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Interesting considering that a lot of cities and countries started war against this business model, it's highly regulated, restricted or completely banned.
by akerro 8y ago
Interesting considering that a lot of cities and countries started war against this business model, it's highly regulated, restricted or completely banned.
- romanovcode 8y agoNot interesting at all IMO. Better IPO before it's too late.
- adventured 8y agoThat's not even remotely a concern as far as their IPO goes. Airbnb's business is a spectacular success and will remain so. There's no serious threats on the horizon, that includes regulation and competition. They smashed their own 2017 forecast numbers, delivering $2.6 billion in sales and were profitable.
- akerro 8y agoDo you think countries banning AirBnB has no effect on price of their shares?
- lumisota 8y agoWhich countries are those?
- Irishsteve 8y agoNot countries, and not illegal _but_ :-) I personally know that Barcelona an Dublin have introduced laws that make it more difficult to have more apartments hit the market (Licences with heavy penalties)
- prostoalex 8y agoIt’s not all black and white, though. Limited supply pushes up the prices (and AirBnB’s earnings are a percentage of the total spend), licensing requirements remove a few unknowns, decrease the potential of the host running some kind of bait-and-switch scam and make a rental appear more legitimate from the guest’s point of view. (typing this from an AirBnB apartment run by a licensed host in Barcelona)
- stevekemp 8y agoMy old home of Edinburgh has also talked about similar restrictions: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-42733066 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-427...
- toomuchtodo 8y agoJapan
- akerro 8y agoJapan, recently a few cities in Spain and Portugal, also UK Manchester and Cardiff have stricter regulations.
- rco8786 8y agoI’m not aware of any countries they’re outright banned from. But regardless, every company faces regulatory challenges at scale. I don’t see why this is any different.
- branchless 8y agoIt's a web site that has pictures on it and a way to book via a calendar. Their main business model is arbitraging hotels via a legal grey area plus handing off a lot of the illegality to their providers (many Airbnb listings are not registered). You have to be kidding me.
- basejumping 8y agoI use a few platforms, including airbnb, when I look for accomodation. What makes airbnb better? The only different thing I noticed is that they validate my ID.
- jMyles 8y agoOf course the obvious answer is network effect, but I guess you're saying that's negligible here? I think I agree. I also think that a decentralized version, which can more easily avoid censorship, will deliver more value.
- oblio 8y agoIs there a decentralized anything that has been successful outside of email?
- maym86 8y agoGenerally not unless there is an actual need for the decentralization. Otherwise it's easier and more profitable to build a centralized platform. BitTorrent is a decentralized success because there is an actual requirement that it is decentralized.
- dsr_ 8y agoDNS, although the individual registries are each centralized.
- phamilton 8y agoThe great Dyn attack of 2016 would disagree with you in practice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Dyn_cyberattack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Dyn_cyberattack
- randomsearch 8y agoBitTorrent Bitcoin
- 8y ago
- s17n 8y agoIf you don't think regulation is a serious threat, you're crazy. The fact that Airbnb being completely outlawed is on the table in a lot of places should tell you that regulation is a big concern.
- take4 8y agoYou don't think it's remotely a concern that a new law in Japan wiped out 40,000 Airbnbs overnight?
- vincentmarle 8y agoNot just cities and countries, lease agreements also increasingly have an explicit anti-Airbnb clause.
- amorphid 8y agoMy lease has one.
- willio58 8y agoRegulation poses a risk but if done in a non-destructive way it could actually legitimize Airbnb in the eyes of governments.
- pastor_elm 8y agoAirbnb has to comply though. There is regulation in NYC, and Airbnb doesn't help the city verify at all. So if you show up here, you never know if the cops are going to knock on your door.