4 ms·

The most famous unicorn bleeds today.

by nightshadetrie 6y ago

drwl 6y ago
A lot of tech is getting hit, it seems like Airbnb is more in the spotlight
- remote_phone 6y ago
  FANG is surviving, if not thriving. A lot of famous companies will disappear in the next 9 months. This feels a lot like the dotcom bust to me.
  - dillonmckay 6y ago
    All global companies, too.
  - three_seagrass 6y ago
    Q1 results only cover a few weeks of the lock down. FAANGs require consumers to continue spending, and with 30+ million unemployed, that's a lot less disposable income and piling debt. We won't be able to fully see the results of the pandemic in the FAANGs until early Q3.
- DamnYuppie 6y ago
  Why do people consider AirBnB tech? They are a services company with a website connecting external parties. This isn't hard tech, this is marketing. Edit: It seems people are under the impression that because you have lots of technology that is required to run your company you are a technology company. I don't believe that to be true in this day and age, tire distributors probably have more technology requirements then AirBnB does but we don't consider them tech companies. By the same token I wouldn't consider Expedia/Travelocity etc to be tech companies either the use tech to provide a service.
  - keiferski 6y ago
    I’d probably put them in the same category as Etsy: tech-enabled marketplaces.
  - GuiA 6y ago
    Shortest answer: because they went through YC.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - KoftaBob 6y ago
    Their core business is a marketplace connecting travelers to hosts and their homes/rooms. That marketplace is software. If you're a company selling a service that is completely software based, are you not a tech company? By the definition you seem to be using, the only companies that can be considered tech are enterprise SaaS.
    - Barrin92 6y ago
      The defining feature of tech is marginal cost of production close to zero at scale . Meaning, as you grow your business you increasingly automate away human labour. That's why Instagram was worth billions with 13 employees. You're not a technology company just because you rely on software. Walmart makes software too, much more of it than airbnb actually. You're a technology company if you automate away human labour. This doesn't really seem to be the case for most of these 'marketplace' companies which is reflected in their margins. They just have to keep adding more labour as they expand.
  - decafninja 6y ago
    My personal take on what defines a "tech company" is a company that understands and respects that tech drives its business and thus treats its tech employees with respect. Almost every large company is tech driven these days. But in a lot of them, tech is considered more of a necessary evil "cost center". The tech employees are treated as second class citizens compared to the marketers, salespeople, traders, etc. who are the "profit center". A big investment bank (disclosure: I work at one) arguably has more tech running through its veins these days than say, Airbnb. But I would firmly classify Airbnb as a "tech company" per the above definition, and the bank as "not a tech company".
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
gaukes 6y ago
Acquisition target IMO. While AirBnb bleeds, the FANGs continue to pile up cash. Google, Facebook, and Apple all have enough cash to buy several AirBnbs rn.
- vkou 6y ago
  Yes, but instead of buying several AirBnBs, they could instead buy dozens of smaller startups that are not operating in the hospitality industry - which is going to recover much slower than most forms of B2B or B2C.
  - gaukes 6y ago
    Those industries would also be hurting less which means a smaller discount. Meanwhile, long-term prospects for AirBnb have not changed. Disease existed before COVID and will exist after COVID.
    - rightbyte 6y ago
      The mass tourism boom in the year prior to Covid19 might not be the new normal.
    - hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
      > Meanwhile, long-term prospects for AirBnb have not changed. Disease existed before COVID and will exist after COVID. Not sure I 100% agree with this. AirBnB's bread-and-butter was urban rentals. Even before Covid, there was huge backlash against AirBnB in a lot of those locales. Now, especially after you saw huge numbers of AirBnB's convert to long term rentals (really laying bare the nonsense of the "AirBnB doesn't take from long term rental stock" argument), I think you'll see tons of cities accelerate their plans to ban lots of short-term rentals in their current form, and these cities and society at large will become a lot more hostile to AirBnBs in residential neighborhoods.
      - gaukes 6y ago
        I agree that there is a general backlash against AirBnb in certain locales but this was a risk before COVID too. I don't see how COVID would compel cities to move FASTER to ban short-term rentals. During a time like this, aggressively cutting down a good business (for property owners) seems like a bad move in general. The conversion of short-term -> long-term is a side effect of reduce demand. Once demand picks back up, supply will return.

The most famous unicorn bleeds today.

drwl 6y ago

A lot of tech is getting hit, it seems like Airbnb is more in the spotlight

remote_phone 6y ago
FANG is surviving, if not thriving. A lot of famous companies will disappear in the next 9 months. This feels a lot like the dotcom bust to me.
- dillonmckay 6y ago
  All global companies, too.
- three_seagrass 6y ago
  Q1 results only cover a few weeks of the lock down. FAANGs require consumers to continue spending, and with 30+ million unemployed, that's a lot less disposable income and piling debt. We won't be able to fully see the results of the pandemic in the FAANGs until early Q3.
DamnYuppie 6y ago
Why do people consider AirBnB tech? They are a services company with a website connecting external parties. This isn't hard tech, this is marketing. Edit: It seems people are under the impression that because you have lots of technology that is required to run your company you are a technology company. I don't believe that to be true in this day and age, tire distributors probably have more technology requirements then AirBnB does but we don't consider them tech companies. By the same token I wouldn't consider Expedia/Travelocity etc to be tech companies either the use tech to provide a service.
- keiferski 6y ago
  I’d probably put them in the same category as Etsy: tech-enabled marketplaces.
- GuiA 6y ago
  Shortest answer: because they went through YC.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- KoftaBob 6y ago
  Their core business is a marketplace connecting travelers to hosts and their homes/rooms. That marketplace is software. If you're a company selling a service that is completely software based, are you not a tech company? By the definition you seem to be using, the only companies that can be considered tech are enterprise SaaS.
  - Barrin92 6y ago
    The defining feature of tech is marginal cost of production close to zero at scale . Meaning, as you grow your business you increasingly automate away human labour. That's why Instagram was worth billions with 13 employees. You're not a technology company just because you rely on software. Walmart makes software too, much more of it than airbnb actually. You're a technology company if you automate away human labour. This doesn't really seem to be the case for most of these 'marketplace' companies which is reflected in their margins. They just have to keep adding more labour as they expand.
- decafninja 6y ago
  My personal take on what defines a "tech company" is a company that understands and respects that tech drives its business and thus treats its tech employees with respect. Almost every large company is tech driven these days. But in a lot of them, tech is considered more of a necessary evil "cost center". The tech employees are treated as second class citizens compared to the marketers, salespeople, traders, etc. who are the "profit center". A big investment bank (disclosure: I work at one) arguably has more tech running through its veins these days than say, Airbnb. But I would firmly classify Airbnb as a "tech company" per the above definition, and the bank as "not a tech company".

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

gaukes 6y ago

Acquisition target IMO. While AirBnb bleeds, the FANGs continue to pile up cash. Google, Facebook, and Apple all have enough cash to buy several AirBnbs rn.

vkou 6y ago
Yes, but instead of buying several AirBnBs, they could instead buy dozens of smaller startups that are not operating in the hospitality industry - which is going to recover much slower than most forms of B2B or B2C.
- gaukes 6y ago
  Those industries would also be hurting less which means a smaller discount. Meanwhile, long-term prospects for AirBnb have not changed. Disease existed before COVID and will exist after COVID.
  - rightbyte 6y ago
    The mass tourism boom in the year prior to Covid19 might not be the new normal.
  - hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
    > Meanwhile, long-term prospects for AirBnb have not changed. Disease existed before COVID and will exist after COVID. Not sure I 100% agree with this. AirBnB's bread-and-butter was urban rentals. Even before Covid, there was huge backlash against AirBnB in a lot of those locales. Now, especially after you saw huge numbers of AirBnB's convert to long term rentals (really laying bare the nonsense of the "AirBnB doesn't take from long term rental stock" argument), I think you'll see tons of cities accelerate their plans to ban lots of short-term rentals in their current form, and these cities and society at large will become a lot more hostile to AirBnBs in residential neighborhoods.
    - gaukes 6y ago
      I agree that there is a general backlash against AirBnb in certain locales but this was a risk before COVID too. I don't see how COVID would compel cities to move FASTER to ban short-term rentals. During a time like this, aggressively cutting down a good business (for property owners) seems like a bad move in general. The conversion of short-term -> long-term is a side effect of reduce demand. Once demand picks back up, supply will return.