As Airbnb prepares to go public, here are the five things things investors will be focused on
- Airbnb announced last September that it plans to go public in 2020 in what will be one of the most highly anticipated IPOs of the year.
- Founded in 2008, Airbnb has gone from renting out air mattresses to a global travel company last valued by private investors at $31 billion.
- But after a year of startups failing to impress investors and WeWork's disastrous IPO attempt, Airbnb could face more intense scrutiny.
- Investors will be paying attention to Airbnb's profits (or losses), marketing costs, strategic direction, regulatory risks, and efforts to tackle safety issues.
Airbnb started in 2008 as a way for people to rent out spare rooms to strangers. Since then, it has grown into a global travel company valued by private investors at $31 billion by offering everything from bespoke trips to property management services, with seven million rental listings in more than 220 countries.
Last September, Airbnb announced its plans to become a publicly traded company in 2020, and some market watchers are speculating that the company could start that process in the first half of this year. It's also reportedly considering listing its shares directly rather than through a traditional initial public offering.
Airbnb's path to the public markets has been slower than some of its peers - a source of tension among both executives and rank-and-file employees. CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky has said the company is simply taking a long-term view of its business, or what Chesky has called an "infinite time horizon."
As Airbnb debated where a public offering should fit on that horizon, many of its fellow "unicorns" - companies valued at more than $1 billion - decided to take the plunge last year.
But Wall Street wasn't impressed. Companies like Uber, Lyft, and Slack have struggled to drive up stock prices, while WeWork abandoned its IPO entirely amid controversies surrounding its financials and governance.
It's against this backdrop - and amid fears of an impending economic recession - that Airbnb readies itself for public scrutiny. So, when investors finally get to kick the tires, they'll be paying especially close attention to these five things.