Live data from Hacker News

Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

techcrunch.com

861–870 of 936 posts

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#861

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like the car? Volkswagen is twice the size of Microsoft by revenue. I'm going with the OECD definition here: https://data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm

The car was invented in the 1800s, and has seen mature competitors in many other countries like Japan. In the current century, Tesla is the auto giant leaving behind all the legacy manufacturers while also branching into energy products. Pivotal products are a better milestone than vague estimates of R&D spending.

>Tesla is the auto giant leaving behind all the legacy manufacturers while also branching into energy products

Tesla has sub-1% market share in the global auto market and rapidly declining energy product deployment (they deployed 4x more MW 4 years ago than the did last year). Let's not pretend Tesla has taken over anything yet.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#862
post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a...wildly imaginative take. Tesla sales are a fraction of any of the big three in terms of sales or revenue. They sold 192,000 vehicles in the US in 2019. Each of the Big Three sold well over three million. Tesla currently loses $2500 on every vehicle they sell

This thread is about innovation, not sales.

I'm not sure announcing products with no capacity to manufacture them should be considered "innovation".

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#863
post #854

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This thread is about innovation, not sales.

How are Tesla more innovative than other companies ? They kicked off a big conceptual change but I don't see that they have a significant technological advantage over other companies like Volvo.

>How are Tesla more innovative than other companies ?

People always seem to compare Tesla technology of tomorrow with what its competitors are doing right now. That's why Volvo "only" has level 3 self-driving, while Tesla has a fleet of robotaxis that are earning you money on its ride-sharing app while you sleep.

I joke, but a large portion of the Tesla fan base has no clue what is going on in the autonomous driving or auto manufacturer world outside of Tesla. Tesla has been a big innovator, but they aren't leaders in everything....not even close.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#864
post #796

They wanted to do this for a while. Airbnb would make good money if it wasn't so bloated.

Maybe, but just the last August bootcamp of new hires was north of 100 people. If Airbnb wanted to do this for a while, I'd imagine they would have hired less even around then.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#865
post #790

Earlier quoted context omitted.

seriously wtf. 1900 people lost their jobs and you think that's "Good". Check yourself

These 1900 people were well paid SV employees, being well paid by working for a company operating in a zoning grey area that profits off of the removal of housing stock from the market. Only 45% of my city holds a job right now, and only 25% can afford the median house. I weep for these people struggling in my city, not the comparative handful of people who chose to work for a fundamentally degenerate company whose e…

Many of these people are on work visas and will potentially need to leave the country. Some are new grads who have no savings and might not be able to afford rent. And the cut was across all roles, not just the ones that were well-paid.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#866

Aw and you went to coding school to learn Ruby of Rails for the IPO and are now stuck with an irrelevant skillset. AirBnB is the only reason the bay area uses Ruby. All those startups stuck maintaining old code bases can only find talent because of attrition or rejects from AirBnB.

Doesn't Airbnb use Ruby because Twitter uses Ruby?

Airbnb and Twitter use Ruby for the same reason; Rails was the fastest way to bootstrap a working product in 2006-2008, when they both started out. When the issue comes up here these days, plenty of people argue it still is.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#867

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the way up is 17 years about of school. A $100k annual difference still puts the tech employee way ahead.

Not if you count rent / mortgage, car & car insurance or kindergarten. And you medical coverage might still cover less than the European one.

>Not if you count rent / mortgage

Depends where you live. There's no reason the 175k employee can't live somewhere "bad" or suffer a long commute. Most major western european cities and their suburbs are by no means cheap to find housing in.

>car & car insurance

Most white collar Europeans with families own cars. Owning and operating a vehicle is astronomically cheaper in the US, even in California which has insanely high costs compared to the median or mean state.

>kindergarten

Part of the free (at the point of use, obviously it's paid for by taxes) public school system in the US.

>And you medical coverage might still cover less than the European one.

I don't want to have a healthcare debate but the cost was addressed higher up the thread and the difference in coverage between what American BigCo employees get and what Europeans get (and both those classes of insurance are diverse enough to make comparison impractical without sweeping generalizations) is not going to be meaningful except in the edge cases.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#868

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But your healthcare would be very cheap, if not free, wouldn't be tied to your employment; education cost would be minuscule compared to US; kids would benefit from the first two factors too; minimum annual vacation would be 4 weeks, mandated by law. Sticker price doesn't tell the whole story. I'm not saying that the total benefit is lower, but the cost of earning that $175k is definitely much higher than the cost of…

Health care is >$800/month in Germany. I don't get why we get away with the notation that health care is free. It's not free, health insurance is simply compulsory here.

In Sweden it's almost free.

You pay as you go with ceilings of around 100$ for medicines and 100$ for doctor visits, kids are free.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#869

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sending your kids to school all the way up including university costs about ~€10K per kid in Europe. How much would it cost in the US? ~$150K? I think that would make up another large chunk of price difference. And: it’s available for every parent. Not just those in nice tech jobs.

That Europe cost seems high, tbh. In the Nordics for example I'm pretty sure everything is paid for.

all is paid for, at least in Sweden and Finland (not sure about Norway and Denmark), up to PhD

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#870

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not by a big margin. Around 47% of the workforce is employed by small businesses.

So that's a minority. And "small businesses" with fewer than 500 employees represent 99.7% of all businesses and yet they represent less than half the total workforce.

The issue of course is that more regulation makes it that much harder for small business to hire and over time forces more and more of the economy and the labor force into the arms of big business.
Post reply on HN