I wonder how they are doing valuations? Expedia is worth about 16 billion. They have pretty steady positive cash flow. They have about 16% growth. Airbnb is pretty risky they might have better growth, but they are worth 30 billion?
Priceline is worth about 70B. They make 3B in cash a year. If you are investing at 30B valuation your upside might be 2x, but there is a ton of downside risk.
Not much of a surprise. The VC funds that have all these billions to invest need to get a return. The early stage funding may have slowed but companies that made it as far as AirBNB have will still find funding.
More money for the bonfire? What the hell does a company like AirBnB need this cash for?
I think they are going to try to heavily expand their brand of tourism as a local. I can see them using this as an added benefit of booking through airbnb vs a hotel, but this would require tons of capital to hire local tour guides/ use locals to create hyperlocal, frequently updated itineraries.
So basically make a giant bonfire and throw money in.