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Airbnb S-1

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Re: Airbnb S-1

#151

Post by grumple »

tyre wrote: post #86
ztratar wrote: post #9

Down $600m in 2019 and another $600m in 2020? With $2b in debt? Ouch. I'm reading this right, correct? I see the cash positions below are a bit different, but that's likely from... the loans? 2018 looked so hopeful. They only lose $20m total! 2019 should have been a profitable year, IMO, but they went with the aggressive strategy.

I wonder what's up with 2019. Like 2020 is understandable for a hospitality during a pandemic, but why would 2019 be the same ?

Ramp up into the expected ipo. If not for COVID, 2020 would probably have looked great.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#152

Post by Ericson2314 »

elpakal wrote: post #134
carlineng wrote: post #112

A few random observations I found interesting: - Looks like they are significantly leaner now as a result of COVID. Cost of revenue is at an all-time low in Q3 (17% of revenue on p164). There's a lot of focus the drastic cuts to Sales and Marketing, but it looks like there's a fair amount of increased discipline across the board. - It's interesting that Operations and support looks to be very similar in both the firs…

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

Didn't stop DiDi!

Re: Airbnb S-1

#154

Post by newguy1234 »

cletus wrote: post #102

I'm curious how badly the pandemic has hit and will hit AirBnB. I scanned a couple of tidbits from the S-1: - Reducing full-time employee headcount by approximately 25% (I'm curious from what/to?) - Setting expectation for the potential of no employee bonuses for 2020 and reducing executive team member salaries for six months (interesting that executive team _salary_ is getting reduced rather than bonuses, no? At thi…

While those are certainly negatives. I could see AirBnB turning into a double-edged sword for communities. Yes, AirBnB would bring in some nuisances but it would also bring in tourists - who spend money in your community. Areas that ban AirBnB would suffer the loss of tax revenue and have to figure out how to deal with that.

Also AirBnB just gets blamed for the rental shortage in many communities. The truth is poor zoning results in a shortage of rental units. Many areas with rental unit shortage have that shortage because zoning does not allow for high-density construction. The easiest solution to any shortage is to simply increase supply.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#155

Post by Ericson2314 »

H8crilA wrote: post #34

It is so frustrating with all those recent tech startups how much they're spending on sales and marketing: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1559720/000119312520... How does one figure whether the business will keep growing without blasting people's faces with ads? If so much spend on ads is required to generate revenue growth then there will either never be profits or the revenue growth will stall (and thus th…

Welcome to the long slow Japanization of the world economy. Most "growth" is hardly-sustainable cannibalization delaying the inevitable.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#156

Post by jbay808 »

mym1990 wrote: post #147
elpakal wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

> 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?

Re: Airbnb S-1

#157

Post by richiezc »

mrgordon wrote: post #32
hnburnsy wrote: post #23

Can anyone estimate what an investors in 2009 in Air BNB will get for an ROI post- IPO? I just looked and S&P 500 returned 426.134% with dividends reinvested through September 2020.

I believe in 2011 the strike price (accounting for both stock splits) would have been around $0.75-0.80 after they raised funds around May 2011. Assuming they are worth at least $30 billion, the shares would be around $50 for around a 6150% total return assuming $0.80 initially. If someone got shares in 2009 they likely had a substantially higher return.

Strike price in 2011 post series B and after splits is $0.30. At the time I think the nominal price was like $2-4 a share, I'd have to go back and look.

Re: 2009. I recall an early employee saying YC told them not to hire anybody, but they hired him anyways off of his very creative outreach. But let me tell you they all earned every penny of it. It's hard to remember how crazy of an idea Airbnb was ~10 years ago.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#158

Post by nixass »

Another middle-man company goes IPO, getting more funds to lobby/bribe local politicians to allow smooth operation at local population's quality of life expense. Hope they don't live too long. Covid might've done something good here

Re: Airbnb S-1

#159

Post by SilasX »

elamje wrote: post #136
carlineng wrote: post #112

A few random observations I found interesting: - Looks like they are significantly leaner now as a result of COVID. Cost of revenue is at an all-time low in Q3 (17% of revenue on p164). There's a lot of focus the drastic cuts to Sales and Marketing, but it looks like there's a fair amount of increased discipline across the board. - It's interesting that Operations and support looks to be very similar in both the firs…

A fun anecdote about AirBnB in China: 2 years ago I travelled to Beijing and Shanghai and intended to stay in an AirBnB. AirBnB had tons and tons of listings in both places, all of which had specific instructions to tell the neighbors you were “a friend” and not staying there with AirBnB. At the time, and possibly still so, AirBnB was not operating legally in those particular places, and I presume most of the country…

I had that exact experience in the famously non-corrupt Netherlands (2017). It’s not a China thing.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#160

Post by finolex1 »

edoceo wrote: post #123
carlineng wrote: post #112

A few random observations I found interesting: - Looks like they are significantly leaner now as a result of COVID. Cost of revenue is at an all-time low in Q3 (17% of revenue on p164). There's a lot of focus the drastic cuts to Sales and Marketing, but it looks like there's a fair amount of increased discipline across the board. - It's interesting that Operations and support looks to be very similar in both the firs…

Who's the other one? Microsoft?

Apple. Tesla too, if you're willing to stretch definitions a bit.
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