Airbnb Mobile Usage Soars As Its iOS App Passes 1 Million Downloads, Accounts For 26% Of All Traffic. Airbnb is raising a whole lot of money at a big valuation, we reported yesterday, as the company continues to see hockey stick-like growth.
But as quickly as its web usage is taking off, the company is seeing even faster growth among mobile users, specifically those using its mobile apps. The company is announcing today* that the Airbnb iOS app has reached a big milestone, hitting more than 1 million times since first being launched in November 2010. In the hyper-growth mobile startup world, that might not seem like a lot of users over the span of nearly two years.
But! Airbnb users aren’t just downloading that and later deleting it like oh so many others — in fact, more than half a million users updated to the latest version of the app when it was released. Airbnb is also seeing mobile drive an increasing amount of traffic from mobile users. == * It’s also released an infographic you can probably find on finer tech blogs that publish that sort of thing. S Global Growth Infographic. Who’s afraid of Airbnb? 9flats founder Stephan Uhrenbacher talks clones and North America. The take-off success of peer-to-peer online rental service Airbnb, valued at over US$1 billion, is, unsurprisingly, prompting a suite of similar services around the world.
One, 9flats, is based in Germany, and yesterday announced the acquisition of Toronto’s iStopOver, a move that takes it straight into Airbnb’s home territory. We asked 9flats founder Stephan Uhrenbacher (above) what the move means for the Berlin-based company, which is also competing with Rocket Internet’s Wimdu in Germany – and whether it’s time for journalists to let go of the “Airbnb clone” tag. Airbnb’s Big 2012: 4X Guest Growth And 2X The Number Of Listings In 192 Countries Worldwide.
Airbnb has released some interesting growth figures this morning, proving that 2012 was the year that Airbnb stopped being something people were talking about and started to be something (a lot of) people used.
The company announced that 4 million total guests have now used Airbnb to book a night’s stay on the peer-to-peer lodging marketplace. A whopping 3 million of those guests used the service in 2012 alone. The company launched all the way back in 2007, so that should give you a clear picture of just how much growth Airbnb has seen in the past year. However, it’s worth noting that Airbnb hasn’t previously given growth stats in this format. In the past, the company has always touted nights booked on the service as a measure of growth, announcing 5 million nights booked in January 2012 and growing to 10 million in June.
The host side of the operation has also matured, going from 120,000 listings at the beginning of 2012 to over 300,000 listings currently up on the site. Airbnb Lights Up ‘Neighbourhoods’, Quartiers And Vecindarios In Europe. Airbnb took a while to roll out its international businesses — for example, officially launching Airbnb.co.uk only in February 2012, despite being around since 2008.
But in a sign of how Airbnb is focused on its wider business expansion, today the company began to promote its Neighborhoods feature, announced just four days ago, across some (but not all) of Europe. Neighborhoods offers travellers local online guides to help them decide where to stay, and it gives Airbnb an entry into offering services that span the “life” of a trip, beyond just being the place where people go to book accommodation. Airbnb rival Wimdu confirms cuts to international offices.
Wimdu, the Airbnb rival backed by the Samwer brothers’ Rocket Internet, is trimming down its international offices and moving some international staff into the company’s Berlin HQ.
The backdrop: tense competition in the market for online homestay and short term rental marketplaces. Wimdu and number one US-headquartered site Airbnb have both raised major funding rounds, and fellow Germany-based rival 9flats won support this year from Deutsche Telekom, spurring all three on the path to internationalisation. HouseTrip, based in London, Lausanne and Lisbon, is another major player… Wimdu – fast growth can carry a cost Wimdu raised $90million in summer 2011 from investors including Swedish bank AB Kinnevik and is aiming for €100m turnover in the next year, driven by 50,000 accomodations in more than 100 nations. Wimdu has overstretched in the past, letting about 50 staff go about a year ago. Airbnb Aims To Get More Social With Acquisition Of Q&A Startup Localmind.
Airbnb is announcing that it has acquired Localmind, a startup that allows users to post questions about specific locations, which are then answered in real time by local experts. Airbnb has acquired the company’s three-person team and its technology. Apparently Localmind will be working on some sort of “social initiatives.” Co-founders Lenny Rachitsky and Beau Haugh were pretty vague when I asked what those initiatives will entail, because they didn’t want to “spoil the surprise.” They did talk about the idea of a “social object” that companies can create interactions around — on Airbnb, that social object is the trip. So I can imagine Airbnb adding social features to the trip-planning experience. Haugh added that Localmind was “doing pretty darn well,” so the team members only accepted the deal because they were excited about working at Airbnb.
Airbnb Could Soon Do $1 Billion A Year In Revenues. Airbnb, the online marketplace for spare rooms and other unconventional lodging, is poised for rapid growth, according to Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.
In a recent Forbes cover story on Airbnb, Pachter estimated that Airbnb rented 12 million to 15 million room-nights in 2012. Pachter thinks that could increase to 100 million nights "eventually"—at which point it could be generating $1 billion a year in revenues. (Pachter is the analyst who famously railed against the hoodie that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wore on his IPO roadshow.
He didn't offer commentary on the wardrobe of Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who's more fond of tight-fitting sweaters.) Airbnb is clearly on a hockey-stick growth curve. For comparison, the US hotel industry does more than a billion room nights a year. Airbnb gets most of its revenues from booking fees; it charges 3 percent to hosts who list a space, and 6 to 12 percent to guests. Airbnb Hits Hockey Stick Growth: 10 Million Nights Booked, 200K Active Properties.
It looks like Airbnb, the online marketplace for listing and booking short-term housing accommodations, has officially accelerated out of startup mode and into a full-on big business.
The San Francisco-based company will announce today that it has reached a major milestone: 10 million guest nights have been booked worldwide through the site since it was founded in August 2008.