6 ms·

I'm curious why you think AB&B qualifies as a "tech" company

by elpakal 6y ago

conroydave 6y ago
they dont own the assets, their product is their booking technology
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > they dont own the assets, their product is their booking technology No, their product is their booking service. The technology is capital (means of production), not product.
mym1990 6y ago
Airbnb's main offering is its software and its ability to create a market between consumers and producers through that application. I imagine it is also a company that is heavily invested in its software engineering workforce and all the resources that support/flow from that. To note, it feels like 'tech company' is a bit ambiguous these days and doesn't necessarily have great clarity.
- jbay808 6y ago
  > Airbnb's main offering is its software and its ability to create a market between consumers and producers through that application. Is Expedia a tech company?
  - ch4s3 6y ago
    Yeah, they were definitely part of the first wave of bing name internet tech companies. I expect that in 10 years AriBnB will be similarly boring.
  - nemothekid 6y ago
    Expedia is literally a dotcom that was spun off from Microsoft.
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  I would suggest the following: * a car company makes cars that it sells to consumers or other businesses * a tortilla company makes tortillas that it sells to consumers or other businesses * a chip fabrication company makes chips that it ... ... you see where I'm going with this? * a tech company is a company that makes technology that it sells to consumers and other businesses. Amazon is a tech company, but only because of AWS, not the marketplace or its own retail operations. AirBnB is not a tech company. Neither is Ebay. Maybe we need a new term like "tech-dependent company" to describe most of what are currently termed "tech companies".
  - RhodoYolo 6y ago
    Would you call Tesla a tech company?
    - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
      Yes. They make and sell technology to customers.
      - pembrook 6y ago
        Then under your definition, Otis elevators and GE and Boeing and are also tech companies.
        jhgb 6y ago
        Yes, they are.
        baq 6y ago
        boeing has lots and lots and lots of software. they aren't a consumer electronics company or engagement optimization company, but they sure are tech.
      - dodobirdlord 6y ago
        Tesla is a tech company, and Facebook/Amazon/Google are not? Maybe your definition is “right” in some sense, but is also useless, given that it’s not the definition anyone else is using.
Ericson2314 6y ago
Didn't stop DiDi!
pembrook 6y ago
It's a marketplace business, all internet marketplaces are tech companies because they simply aggregate buyers and sellers while owning none of the assets/inventory/risk being transacted on the platform. Airbnb is just a website with a ToS. There is zero marginal cost to Airbnb for servicing a new listing. Do you also question whether Ebay is a "tech" company?
- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
  > zero marginal cost to Airbnb for servicing a new listing. Don't underestimate the cost of customer support (on both ends), dispute resolution, ...
  - RhodoYolo 6y ago
    Airbnb's customer service on cancelations and disputes have all been relatively fast in my experience so I imagine they invest heavily.
  - pembrook 6y ago
    All tech companies have support costs. This does not make them non-tech companies. Salesforce isn't suddenly an old school manufacturing business just because they have a customer success team.
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  > Do you also question whether Ebay is a "tech" company? Yes.
- princeb 6y ago
  this is an amusing question actually. is cme group a tech company? it is literally marketplace technology. eurex and xetra, nasdaq, nyse, bats, lse all those guys as well. if you want to go a bit further, jpm, morgan stanley, goldman, barclays and so on are also tech companies, since they're one layer over all these marketplace tech companies, but with their own internal marketplace technology on top of it. anyway, it's all very silly and meaningless categorization.
carlineng 6y ago
I don't think the labels of "tech" vs "hospitality" are exclusive in any way. I think there's a good argument to be made that we should consider Airbnb a "hospitality" company, but ultimately the label of "tech" company is shorthand for a set of characteristics of the business that other sibling comments have called out -- large amounts of R&D, low marginal costs, and low CapEx. Their product is hospitality, but the company has operating characteristics that have more in common with Facebook than with Marriott.
Zenbit_UX 6y ago
I think you're confusing them with wework which is famously know for being a real estate company masquerading as tech. Airbnb has made some non-trivial open source contributions that I'm aware of at least. There's a very popular eslint style guide based on their internal policies and they've also created an svg animation library (the name eludes me) which is popular with designers as it accepts Adobe AE as input.
- radihuq 6y ago
  Lottie[0] is the animation library [0] https://airbnb.design/lottie/ https://airbnb.design/lottie/

I'm curious why you think AB&B qualifies as a "tech" company

conroydave 6y ago

they dont own the assets, their product is their booking technology

dragonwriter 6y ago
> they dont own the assets, their product is their booking technology No, their product is their booking service. The technology is capital (means of production), not product.

mym1990 6y ago

Airbnb's main offering is its software and its ability to create a market between consumers and producers through that application. I imagine it is also a company that is heavily invested in its software engineering workforce and all the resources that support/flow from that. To note, it feels like 'tech company' is a bit ambiguous these days and doesn't necessarily have great clarity.

jbay808 6y ago
> Airbnb's main offering is its software and its ability to create a market between consumers and producers through that application. Is Expedia a tech company?
- ch4s3 6y ago
  Yeah, they were definitely part of the first wave of bing name internet tech companies. I expect that in 10 years AriBnB will be similarly boring.
- nemothekid 6y ago
  Expedia is literally a dotcom that was spun off from Microsoft.
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
I would suggest the following: * a car company makes cars that it sells to consumers or other businesses * a tortilla company makes tortillas that it sells to consumers or other businesses * a chip fabrication company makes chips that it ... ... you see where I'm going with this? * a tech company is a company that makes technology that it sells to consumers and other businesses. Amazon is a tech company, but only because of AWS, not the marketplace or its own retail operations. AirBnB is not a tech company. Neither is Ebay. Maybe we need a new term like "tech-dependent company" to describe most of what are currently termed "tech companies".
- RhodoYolo 6y ago
  Would you call Tesla a tech company?
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    Yes. They make and sell technology to customers.
    - pembrook 6y ago
      Then under your definition, Otis elevators and GE and Boeing and are also tech companies.
      - jhgb 6y ago
        Yes, they are.
      - baq 6y ago
        boeing has lots and lots and lots of software. they aren't a consumer electronics company or engagement optimization company, but they sure are tech.
    - dodobirdlord 6y ago
      Tesla is a tech company, and Facebook/Amazon/Google are not? Maybe your definition is “right” in some sense, but is also useless, given that it’s not the definition anyone else is using.

Ericson2314 6y ago

Didn't stop DiDi!

pembrook 6y ago

It's a marketplace business, all internet marketplaces are tech companies because they simply aggregate buyers and sellers while owning none of the assets/inventory/risk being transacted on the platform. Airbnb is just a website with a ToS. There is zero marginal cost to Airbnb for servicing a new listing. Do you also question whether Ebay is a "tech" company?

tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
> zero marginal cost to Airbnb for servicing a new listing. Don't underestimate the cost of customer support (on both ends), dispute resolution, ...
- RhodoYolo 6y ago
  Airbnb's customer service on cancelations and disputes have all been relatively fast in my experience so I imagine they invest heavily.
- pembrook 6y ago
  All tech companies have support costs. This does not make them non-tech companies. Salesforce isn't suddenly an old school manufacturing business just because they have a customer success team.
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
> Do you also question whether Ebay is a "tech" company? Yes.
princeb 6y ago
this is an amusing question actually. is cme group a tech company? it is literally marketplace technology. eurex and xetra, nasdaq, nyse, bats, lse all those guys as well. if you want to go a bit further, jpm, morgan stanley, goldman, barclays and so on are also tech companies, since they're one layer over all these marketplace tech companies, but with their own internal marketplace technology on top of it. anyway, it's all very silly and meaningless categorization.

carlineng 6y ago

I don't think the labels of "tech" vs "hospitality" are exclusive in any way. I think there's a good argument to be made that we should consider Airbnb a "hospitality" company, but ultimately the label of "tech" company is shorthand for a set of characteristics of the business that other sibling comments have called out -- large amounts of R&D, low marginal costs, and low CapEx. Their product is hospitality, but the company has operating characteristics that have more in common with Facebook than with Marriott.

Zenbit_UX 6y ago

I think you're confusing them with wework which is famously know for being a real estate company masquerading as tech. Airbnb has made some non-trivial open source contributions that I'm aware of at least. There's a very popular eslint style guide based on their internal policies and they've also created an svg animation library (the name eludes me) which is popular with designers as it accepts Adobe AE as input.

radihuq 6y ago
Lottie[0] is the animation library [0] https://airbnb.design/lottie/ https://airbnb.design/lottie/