Airbnb launches nonprofit for crisis lodging

SAN FRANCISCO - Airbnb has created a nonprofit aimed at helping emergency response workers find lodging in times of crisis, like now with the pandemic.

The new Airbnb.org was announced Monday as a partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) to support housing for workers and volunteers fighting the Covid-19 crisis and other kinds of emergencies.

"Founding and supporting Airbnb.org allows us to double down on our efforts to help communities in need across the world in coordination with our partners," said Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb and chairman of Airbnb.org.

Airbnb.org’s initial commitments include $2 million to support the efforts. Over the next two years, Airbnb.org will commit $1 million to cover stays for staff and volunteers supporting communities worldwide hit by humanitarian disasters. 

CORE will utilize Airbnb.org’s $1 million contribution to fund stays for frontline workers administering free Covid-19 tests, conducting contact tracing, providing flu shots and coordinating quarantine support in 10 cities across the US, according to a statement.

Airbnb has pledged 400,000 of its shares to support the effort ahead of the home-sharing platform's initial public offering.

Airbnb co-founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nate Blecharczyk are committing $6 million to the program.

Airbnb.org will allow hosts on Airbnb to provide free and discounted stays to people impacted by emergencies, including natural disasters and the pandemic. 

Hosts who support the program will receive a special badge on their profile to recognize their support.

Agence France-Presse

Airbnb aims for $35 billion valuation in long-awaited IPO

NEW YORK - Airbnb Inc said on Tuesday it is aiming for a valuation of up to $34.8 billion in its initial public offering (IPO), in what would cap a stunning recovery in its fortunes after the U.S. home rental firm's business was heavily damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year.

In a regulatory filing, Airbnb set a target price range of between $44 and $50 apiece to sell 51.9 million shares, which would pull in $2.6 billion. Airbnb could end up selling $2.85 billion at the upper end of the range.

Of the shares being sold, Airbnb founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk will together sell nearly $100 million worth of shares in the IPO launch. 

Airbnb struggled in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic as travel came to a grinding halt. It had to lay off a quarter of its workforce and seek $2 billion in emergency funding from investors, including private equity firms Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners.

But as lockdowns eased, more travelers opted to book homes instead of hotels, helping Airbnb post a surprise profit for the third quarter. The San Francisco-based firm also gained from increased interest in renting homes away from major cities.

"Looking at Airbnb there's a lot to like. The company's third quarter has shown they've bounced back better than a lot of their travel rivals," said Matthew Kennedy, senior strategist at IPO research firm Renaissance Capital.

At the top of Airbnb's target range, the IPO will give Airbnb a fully diluted valuation, which includes securities such as options and restricted stock units, of $34.8 billion. This is nearly double the $18 billion Airbnb was worth in an April private fundraising round and above the $31 billion in its last pre-COVID-19 private fundraising in 2017.

Airbnb's market capitalization at $50 per share would total $29.8 billion. Chesky's stake would be valued at about $3.8 billion, while those of Gebbia and Blecharczyk would be worth about $3.5 billion each. Sequoia Capital, which first invested in Airbnb in 2009, would have a stake worth more than $4 billion.

Airbnb made its IPO registration public earlier this month. Reuters was the first to report in October that the startup was aiming to raise around $3 billion in its IPO that could value it at more than $30 billion. 

Airbnb plans to list on Dec. 10 under the symbol "ABNB" on Nasdaq.

LONG-AWAITED IPO

Airbnb's stock market debut will be one of the largest and most anticipated U.S. IPOs of 2020, which has already been a bumper year for flotations. Record label Warner Music Group, data analytics firm Palantir Technologies and data warehouse company Snowflake Inc have all gone public in the past few months.

Airbnb was launched by Chesky and Gebbia in 2008 as a website to take bookings for rooms during conferences, including the Democratic National Convention that year in Denver.

It has since expanded listings to include apartments, houses and vacation rentals, allowing millions of ordinary homeowners to make money by renting their flats and houses while on their own holidays.

Airbnb achieved "unicorn" status in 2011, with listed properties in 13,000 cities across more than 180 countries at the time, after being valued at more than $1 billion in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Some of Airbnb's other investors include Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher, buyout firms General Atlantic, TPG, Hillhouse Capital and investment management firms Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are the lead underwriters for the IPO.

-reuters-

Airbnb to limit bookings by people under 25 in Canada

OTTAWA — People under 25 will no longer be able to rent local listings for entire homes on Airbnb in Canada, the company announced Wednesday after a fatal shooting at a Toronto apartment booked through the website.

The restriction will apply only to homes young Airbnb users attempt to rent within the communities where they already live. 

Guests under 25 years will still be able to book a private room within a host's primary residence, and could be exempted from the prohibition if they receive positive evaluations in at least three recent stays.

The aim is to curb unauthorized use of Airbnb properties, including for "unauthorized parties," Airbnb Senior Vice President Chris Lehane told a press conference.

"We know from our research that 99.9 percent of the people on Airbnb are good people... and treat homes like their own homes," he said.

"We have a 0.3 percent incident rate across our platform when it comes to issues involving property damage and a 0.6 percent incident rate when it involves personal security issues.

"Those numbers," he said, "get higher when you're looking at... reservations made by people under 25... within the community they live in."

The pilot, if it succeeds in reducing violence and damage to properties, may be applied in other jurisdictions, he said.

It comes just days after three men aged 19, 20 and 21 were shot dead at a Toronto downtown waterfront neighborhood apartment. Two others were injured.

On January 8, an 18-year-old was also killed at an Airbnb-rented house in downtown Ottawa.

And last October, a gunman opened fire at a house party in Orinda, California that was an Airbnb rental. Four men and a woman were killed. 

Lehane also announced a 24-hour hotline for neighbors who suspect mischief at an Airbnb property, as well as a partnership with a group of Canadian doctors lobbying for stricter gun control laws.

Airbnb says that 2 million people stay at its listed homes in 100,000 cities every night.

Agence France-Presse 

Airbnb CEO pledges to verify all listings

Airbnb plans to conduct a comprehensive review of every property listed on its platform as part of a series of initiatives to give customers “peace of mind,” Brian Chesky, the company’s chief executive, announced at the DealBook Conference on Wednesday.

By the end of next year, Chesky said, Airbnb will check the accuracy of photographs, addresses and other information posted with each property, as well as verify that the listings meet safety standards and that the hosts are who they say they are.

“We’re going to make sure we can stand behind every single listing, every single host,” he said. “We want to give peace of mind to our guests.”

The announcement comes less than a week after five people were killed at a party in an Airbnb rental house in Northern California on Oct. 31. Two days later, Chesky announced a ban on “party houses.”

In addition, he said at the conference, the company would conduct especially rigorous reviews of “high-risk” reservations that seem likely to lead to parties. It would also establish a hotline to address concerns from neighbors, he said, and guarantee a new Airbnb placement or a full refund to guests who check in to a property that does not match the description on the website.

“About 2 million people a night stay in Airbnbs and most without incident,” Chesky said. Still, he added, “It’s hard to prevent every bad thing happening.”

Across the technology sector, companies are reckoning with the unintended consequences of how people use their platforms, including the spread of disinformation on Facebook and racist taunts on Twitter.

“Many of us in this industry over the last 10 years are going from a hands-off model where the internet is an immune system to realizing that’s not really enough,” Chesky said. “We have to take more responsibility for the stuff on our platform. This has been a gradual, maybe too gradual, transition for our industry.”

Airbnb has faced pushback from critics who argue that its listings push often unruly tourists into residential areas. On Tuesday, the company suffered a major defeat in Jersey City, New Jersey, where residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of stricter regulations on short-term rentals that will almost certainly shrink the number of listings just a short train ride away from Manhattan.

Airbnb plans to go public in 2020, joining a series of tech companies that have made public stock offerings, with varying levels of success. Asked Wednesday about an IPO versus a direct listing, Chesky was noncommittal, saying, “I certainly don’t have any news to make.” But, he added, “We also don’t need to raise new money.”


2019 The New York Times Company

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Airbnb bans 'party houses' after deadly US shooting

NEW YORK - Airbnb's boss announced Saturday that the online platform, which offers private homes for rent for short periods, is banning "party houses" after a deadly shooting at a Halloween event in California.

Five people were killed and others wounded in a Thursday night shooting in Orinda, California, in a house that had been rented on Airbnb.

More than 100 people were present at the event, which was announced on social media.

"Starting today, we are banning 'party houses' and we are redoubling our efforts to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct, including conduct that leads to the terrible events we saw in Orinda," Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said on Twitter.

To do this, Airbnb will increase "manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection technology," create a "dedicated 'party house' rapid response team," and take "immediate action" against those who violate guest policies, Chesky wrote.

"We must do better, and we will," he said. "This is unacceptable."

Michael Wang, the owner of the home where the shooting took place, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he rented his house to a woman who said she was organizing a family reunion for a dozen people.

The sheriff's department said they were responding to a noise complaint at the house around the time the shooting was reported.

Three people died at the scene, while two more passed away after being hospitalized, police said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Uber, Airbnb take sharing economy to mainstream with stock listings

WASHINGTON -- The "sharing economy" is becoming mainstream with the anticipated stock listings from services such as Uber, Lyft and Airbnb, signs that the trend is gaining momentum and impacting multiple sectors.

These multibillion-dollar online platforms have already been a disruptive force in many economic segment, and analysts say the public listings may be a watershed moment, likely to fuel even more changes.

The growth in these on-demand services is eroding sentiment for ownership of homes, cars and other goods, and is also shifting the concept of labor and employment, sparking fierce debates on whether the change is good or bad.

Lyft, the large US ride-hailing service and Uber rival, became the first to announce its initial public offering, seeking to expand a firm valued privately at more than $15 billion.

There has already been an explosion of startups for sharing cars, bikes, scooters, housing and more services. The office rental sector is being transformed by co-working spaces like WeWork, now valued at some $45 billion.

"This is just the beginning for the sharing economy," said Arun Sundararajan, a New York University professor who follows the sector.

"I think we'll see large platforms for professional services for certain kinds of health care, and perhaps for alternative energy," he said.

Spending for "on demand" on services such as Uber and Airbnb and other digital platforms rose 58 percent in 2017 to $75.7 billion in the US, with more than 41 million consumers participating, according to a survey by Rockbridge Associates.

Rockbridge founder Charles Colby cautions, however, that the sizzling growth may cool.

"I don't see these firms as the next Amazon or Apple, because they are carving out narrow marketplaces and will start experiencing competition from traditional providers, some of which are quite savvy," he said.

Sharing economy firms have also sparked their share of controversy. Uber and Lyft have faced protests and challenges from traditional taxi operators and some regulators have banned or limited ridesharing. Airbnb has also been curtailed in some markets amid complaints over disruptions in the real estate markets and the hotel sector.

PRIVATE CARS VANISHING?

In transportation, some analysts argue the sharing trend is moving at a breakneck pace that will radically change urban landscapes, in line with the vision of firms such as Uber and Lyft to sharply reduce the need for private vehicles.

Tech research firm RethinkX predicts that the number of cars in the United States will drop by more than 80 percent by 2020 and 95 percent of travel will be using on-demand autonomous electric vehicles.

By gaining access to capital on Wall Street, sharing economy firms may be able to grow even bigger and flex their power more in disrupting traditional kinds of services.

The IPOs suggest that the sharing economy "is ready for prime time," said Saif Benjaafar, director of the University of Minneota's Initiative on the Sharing Economy. 

"Lyft and Uber have demonstrated the operational viability of the business model: the ability to execute at scale and in different markets. What remains to be seen is to what extent these operational capabilities can now be leveraged to achieve financial profitability."

Benjaafar noted that Uber and Lyft have piled up huge losses while Airbnb has been profitable, they revolve around the same concept.

These firms "demonstrated the viability of businesses built around the concept of trust among strangers," Benjaafar told AFP.

"They also showed... how rapid growth can be achieved by being asset-light, and instead tapping into existing assets with excess capacity, and relying on an independent and contingent workforce."

WORKER ANGST

That feature -- the contingent workforce -- is one of the main targets of criticism of the online platforms.

These services upend the notion of traditional employment: backers say this leads to more flexible work arrangements and entrepreneurship, while critics argue it destroys the benefits and security available in most conventional jobs.

A 2018 study by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that most ride-hailing drivers worked full time and supported their families from that income.

The study also found 44 percent had difficulty paying for work or vehicles expenses, and that most wanted an organization to demand improvements in wages and working conditions.

While many see advantages in the flexible work, on-demand drivers must find other ways to get needed benefits such as health and unemployment insurance.

Sundararajan said one of the main challenges for the sharing economy will be what happens to the "social safety net" which includes benefits such as health insurance, sick leave and retirement.

He said the current social contract established in the 20th century revolves around traditional employment.

"In 20 years when we look back at this, if we can do a good job of refashioning our social safety net to be tailored for this new economy, that is going to be central to whether we see this transition as good or bad," Sundararajan said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Airbnb eyes the sky with hire of aviation exec

SAN FRANCISCO - Airbnb on Thursday said that it hired airline industry veteran Fred Reid away from an autonomous flight vehicle startup backed by Google co-founder Larry Page.

The move was described as part of an effort by the San Francisco-based firm to add "how you get there" to an Airbnb platform that already features lodging and activities.

"I'm not interested in building our own airline or creating just another place on the internet where you can buy a plane ticket, but there is a tremendous opportunity to improve the transportation experience for everyone," said Airbnb co-founder and chief executive Brian Chesky.

"We're going to explore a broad range of ideas and partnerships that can make transportation better."

In his job as global head of transportation, Reid will focus on travel partnerships and services, according to Airbnb.

Reid was hired away from his role as president of Cora Aircraft Program at Kitty Hawk where he oversaw development of autonomous electric aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically, Airbnb said.

Reid's airline industry experience includes being chief executive at Virgin America.

"Whether in the air or on the ground, there are tremendous opportunities to create products and forge partnerships with other companies that make travel easier and even fun," Reid said, noting the mission could take years.

The move comes with Airbnb preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) as soon as the middle of this year at a valuation estimated to be more than $30 billion. The lodging startup last year said its quarterly revenues topped $1 billion for the first time.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Airbnb says quarterly revenue topped $1 billion

SAN FRANCISCO - Airbnb said Friday it took in more than a billion dollars in revenue in the past 3 months, calling it the best quarter ever for the home-sharing giant as it readies a stock market offering.

"The third quarter of 2018 was the strongest quarter in Airbnb history, and the first quarter in which Airbnb recognized substantially more than $1 billion in revenue," the company said in a memo shared with AFP.

The revelation came as Airbnb prepared for an initial public offering (IPO) as soon as the middle of next year at a valuation estimated to be more than $30 billion.

As a private company, Airbnb is not required to disclose its performance, and the memo offered no detailed financial information. The San Francisco-based service is believed to be on course to be profitable for the second year in a row.

More than 400 million guests "arrivals" have been logged at Airbnb lodgings since the service launched a decade ago, according to the company.

The number of Airbnb guests in the third quarter soared in Beijing, Mexico City, Johannesburg, and Birmingham, England, the memo noted.

Airbnb expected that nearly a million guests will stay in US lodgings booked through its service during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend later this month.

Airbnb has become a target for regulators and critics who contend the service skirts taxes and hotel regulations while increasing pressure on housing by enticing property owners to make homes available to visitors rather than residents.

The main trade group for French hotels has sued the home-sharing giant, accusing it of unfair competition by "knowingly violating" rules imposed as part of a crackdown in one of Airbnb's biggest markets.

Paris has led the charge in France against Airbnb and other home-sharing platforms, claiming they have driven up home prices while depriving municipalities of taxes on income that often goes undeclared.

The moves echo actions taken in other tourist hot spots like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, and New York.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Airbnb expands offerings with new upscale categories

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Home-share titan Airbnb on Thursday took aim at more upscale travelers with new categories including premium lodging and properties for "trips of a lifetime."

In one of the most significant updates since the San Francisco-based firm launched a decade ago, Airbnb added what it called "Plus" and "Beyond" lodging options along with a handful of new categories such as bed-and-breakfast, boutique and "unique space."

The new options came in Airbnb's "roadmap" described as putting the sharing economy star on a path to serving one billion guests annually by 2028.

Airbnb said its Plus offerings would be inspected for comfort, cleanliness, and design, and were said to be "intended for guests looking for beautiful homes, exceptional hosts and added peace of mind."

The category launched with 2,000 homes in 13 cities.

Beyond Airbnb, which stemmed from the acquisition last year of Luxury Retreats, will launch in coming months and offer customized "trips of a lifetime," the company said in a statement.

Airbnb also unveiled a "collections" categories that will offer venues for occasions ranging from work to weddings.

"Ten years ago we never dreamed of what Airbnb could become," said co-founder and chief executive Brian Chesky.

"In fact, people thought the idea that strangers would stay in each other's homes was crazy. Today, millions of people every night do just that."

Airbnb has grown to feature 4.5 million places to stay in 81,000 cities. Over the last 10 years, Airbnb hosts overall have earned more than $41 billion and guests have checked into Airbnb lodging more than 300 million times, according to the company.

Airbnb announced key changes in its leadership team early this month and said that it won't launch a share offering in 2018.

With an estimated market value of some $30 billion, Airbnb trails only Uber among the US-based venture-funded "unicorns" which have raised private capital without going to the stock markets.

Like Uber, Airbnb has built a business model on allowing individuals to tap an underutilized resource -- in this case their homes -- to earn money, but has also drawn criticism for roiling real estate markets and established hotel operators.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Airbnb partners with aid agency for refugees

LONDON - Home-sharing website Airbnb has partnered with global aid agency International Rescue Committee (IRC) to provide short-term accommodation for refugees, joining a number of companies that has voiced their support for people fleeing conflicts.

The company said it plans to house 100,000 people in temporary homes over the next five years, including refugees, displaced people, disaster survivors and overseas aid workers. It has also pledged $4 million to the IRC.

"People who've been displaced, whether because of war or conflict or other factors, are acutely vulnerable to not being accepted," the company said in a statement this week.

"They are, quite literally, in need of a place to belong, which is why we've been inspired to take action," it said, encouraging customers to join the campaign by hosting refugees.

Former US Secretary of State, John Kerry supported the initiative, posting on Twitter: "Heartened to see people and companies standing with those doing so much good for those most in need -- leadership that's needed!"

Last week Airbnb offered free accommodation to refugees and others barred from entering the United States due to President Donald Trump's immigration curbs, which have since been temporarily suspended after a court ruling.

"It is important to remember that refugees have fled great harm, and in many cases their journey to the U.S. have been long and arduous. Now we want them to begin to feel at home," IRC spokeswoman Lucy Keating told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Airbnb is one of several global companies that has supported refugees after Trump's proposed 90-day travel ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and a 120-day bar on all refugees.

Swedish furniture giant IKEA last week announced it would stock rugs and textiles made by Syrian refugees by 2019, employing mostly refugee women living in Jordanian camps.

"The situation in Syria is a major tragedy of our time, and Jordan has taken a great responsibility in hosting Syrian refugees," said IKEA spokeswoman Johanna Martin.

"We decided to look into how IKEA can contribute in supporting Jordan's journey in integrating refugees with locals in labor market through jobs," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, adding that production should start by September.

But initiatives to help refugees have not been welcomed by everyone.

Global coffee chain Starbucks faced a backlash on social media last week after the company announced it would hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years in the United States.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Super Bowl ads caught in political whirlwind

WASHINGTON - The ads appearing during the Super Bowl on Sunday weren't supposed to be political -- but some brands wanted to make a statement, and others may have been just caught in the crossfire.

In the biggest US sporting event of the year which is also a huge event for marketing, political overtones were part of the story, intended or not.

The Super Bowl was played amid a heated debate following President Donald Trump's order to block all refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations, and a clash of views over open borders and multiculturalism.

Some companies may have been swept up in the desire to make a statement of principle. But marketing professor Larry Chiagouris of Pace University said it was a risky strategy.

"The people who buy these products come from all political persuasions," he said. "No brand can afford to alienate any of them."

Northwestern University marketing professor Tim Calkins said some of the ads aimed to show a theme of "inclusiveness."

"While many brands were lighthearted and product focused, there were others that embraced a theme of inclusiveness, including Google, Airbnb and Budweiser," said Calkins, who is co-director of the school's ad rating project.

Some notable spots:

Airbnb

The home-sharing giant injected a surprise political message into a television spot, highlighting multiculturalism and the hashtag #WeAccept.

The 30-second Airbnb spot showed a series of faces of people from different races, genders and ages with a running line of text saying "No matter who you are, where you're from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong."

On Twitter, Airbnb founder and chief executive Brian Chesky also announced the group would donate $4 million over four years to the International Rescue Committee to assist refugees.

It provoked considerable reaction on Twitter, both positive and negative.

Budweiser immigration story
Budweiser, the US beer brand from Anheuser-Busch InBev, told the story of the journey of founder Adolphus Busch, a German immigrant.

While the company had said it did not intend to make a political statement, the ad nonetheless drew praise from critics of Trump's immigration plan, but also calls for a boycott.

84 Lumber journey
A spot from home improvement retailer 84 Lumber showed the journey of a mother and daughter who appeared to be traveling in the Mexican desert seeking to reach the United States, and invited viewers to watch the full ad online.

On YouTube, the five-minute film described as "too controversial for TV" showed the pair arriving at a large wall, unable to cross.

At the end of the spot, viewers saw the message "The will to succeed is always welcome here."

The retailer had to revise its spot for television after it was rejected for being overtly political.

Winners and losers

According to analysis of social media activity by iSpotTV, the Budweiser immigration ad had the most impact, followed by a Netflix ad for its "Stranger Things" series, a spot with a sexy Mr. Clean, and a whimsical Justin Bieber ad for T-Mobile.

Coca-Cola's ad featuring "America the Beautiful" sung in different languages and featuring images of people of various ages and cultures was among those generating the most "positive tweets," according to the TD America Ad Challenge.

A ranking by Northwestern University marketing students put at the top a spot in which a female homemaker drools over a muscle-bound Mr. Clean.

"Mr. Clean drew on its brand equity, making its position clear in a modern way," said professor Derek Rucker.

"Conversely, 84 Lumber scored at the bottom of our ad review. This spot took a long time to get to the message -- and even then, it wasn't clear what the message actually was."

Michigan State University marketing students rated as the best ad a message from Honda with several celebrities speaking from their school yearbook photos.

The worst was from the American Petroleum Institute, said professor Robert Kolt: "No one wants to hear about big oil during the game."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Apple TV overhauled for games, shows, shopping

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple on Wednesday unveiled a new streaming television device with voice search, touchscreen remote control and an app store in a challenge to Google, Amazon, and video game console titans.

Apple TV was overhauled as people increasingly stream films and television shows on-demand online and turn to mobile applications for entertainment.

"Our vision for TV is simple, and perhaps a little provocative," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said at a media event in San Francisco. "We believe the future of television is apps."

Apple released a software kit for outside developers, and showed off early versions of Apple TV applications already being crafted by show streaming services Netflix, Hulu, and HBO.

Game makers are already working on applications, as are home-sharing service Airbnb and real estate-focused service Zillow, according to Apple executive Eddie Cue.

Siri virtual assistant software built in Apple TV allowed for natural language searches for shows, say by asking for something funny or a certain actor by name.

The new Apple TV will launch in late October at a starting price of $149.

Apple TV has lagged rivals with similar devices. According to the research firm Parks Associates, Roku leads the US market with a 37 percent market share, to 19 percent for Google Chromecast and 17 percent for Apple TV. Amazon's Fire TV devices have 14 percent.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Uber, Pinterest among private tech firms valued above $1-B

MANILA – Uber and Pinterest are among private technology companies in the US with valuations, real or rumored, of $1 billion or more, according to venture capital tracker CB Insights.

CB Insights recently released its 2015 Tech IPO Pipeline Report, which lists 588 investor-backed private technology companies in the US at a real or rumored valuation of greater than $100 million and demonstrating significant momentum.

Of the 588 firms, 42 companies have raised a financing round at a real or rumored valuation of $1 billion or more.

Aside from car service mobile app Uber and social catalog service Pinterest, other popular companies that made the billionaire’s list are AirBnB and Snapchat.

AirBnB is the firm behind Airbnb.com, a website that allows users to rent rooms or houses to travelers while Snapchat is a mobile app that allows users to snap a photo and share it before it vanishes after a few seconds.

The other tech companies in the so-called “billion dollar valuation club” are Actifio, AppDynamics, AppNexus, Auction.com, Automattic, Box, Cloudera, CloudFlare, CreditKarma, Deem, DocuSign, Dropbox, Eventbrite, Evernote, Fanatics, Gilt, Good Technology, Houzz, Insidesales.com, Jasper Technologies, Jawbone, JustFab;

Kabam, Lookout, Mongo DB, Nutanix, Palantir, Pure Storage, Qualtrics, Razer, Slack Technologies, SpaceX, Square, Stripe, SurveyMonkey, Tango, Unity Technologies, and Vice Media.

CB Insights said all 588 companies listed in the 2015 Tech IPO Pipeline “currently represents the cream of the crop within investor portfolios, and those companies that may be on their way to an IPO given sustained product, market and financing momentum.”

“It should be explicitly mentioned that not all of these 588 companies will make it to an IPO next year or ever. Many have just crossed the $100 million valuation threshold and, with the time to IPO increasing significantly, have their work cut out for them before they can even ponder the option of going public. Others among this group will never actually breakthrough to the level needed to be deemed public market worthy, or will be acquired along the way. And some will fall short, get out-executed, and may never see a liquidity event,” CB Insights explained.

CB Insights noted that the 588 companies in the pipeline have raised $64.27 billion across more than 2,700 financing deals, 38.4 percent or $24 billion of which came in 2014.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Airbnb remodels online home

SAN FRANCISCO -- Online lodgings listings service Airbnb took the wraps off a major remodel of its online home complete with a new logo.

"Airbnb has outgrown the original Airbnb brand," startup co-founder and chief Brian Chesky said in a post at the website.

"What started as a way for a few friends to pay the rent has now transformed into something bigger and more meaningful than we ever imagined."

The website lets people take in house guests who pay for stays in a variation of a "collective consumption" theme that taps into the power of the Internet to let folks share the benefits and costs of possessions such as cars and homes.

"Like us, you may have started out thinking you were just renting out a room to help pay the bills,' Chesky said in a message aimed at Airbnb users.

"Or maybe you were just booking a bed for a night on an unexpected layover. However we first entered this community, we all know that getting in isn't a transaction. It's a connection that can last a lifetime."

Chesky said that changes to Airbnb website were intended to reflect those in its community and the notion that the service lets travelers find places where they can feel as though they belong.

"We have redesigned every single page of the user experience across the web and mobile to bring our new identity to life," Chesky said.

Changes included an improved "Discover" section to spotlight desirable nearby locales where Airbnb users can find lodging, and making it easier to explore listings and make reservations.

Airbnb has come under scrutiny in some US cities due to concerns that some people use the service to run what amount to illegal hotels.

The San Francisco-based startup was launched in 2008 and quickly became very popular.

Traditional hotel chains see it as a rival and accuse it of helping people avoid taxes and hosting illegal hotels on its website.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com