They get $10/stay and the cost to AirBnB is fixed at whatever it costs to run the computer systems.
Effectively, their profit is $10 per stay and their expenses border on $0.
The valuation is a bet on a YouTube exit. Most of YouTube was massive copyright violations (still is) and was a massive bandwidth cost sink (suspect it still is), but since Google bought them out that doesn't matter anymore. In fact, YouTube is a gigantic brake on innovation in the video side of the web precisely because they choke off any useful profitable business models.
Similarly, if AirBnB can get somebody big to buy them out before the lawsuits overrun them, cha-ching, go the owners and initial investors.
Totally agree, but the parent said that AirBNB gets 80% of the value (revenue) of a hotel chain. That's just false — the host gets ~85% of the value, not AirBnB.
Effectively, their profit is $10 per stay and their expenses border on $0.
The valuation is a bet on a YouTube exit. Most of YouTube was massive copyright violations (still is) and was a massive bandwidth cost sink (suspect it still is), but since Google bought them out that doesn't matter anymore. In fact, YouTube is a gigantic brake on innovation in the video side of the web precisely because they choke off any useful profitable business models.
Similarly, if AirBnB can get somebody big to buy them out before the lawsuits overrun them, cha-ching, go the owners and initial investors.