Ask HN: Why is AirBnb worth 1 billion dollars?

#1

Post by Hisoka » Fri, Jun 10, 2011, 3:03 PM UTC

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/airbnb.com+hotels.com/

As you can see, AirBnb gets just 1/10 the traffic as Hotels.com. The market cap of IACI (which owns Hotels.com) is around $3 billion.

Something doesn't seem right

Re: Ask HN: Why is AirBnb worth 1 billion dollars?

#2

Post by pg » Fri, Jun 10, 2011, 4:35 PM UTC

What matters is not traffic but profits, and particularly growth thereof.

Re: Ask HN: Why is AirBnb worth 1 billion dollars?

#3

Post by webbruce » Fri, Jun 10, 2011, 5:02 PM UTC

It's called #webbubble

Re: Ask HN: Why is AirBnb worth 1 billion dollars?

#4

Post by jcol » Fri, Jun 10, 2011, 5:02 PM UTC

Only sites that have the tracking code installed are accurate. Anything else is guessed (poorly).

Re: Ask HN: Why is AirBnb worth 1 billion dollars?

#5

Post by Hisoka » Sat, Jun 11, 2011, 5:31 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #2

What matters is not traffic but profits, and particularly growth thereof.

If you look at the Compete graph, traffic has not exactly exploded in the past year or so...

Re: Ask HN: Why is AirBnb worth 1 billion dollars?

#6

Post by steventruong » Sat, Jun 11, 2011, 6:52 AM UTC

Hisoka wrote: post #5

pg wrote: post #2

What matters is not traffic but profits, and particularly growth thereof.

If you look at the Compete graph, traffic has not exactly exploded in the past year or so...

Maybe we're looking at different things but because of the comparison between airbnb and hotels, it looks as if the line is flat but if you look at the numbers, it's gradually increasing. While they certainly don't have as much traffic, I do think they have a bigger market.