S Global Growth Infographic. Airbnb admits rogue sales team used Craigslist for stealthy property drive. Apartment rental service Airbnb has confirmed salespeople made unsolicited approaches to property owners on classified listings service Craigslist.
An unknown number of salespeople contracted to the company, but said to be working remotely, used Craigslist to attract new customers to Airbnb by pretending to be ordinary punters talking up the benefits of the service. The tactic came to light in a blog post by Dave Gooden explaining how he created a number of anonymous accounts on Craigslist and was subsequently approached by a number individuals raving about Airbnb and urging him to list his property with the site. At no point did the individuals identify themselves as employees or contractors of Airbnb.
Gooden’s suspicions were raised when he received identical approaches each time. An official says: No Spotify inside Facebook, two record labels still needed for US launch. There has been some interesting speculation regarding the relationship between hot (at least in Europe) music streaming service Spotify and gargantuan social platform Facebook.
Now Forbes is reporting that Facebook has partnered with Spotify on a streaming service that “could be launched in as little as two weeks” via a Spotify icon in a user’s newsfeed. However, our sources are pouring ice cold water on the idea. The reasons are thus: Even through Spotify is doing very well on its home turf of Sweden… and has launched in Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the UK – it has yet to launch in the US. And a launch in the next two weeks looks highly optimistic.
Our sources say the reason is that Spotify has in fact secured two big unnamed record labels – but needs two more labels to come on board before it can launch in the US. But it is a long way from saying Spotify is going to deeply integrate with Facebook. So, there you have it. Airbnb Farmed Craigslist To Grow Its Listings, Says Competitor. How Big Is Airbnb, Really? Tech News and Analysis. Airbnb, the peer-to-peer apartment and house rental website, is rumored to be raising $100 million in a new round of funding that values the company at $1 billion.
Such large numbers may seem shocking considering the startup’s relatively modest past — the three-year-old company launched out of its founders’ living room in San Francisco, and has since raised $7.8 million from a variety of investors including, most recently, Ashton Kutcher. But the valuation may not be unreasonable in light of Airbnb’s future prospects. Airbnb is on track to take in more than $25 million in net revenues on $500 million of flow-through sales in 2011, and the rumors of a new round are on target, according to a source with knowledge of the company’s operations. If all goes according to Airbnb’s larger plan, those figures could just be the beginning.
“This year is about international growth. You can watch my interview with Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia below. How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company - Dave Gooden. Disclosure 1: I work in the vacation rental industry.
While my company specializes in regional, recreational vacation homes, not metro rentals – there is an obvious conflict. Disclosure 2: This is an opinion piece. This post is just my opinion along with some evidence to support it. Judge for yourself. Airbnb’s Soaring Valuation Should Be A Wake-Up Call To Independent Hotels. Some months ago, before the company was worth a billion dollars, I shared some thoughts on Airbnb.
Specifically, in what some mischaracterized as an attack on the company, I criticized those whose worship at the altar of Disruption is so unconditional that they don’t think Disruptive companies should be hidebound by the law. If Disruptive entrepreneurs are so clever, I argued, they’ll find a way to either work within the law, or to lobby to have it changed, rather than simply flouting it.
In the case of Airbnb, the law being challenged was New York’s S68730-B/ A1008-B (aka the “illegal hotel bill”); a proposed piece of legislation designed to prevent slum landlords from scamming tourists into staying in hastily converted deathtrap SROs. Or, as the Disruption cultists saw it,a desperate attempt by the hotel lobby to drive the mighty Airbnb out of business.
Two recent developments have finally given lie to that delusion. Airbnb Has Arrived: Raising Mega-Round at a $1 Billion+ Valuation. According to several sources Airbnb is in the process of closing a whopper of a funding round: $100 million or more at a $1 billion-plus valuation.
The round is being lead by Andreessen Horowitz, and includes participation from DST, say our sources. That’s a big increase from the company’s last funding round of $7.2 million, which included Sequoia Capital, Greylock, SV Angel, Ashton Kutcher and Youniversity Ventures (Kutcher broke the news that he’s an investor in AirBnB at TechCrunch Disrupt last week). The company, which launched via Y Combinator, has raised just $7.8 million to date. No surprise, it was a hotly contested deal. The service has exploded, growing more than 800% last year and booking 1.6 million night stays in other people’s homes to date.
Airbnb has become the sleeper hit of the startup world.