Amazon went public in 1997 and posted it's first quarterly profit in 2002. So while it wasn't for 2 decades they were absolutely bleeding money until then. The

Amazon went public in 1997 and posted it's first quarterly profit in 2002. So while it wasn't for 2 decades they were absolutely bleeding money until then. Their stories are not entirely different, they are extraordinarily similar. Both nascent markets, both money losers at IPO, both needed cash to continue their growth story. Do you understand the purpose of an IPO? It's a funding round. If you have a ton of cash on hand, or your profitable but don't have a growth area that requires large capital, there's literally no reason to go public. That's why Lyft is going public now and nobody is talking about Airbnb. The former needs cash to continue it's massive growth in new markets, the latter is a profitable company with low capex that doesn't need a funding round.