO shares were offered at $68 per share on Wednesday, but when it started trading on the public market Thursday under the ticker symbol "ABNB," it smashed through that price, climbing to around $144 a share. That brought the company's value to $100 billion. To give an easy comparison, Airbnb is now worth more than the combined value of hotel chains Hilton, Marriott, and Intercontinental.
With the entire world being affected by Covid-19 and travel/holiday plans at a halt, this is an ironic time for Airbnb to go public. However, Airbnb went public for the welfare of the employees whose shares expire in a year or so. For employees who own the shares of a company, going public is a surefire way to multiply the value of their shares.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that Airbnb saw its revenue decline by a massive 80% in 2 weeks of the pandemic. "We have incurred net losses in each year since inception, and we may not be able to achieve profitability," Airbnb wrote in its IPO filing.
