Nate Blecharczyk, Airbnb’s technical cofounder, created the $110 billion home-share phenom’s software and marketplace blueprints. Now he’s using his engineering mindset and an army of data scientists to solve the company’s most challenging problems.



In the spring of 2020, Nate Blecharczyk, the cofounder and strategy boss of home-share giant Airbnb, was walking a tightrope.&nbsp;



The covid pandemic had rocked the foundation of Airbnb, one of the world&#8217;s fastest-growing and most valuable private companies. Overnight, millions of customers canceled bookings. New reservations vanished. Airbnb&#8217;s revenue dropped some 80%. To keep the lights on, the company raised $2 billion in emergency funding from existing investors. Now Blecharczyk&#8217;s cofounder and CEO, Brian Chesky, wanted him to turn around and give away $250 million to Airbnb&#8217;s hard-hit hosts. &#8220;Brian is a bold leader who&#8217;s always pushing you past your comfort zone,&#8221; Blecharczyk says and laughs. &#8220;He wanted to do something super substantial for hosts and felt that $250 million was the right magnitude.&#8221;&nbsp;



The magnitude did not sit well with Airbnb&#8217;s financial team, who were wary of unforeseen problems that could arise from Chesky&#8217;s version of economic stimulus. So once again, Blecharczyk, Airbnb&#8217;s tech-savvy cofounder, had to turn Chesky&#8217;s big idea into a workable plan.&nbsp;



Giving away $250 million to a potential 4 million hosts was trickier than it sounds. Airbnb needed a policy to deploy funds in a balanced way that didn&#8217;t concentrate the cash to too few hosts nor spread the money so thin that the gesture was meaningless. Optics for investors and the market—Airbnb was plotting an IPO—mattered too. After all, the company was handing out more than 10% of the money it had just rushed to raise. &#8220;How do we design a program that takes care of hosts and also has the right controls, so we don&#8217;t get over our skis in this time of great uncertainty?&#8221; says Blecharczyk.



He dove into data and computer models, analyzing the number of canceled stays, forecasted upcoming cancellations, calculated the amount of revenue lost, and organized hosts by the strictness of their cancellation policies and size (small hosts got top preference). Model in hand, Blecharczyk deployed the $250 million in three weeks. More than 650,000 hosts were paid 25% of their lost reservation income. &#8220;I was the editor of the process, making sure that we weren&#8217;t making decisions prematurely and getting the team to think bigger,&#8221; says Blecharczyk. &#8220;I had to find the balance between Brian&#8217;s ambition to do something huge and translate into a specific program.&#8221;



Blecharczyk is Airbnb&#8217;s digital construction manager. His original title at Airbnb was&nbsp;head of all things technical, and&nbsp;over the last 13 years, he turned the ambitious ideas of his art-school-trained cofounders into functioning Airbnb products. CEO Chesky is the hard-charging leader who directs customer experience, fundraising and publicity. Cofounder Joe Gebbia is the artist who runs Airbnb&#8217;s new design studio Samara and its charity Airbnb.org. Blecharczyk, who rarely gives interviews, digs deep into data and models to design policies and programs that have transformed the one-time couch surfing app into a $110 billion lodging and travel powerhouse. As the company matures, he&#8217;s been busy building systems to beef up trust and safety. His latest project, City Portal, is a collection of tools and data dashboards meant to mend Airbnb&#8217;s often fraught relationships with local government leaders.



Airbnb&#8217;s leadership triple play has paid off. &#8220;The founding trio is important to Airbnb&#8217;s story with its investors and employees,&#8221; says Cowen’s Kevin Kopelman. &#8220;It&#8217;s clear they&#8217;re implementing their vision across everything the company does.&#8221; Since the dark days of the early pandemic lockdowns, Airbnb has surged. It acted fast to cut costs (it laid offer 25% of its employees in 2020) and has refocused its strategy away from pre-pandemic ventures like hotels and an airline. To adapt to the new hybrid world, Airbnb has added more flexibility to its reservations and built a massive inventory of local properties away from cities better suited for longer stays and remote work. In December 2020, Airbnb IPOed surging 112% on its first day of trading, and has climbed 13% since (the S$P 500 is up 27%). Airbnb has a market cap of $100 billion—more than Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt combined. Thanks to the jump in shares, Blecharczyk boasts a $10 billion fortune.&nbsp;



Blecharczyk grew up in Boston&#8217;s West Roxbury neighborhood, where his electric engineer dad hooked him on computers early. At age 12, Blecharczyk was home sick from school when he found a programming book and taught himself simple scripts. Soon he was devouring 500-page Q-basic coding manuals, learning how to customize PC games like SimCity and Civilization. At 14, he started making digital marketing programs for businesses for $1,000 a pop. In high school, he designed a software program and started selling licenses—over five years, the basement-built business would pull in just under $1 million.&nbsp;



As an engineer, I&#8217;ve always been good at taking something that&#8217;s high level and abstract and boiling it down into a program.Nate Blecharczyk



By then, Blecharczyk was majoring in computer science at Harvard. The business taught him two valuable lessons. He could teach himself any tech skill he wanted, and could build products that people wanted. &#8220;It gave me tremendous confidence and set me on this path of entrepreneurship.&#8221;



After Harvard, he went to Opnet, a Washington DC enterprise software firm, building Windows-based applications for businesses. Bored with the projects and slow pace, he joined an education tech company in San Francisco. Blecharczyk met cofounder Joe Gebbia through an apartment listing in SF&#8217;s Soma on Craigs List. Soon he joined Gebbia and Brian Chesky in famed start-up incubator Y-Combinator creating a product that would help people book—and trust—a stay inside a stranger&#8217;s home. &#8220;As an engineer, I&#8217;ve always been good at taking something that&#8217;s high level and abstract and boiling it down into a program,&#8221; says Blecharczyk, &#8220;You must break the problem down into bits and pieces and take action.” Blecharczyk wrote the original code, built financial models, created Airbnb&#8217;s payment system, and hacked Airbnb&#8217;s growth into top markets.&nbsp;



Blecharczyk&#8217;s analytical process fueled Airbnb&#8217;s rapid market growth. Early on, the team was unsure whether to focus on increasing customers or home listings. Blecharczyk researched data on Airbnb&#8217;s top markets—New York, San Francisco, LA—looking for patterns and correlations. He hit upon two key insights. Listings drove demand, and once a city had more than 300 listings, something clicked, and the market would grow on its own. &#8220;By looking at the data very carefully, we refocused the problem. We simplified the goal from growing the company across the country to just getting 300 properties in the most important tourist cities.&#8221; The plan worked. Airbnb&#8217;s sprouted up in every major US city.



As Airbnb grew, Blecharczyk moved from engineering head to Chief Strategy Officer. &#8220;You should always strive to hire someone better to put yourself out of a role, especially in a fast-growing organization where there&#8217;s no shortage of things to do.”



That meant leading Airbnb&#8217;s expansion into China and building programs to address trust, safety, and city regulations. One project was a system to prevent the wild parties that have long caused Airbnb a repetitional hangover. Ragers, while rare, drew a disproportionate amount of press and attention. Again he dug deep in the data searching for patterns.&nbsp;



His analysis revealed that most bashes were thrown by guests under 25 who lived near the property and booked the home last minute. (Airbnb stayed mum on other factors). Airbnb created an algorithm to block high-risk rentals and set up a policy that puts restrictions on the properties that folks under 25 can rent. Parties have since declined. &#8220;Airbnb has incredibly high net-promoter scores, and our surveys show their customers are very satisfied and very happy,&#8221; says Cowen’s Kopelman. &#8220;As incidents have popped up on the platform, Airbnb has reacted with new policies, employees and processes to minimize negative dynamics on the platform.&#8221;



You should always strive to hire someone better to put yourself out of a role, especially in a fast-growing organization where there&#8217;s no shortage of things to do.Nate Blecharczyk



Blecharczyk recently built software to become friends with local governments, whose housing policies can make or break Airbnb&#8217;s business. Since its launch, Airbnb has been at odds with politicians about safety, regulation, housing supply, and taxes. Each conflict created a one-of-a-kind problem for Airbnb, sapping time, money, and resources. As laws and leaders often changed, Airbnb found itself playing an ever-expanding game of whack-a-mole.



To create a more uniform and efficient process, Blecharczyk gathered leaders across Airbnb&#8217;s divisions and spent a year creating a digital product with features that hundreds of local governments wanted most. Last fall, Airbnb launched its City Portal dashboard showing municipalities all the hosts in their area, from where Airbnb guests are traveling, the revenue hosts are collecting, and the dollars visitors bring to the economy. There are also tools that let towns give out permits, find illegal rentals, and hotlines to report violations.



Today more than 100 municipalities are on the system. Blecharczyk says that City Portal was controversial inside the company and having him run it showed players, both inside and outside Airbnb, it was a top priority. &#8220;We want governments to feel empowered and not frustrated with us,&#8221; says Blecharczyk. &#8220;It&#8217;s important for the long-term. As we become a significant platform globally, cities will want this level of control. It&#8217;s only a matter of time—best to be proactive about it.&#8221; 



By Steven Bertoni, Forbes Staff

Airbnb Open LA – Day 3

Airbnb’s $10 Billion Engineer Is Tackling The Lodging Giant’s Toughest Projects

TOPLINE: Shares of Airbnb have plunged 25% since their monster trading debut on Thursday, and analysts forecast the stock could slump further as recently priced initial public offerings flash warning signs in the market.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h4>



After a bearish analyst call on Monday, shares of Airbnb are falling 5% today pushing shares down to about $124 apiece, or 25% lower than their trading day high of $165.



The fortunes of the firm&#8217;s three cofounders–Nathan Blecharcyzk, Joe Gebbia and CEO Brian Chesky–have plunged nearly $5 billion combined since&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/12/10/thanks-to-ipo-pop-airbnbs-three-billionaire-cofounders-more-than-double-their-net-worths-in-a-single-day/">Thursday&#8217;s close</a>&nbsp;to about $8.5 billion for each of Blecharcyzk and Gebbia and $9.5 billion for Chesky.



In a note downgrading Airbnb&#8217;s stock on Monday, Gordon Haskett analyst Robert Mollins said Airbnb&#8217;s IPO surge &#8220;more than stretched&#8221; the firm&#8217;s share prices, which have lifted Airbnb&#8217;s valuation to roughly two-times estimated bookings in 2022.



At that rate, Airbnb&#8217;s valuation, relative to its revenue potential, is more than three times higher than the average among competing online travel agencies like Expedia and Booking.com, Mollins further noted.



He downgraded the firm to underperform from a pre-IPO buy rating, but upped his price target to $103 from $77.



Wall Street&#8217;s still generally bearish on Airbnb&#8217;s current price levels: three analysts covering the stock give an average one-year price target of about $96, representing nearly 25% downside to current prices.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE&nbsp;</h4>



“An overwhelming majority of investors we’ve spoken with have been unable to justify Airbnb’s valuation premium relative to [other online travel firms] and expressed interest in realizing their quick gains,” Mollins wrote in a note to clients on Monday. “Investors&#8230;&nbsp; like Airbnb’s business model and want to be long-term holders, but are now looking at selling the stock because they no longer feel comfortable owning it.”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



Shares of Airbnb skyrocketed as much as 120% during the home rental giant&#8217;s long-awaited first day of trading, propelling the firm&#8217;s market cap to more than five times its last private market valuation of $18 billion in April. Despite the damper the pandemic is putting on the travel industry, Airbnb shares were priced at a higher than expected $68 on Wednesday, allowing the firm to raise roughly $3.5 billion in its initial public offering. That bested the $3.4 billion DoorDash raised just one day earlier to make Airbnb&#8217;s public market debut the third-largest of 2020. DoorDash shares have tanked nearly 20% since Wednesday.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h4>



$103 billion.That&#8217;s how high Airbnb&#8217;s market capitalization got on Thursday–higher than all publicly traded U.S. hotel chains combined. It&#8217;s now at about $73 billion.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h4>



On Saturday, fintech startup Affirm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/affirm-postpones-initial-public-offering-sources-say-11607801619" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pushed</a>&nbsp;its IPO back to January at the earliest, as people familiar with the matter cited hesitancy around the &#8220;extreme&#8221; first-day pops of Airbnb and Doordash as well as delays sparked by an influx of listing requests at the Securities and Exchange Commission. That echoed concerns from gaming company Roblox just one day earlier, when the firm&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/roblox-delays-ipo-until-next-year-11607742940?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told employees</a>&nbsp;that its planned December IPO would instead happen early next year given the uncertainty around recent IPO valuations.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/12/10/thanks-to-ipo-pop-airbnbs-three-billionaire-cofounders-more-than-double-their-net-worths-in-a-single-day/">Thanks To IPO Pop, Airbnb’s Three Billionaire Cofounders More Than Double Their Net Worths In A Single Day</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020/12/10/airbnb-ipo-shares-valuation-billion-more-than-marriott-hilton-hyatt/">Airbnb Skyrockets 120% In IPO, Valuation Blows Past $100 Billion–More Than Marriott, Hilton And Hyatt Combined</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020/12/09/doordash-ipo-shares-first-day-of-trading/">DoorDash IPO: Shares Surge 80% At Start Of Trading, Boosting Valuation To $60 Billion In Year’s Third-Largest IPO</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://qz.com/1945769/is-there-a-bubble-in-us-tech-stocks-and-will-it-pop-in-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Is a massive bubble in US tech stocks coming—or is it already here?</a> (Quartz)



&#8211;By Jonathan Ponciano, Forbes Staff

Airbnb Open LA – “Introducing Trips” Reveal

Airbnb Stock Down 25% Since IPO, Three Billionaire Cofounders Lose $5 Billion In 3 Trading Days

With Airbnb filing paperwork for an initial public offering last week, it became the latest of many companies to pursue a confidential IPO, which experts say allows for more flexibility and can be more advantageous than the traditional route of filing an S-1 months ahead of time.



KEY FACTS



The confidential IPO can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wyattresearch.com/article/confidential-ipos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trace its origins</a>&nbsp;back to President Barack Obama’s 2012 JOBS Act, which allowed companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue to file S-1 IPO paperwork confidentially.



In June 2017, that $1 billion cap was lifted,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/06/30/sec-allow-confidential-ipo-registration-filings/442539001/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">allowing all companies</a>&nbsp;to leverage the confidential IPO when attempting to go public, which proved to be a very popular option in the following years.



Companies like Uber and Lyft are the “two posterchildren for using this strategy,” as well as others like Spotify, Slack and Palantir, says Sandeep Dahiya, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.



“The biggest advantage of confidential filings is withholding information from competitors for a few months, compared to a traditional filing that everyone could see,” explains Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida who is known as “Mr. IPO” for his work on initial public offerings.



“The flexibility of timing and price range fluidity is a huge part of it—and even more so given the underlying volatility in the stock market today,” says Dayiha.&nbsp;



“Think of it as playing poker with the market: If companies pursue a traditional IPO, the market can deal them a very different hand in the 90 to 120 days leading up to when they’re scheduled to go public,” he adds.



If a company does decide to go ahead with an IPO after a confidential filing, they are required to file a public S-1 form just three weeks beforehand (rather than months ahead), but that still gives investors more than enough time to evaluate financials, says Ritter.



CRUCIAL QUOTE



“With a traditional IPO, once you file paperwork and the train has left the station, it’s hard to stop it,” says Dahiya. “That’s the beauty of a confidential IPO—there’s no set date and more flexibility.”



BIG NUMBER



So far this year, the average first day return for an IPO is 36%—the highest level since 2000, according to Ritter. “We’re on pace for not only the highest average first day return but also more doubling in price of any year since 1999 and 2000,” he adds.



WHAT TO WATCH FOR



Home sharing giant Airbnb is one of the most recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/08/19/airbnb-confidentially-files-ipo-paperwork/">high-profile examples</a>&nbsp;of a company pursuing the confidential filing route. By doing so, the company did not have to disclose any financial information or specify how many shares would be offered in its IPO—giving it far more flexibility than in a traditional S-1 filing. “Covid-19 was just brutal for the hospitality industry, so the fact that Airbnb feels like it can have decent enough performance I think is very encouraging,” says Dahiya. Meanwhile, it has also been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/22/bill-ackman-and-tontine-holdings-rewrite-the-terms-for-spacs.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">widely reported</a>&nbsp;that Airbnb might be in talks with billionaire investor Bill Ackman’s special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) about a possible reverse merger. “That’s certainly a plausible scenario,” says Ritter, adding, “it makes sense for Airbnb to pursue a dual track strategy to improve their bargaining position both with Ackman and with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (the underwriters for its IPO) to play them off each other.”



KEY BACKGROUND



While IPOs were at a virtual standstill for much of the first half of 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, Airbnb is the latest to join a rush of companies going public amid the stock market’s rebound from its coronavirus recession low point in March. Among those who have successfully done so are music label Warner Music Group and insurtech startup Lemonade.



FURTHER READING



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/08/19/airbnb-confidentially-files-ipo-paperwork/">Airbnb Confidentially Files IPO Paperwork</a> (Forbes)



-Sergei Klebnikov,Forbes Staff

D1AETISPVAAA

Here’s Why More Companies Are Filing Confidential IPO Paperwork

Airbnb is the lead investor in a new $160 million funding round for hospitality startup&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lyric.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lyric</a>. The $30 billion home-sharing platform was joined by a host of major players in real estate including new investors Tishman Speyer and RXR Realty, as well as existing investors FifthWall Ventures and Starwood CEO Barry Sternlicht.



The Series B financing is about 50% debt and brings Lyric’s total funds raised to $185 million. The San Francisco-based startup declined to discuss its valuation.



Lyric’s model is similar to the one WeWork popularized for shared offices. Lyric leases a full floor of an apartment building from the landlord, fills each unit with Instagram-friendly furnishings, and then rents them out like hotel rooms. The company makes money off the spread between what it pays in rent and what it charges travelers.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/04/03/meet-the-top-women-investors-of-the-midas-list-in-2019/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Meet The Top Women Investors Of The Midas List In 2019 (opens in a new tab)">Meet The Top Women Investors Of The Midas List In 2019</a>



“The supply and demand of real estate used to move in a rigid cadence. It was like the old Henry Ford quote ‘you can have a car in any color you want as long as it is black,’” says Rob Speyer, CEO of developer Tishman Speyer. “To be competitive in 2019, real estate must offer flexibility to the customer, just like any other business.”



Lyrics average nightly rate is $220. Travelers can book one of 500 “suites” through the company’s site or on rental marketplaces like Airbnb. They can stay for as few as two nights or try to beat the record of 304. Every Lyric apartment includes a Casper mattress, Frette linens and toiletries from Malin + Goetz. Units feature local touches like Delta blues records in Chicago, Ed Panar photos in Pittsburgh and Cultivar Coffee in Dallas.



“We have seen how hospitality entrepreneurs like the team at Lyric can help deliver amazing experiences and help guests feel like they can belong anywhere in the world,” Greg Greeley, Airbnb’s president of homes, said in a release announcing the investment. Lyric plans to use the new funds to grow to 2,500 units in 12 months.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2019/02/08/airbnb-hires-airline-executive-in-move-to-offer-transportation-services/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Airbnb Hires Airline Executive In Move To Offer Transportation Services (opens in a new tab)">Airbnb Hires Airline Executive In Move To Offer Transportation Services</a>



For real estate owners, having Lyric absorb units can help get a new rental building to full occupancy faster. Lyric says it pays market rate for the apartments it uses. CEO Andrew Kitchell argues access to guest suites can also be marketed as an amenity for traditional, long-term tenants. His company’s presence, Kitchell reasons, eliminates the need for a spare bedroom or keeps a sibling from sleeping on your couch.



“We believe having some percentage of our buildings as shared hospitality, if done right, would be a very valuable addition,” says Scott Rechler, CEO of RXR, which is developing 6,000 residential units. “Merchandising them with multiple products that can meet different customers’ needs will make the communities more vibrant.”



Of course, not everyone likes the idea of random travelers coming and going as they please. Niido, another Airbnb-backed startup, experienced pushback when it took over management of a Florida apartment building and promised to help residents rent our their spaces short term.



Kitchell, who has worked in real estate technology since 2009, cofounded Lyric in 2014 with president Joe Fraiman. In 2011, Fraiman founded Tastemaker, a interior design startup.



-Samantha Sharf; Forbes Staff

a Luxury home in Cape Town, South Africa.

Airbnb Leads $160 Million Investment Into Hospitality Startup Lyric

Airbnb is preparing to add transportation options to its line-up of travel services as the online company seeks to find areas of growth outside its original home-renting business. 



Airbnb said on Thursday it had hired veteran airline industry executive Fred Reid as its global head of transportation, marking the company’s most definitive step yet toward executing a plan more than two years in the works.



In late 2016, Airbnb unveiled efforts to become a full-service travel website and hinted at plans to include transportation services travelers could reserve at the same time they booked a home.



Since then, Airbnb has added offerings of guided tours and activities, restaurant reservations, luxury vacation homes and traditional hotels.



Chief Executive Brian Chesky said plane ticketing would not be added to the list.



“I’m not interested in building our own airline or creating just another place on the internet where you can buy a plane ticket, but there is a tremendous opportunity to improve the transportation experience for everyone,” Chesky said in emailed comments.



Airbnb did not specify what that would entail, but a person familiar with the company’s plans said it would partner with transportation providers so they could offer their services. That could include anything from a tour bus operator to a taxi fleet, tuk-tuk driver or river boat guide.



This steady expansion by Airbnb, which started as a website where homeowners could make some cash renting spare rooms, is a bid to become a one-stop travel service for more mainstream sightseers.



The new business lines are critical for Airbnb to continue growing even as its original home-booking business slows, hindered by regulations that have capped short-term rentals in key urban areas such as San Francisco and New York City. Airbnb has been blamed for exacerbating home prices in congested housing markets.



Its aim is for travelers to book every part of their trip on Airbnb, with the company getting a cut of each transaction, buoying its revenue. Airbnb is preparing for an initial public offering this year, and investors will be focused on growth when they decide how to value the company.



Twitter shares tumble on higher expense forecast



Unlike many of its venture-backed, highly valued peers in Silicon Valley, Airbnb is profitable. Airbnb said last year that in the third quarter it had “substantially more” than $1 billion in revenue, a quarterly record for the company, driven in part by growth in smaller towns and suburbs. Its revenue for all of 2017 topped $2.5 billion.



Reid comes to Airbnb after leading the autonomous air taxi division of Kitty Hawk, and following stints as CEO of Virgin America and president of Delta Air Lines and German airlines group Lufthansa. -Reuters



&#8211; Heather Somerville

Airbnb Hires Airline Executive In Move To Offer Transportation Services

The nature of permanent employment is changing, revolutionized by technology. Is the gig economy here to stay?



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



In the suburb of Randburg in South Africa, 25-year-old media entrepreneur Zola Brunner is determined to succeed as her own boss. She works as a ‘full-time’ freelancer. 



The gig economy is an option she deliberately considered, like many&nbsp; millennials like her. 



“I didn’t intend to come into it. It just so happened that I was working at a news organization. I put in all my hours and dedicated my time. You push and push, but it got to a point where I wanted to also do more because I don’t like to stick to one thing or one job,” she says.



While working on a television show for her former employer, she was creating content for two other companies on the side. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I was able to substitute that income where I was working and focus on the other jobs that I was doing.” </blockquote>



She cites flexibility as a major reason for venturing into freelance work. “It gives me more space and time to manage who I want to work with and what specific project I want to work on. You can also set your time and set your rate. So, for me, it fits into my lifestyle.”



&nbsp;In 2018, Brunner founded Beyond Media for two reasons. One of them was quite unexpected. 



“I was working three, four jobs at the time, with different clients, and these clients came from referrals, people requesting and requiring video content for their platforms to disseminate onto social media. These clients wanted to market their product, their organization, and just boost their social media platforms. I was able to assist them with this. 



“At that point, I realized there is a set number of referrals I’m getting that need this content, then surely, I’ll be able to do this on a permanent basis because it was getting out of hand. I was getting to a point where I had to make a decision; where I was going to focus on juggling a number of clients or one specific job. I took the first option.”



Brunner says the second reason was the realization that there’s a technology gap and mobile phones are at the forefront. She uses her mobile phone to film and create content for her clients. “My most memorable experience was when I delivered the final product to a satisfied client who was happy. From there, it led to more work, and I realized that I could do it, and I’ll be okay. I’m happy with my decision.”



While Brunner cherishes certain moments as a freelancer, she does face challenges. “Not knowing when to stop because, as an entity, you don’t necessarily have an accounts department, you don’t have a graphics team,you don’t have an HR manager, you become all of that. So, for me, the challenge is when do I stop? You get into a space where you do everything and there is no time clock, there is no 9-to-5. You work on the times when you need to deliver a project. That was problematic because it had an impact on my health. I had to resolve it by taking some time out and working on my time management and my health.”



Brunner sees a future for the gig economy. “The future of work is having the freedom to choose to work remotely or collaborate. It is the freedom to push boundaries and embrace new technologies because it’s ok. It’s how you are going to evolve and stay ahead of your competitors in order to be a success. It is also the freedom to disrupt the system.” 



With one powerful brush in her hand, makeup artist Deogracious Dube, 27, works on the faces of clients. Besides referrals, she aggressively uses social media to acquire customers. 



Dube previously worked as a makeup artist in a retail store.“I am largely in control of my own time. When I worked for MAC, I had certain hours to keep. I had to plan my life around those hours. As a freelancer, you can schedule how you work. You have time to actually do other things. I didn’t want to be on my feet eight hours a day. I have dreams and plans of starting my own business one day, my own makeup line, or opening my own salon, things like that.”



She speaks about the future of makeup artistry in the gig economy. “Makeup artists used to be in the background but the field is growing and becoming more glamorized and popular, and as a result, more people know about it and we have become more in demand.”



Uber is one of the major players in the gig economy. Their drivers, who are location-based freelancers, get paid for each ‘gig’. One hot Saturday afternoon, as people make their way in and out of a mall in the East Rand outside Johannesburg, Uber driver Donald Beukes waits in his car for his next customer, his eyes fixed on his phone.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Being unemployed, I couldn’t find a job. I decided to join the Uber team because this was the only place I could actually get a job.” </blockquote>



When asked if he would ever consider returning to a nine-to-five job, he says: “No! I am my own boss. I determine how long I want to work. It actually builds your character. You push yourself if you work for Uber because you want to reach a certain target of money. If you reach your target, you’ll be able to make a living … Depending how much I push myself, I can make roughly R15,000 ($1,040) after paying everything.” 



As South Africa is gripped by recession, pay hikes are hard to come by, and food and fuel costs are escalating. Therefore, having a ‘gig’or ‘side hustle’ has become critical for some people. 



With the unemployment rate currently at 27.5% and the youth unemployment rate at 52.8%, some respondents we dealt with for this story have come to the realization that dependency on a government dealing with internal issues such as corruption, is no longer an option. This could be one of the many reasons why the gig economy is on the ascent in South Africa. 



There is an increase in freelance work as more people opt for self-employment. Work in the gig economy can be web-based (you could work from anywhere) or location-based. Both provide flexible hours and a sense of freedom compared to a traditional job. 



According to the Regus Exclusive Economic Survey, “A rise inflexible working also benefits individuals, set to save people 3.53 billion hours of commuting time by 2030. A predicted boom in flexible working could contribute $10.04 trillion to the global economy by 2030”. 



Nesan Nair, senior portfolio manager at Sasfin Securities,says the number of platforms for freelancers to get their work to a larger audience are more accessible now, compared to 20 years ago. 



“How many people have set up YouTube channels to do basic things? Baking a cake, for example, then they get people to subscribe and then they can sell advertising on that channel. It’s not a question of standing on a street corner and getting 1,000 people to come and view your product. 



“We’re talking about millions and billions of people that can access what you have to say in a cheap and efficient manner. Look at Facebook users, for example; close to two billion people access the platform. If you can get your work on there and get a small percentage of people that understand what you’re doing, and if you’ve got a value proposition that makes sense and people are interested in, you can have a very successful launch in a matter of weeks.” 



But while the benefits of the gig economy include freedom and flexibility, there’s a major downside to it, lack of security one of them.



“I know if I want to get a home loan, it’s going to be a little bit tricky because I don’t have a permanent job,” says Brunner.



“I don’t have fears when I reach my pension because I am putting aside money. It’s obviously not the same compared to a company that puts the money aside for you and you can’t touch it until you retire or until you leave,” says Dube. 



The Fourth Industrial Revolution could disrupt the job market as technology threatens to replace a number of traditional jobs. There’s an alarming rate of retrenchments and job cuts in the formal sector and people may be forced to enter the gig economy.



According to Statistics South Africa, businesses in the country currently use 14% of total spend on their employees. These employment costs consist of salaries and wages, bonuses, pension, benefits, life insurance benefits, medical aid, and other employee-related costs. Businesses looking to offer freelance positions to lower company costs will mean more people will have the opportunity to take on more than one job at a time. 



“A lot of people will start working for themselves. At the moment, we’ve got women drivers who are driving for themselves. It just shows that it’s not a male-dominated business, women are also coming in.,” says Beukes. 



“A lot of people are realizing the economy is so unstable,and you can’t really rely on a job. People are getting retrenched, the world is changing, and traditional jobs are not what they were, say 10 years ago. You can’t rely on one salary as much as you think you can. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">New jobs are also being created these days which were not around, say, even as little as five years ago. The job market is changing. </blockquote>



“A lot of people are really talented. They’ve got so many talents. You can be an accountant but you’re talented at organizing things or planning events, so you do events management on the weekend, or plan parties&#8230; There’s more to life than just one job. We’re all very multi-dimensional,” says Dube. 



Nadir Thokan, an investment analyst for 27Four, says that ultimately it’s about productivity. “If people can be more productive freelancing, then that’s the way we’re going to be migrating towards. If we’re more productive by being a contractual employee, then that’s what you’re going to do. It also speaks on people’s risk appetite. 



“Ultimately, you have to have a higher risk appetite in order to be a freelancer because you don’t have the stability of a monthly cheque, but it can be more financially rewarding over the long-term if you become very good at freelancing because your time becomes your own and you can work for multiple sources and that can be financially rewarding for you.” 



Is the gig economy here to stay? “In the space where it can create employment, I think it will definitely disrupt the South African industry and it’s definitely here to stay, for example, the way Uber has revolutionized how people travel in South Africa has been phenomenal. The reality of the matter is that it is more cost-effective than a normal taxi(metered cab) and it’s creating employment, so those kinds of disruptions that are positive, and make people’s lives easier are here to stay. 



In addition to growing the economy and improving the absorption rate into the formal sector,maybe we’ve got to rethink the way we create employment. Freelancing could definitely be one way we could reduce the number of unemployed people over time,” says Thokan. 



Adds Nair: “Younger people, because of their nature, are more adventurous. They don’t buy cars, they Uber. They don’t buy houses, they Airbnb. It’s almost a different mind-set that they have in life. They don’t want to acquire assets, they want to acquire experiences… Younger people want to explore their own ideas, their own ambitions and the technological environment right now affords them that opportunity more than any point in history we’ve seen before.”



The only option then for Africa Inc. may be to consider changing mind-sets and redraft the employment rule book.

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Popularity Of Freelancing Has Changed The 9-to-5 Landscape

Tourists in Soweto, the township southwest of Johannesburg in South Africa, now have more options for staying in the same neighbourhood that was once home to two Nobel laureates, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Here, through accommodation app Airbnb, locals are increasingly turning entrepreneurs throwing open their homes for visitors wanting to savor Kasi life. As many as 20 Soweto homes are listed hosts on the Airbnb search engine – and the list is growing.
Take Nelson Tiko Mashele, a 33-year-old born and bred in Soweto, who founded Vilakazi Backpackers on the famous Orlando West street with his father, and which is located five minutes from the homes of Mandela and Tutu, and 10 minutes from the Hector Pieterson memorial.
Mashele is one of the youngest Airbnb hosts in Soweto, and his establishment one of the newest in the area. He says 70% of his guests are locals, the rest international, and business is looking good.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/10/06/sharing-economy-400000-guests-home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Sharing Economy: 400,000 Guests At Home</a>
The day we visit, we are ushered into his spotless living room. A coffee table in the middle of the foyer is laden with sightseeing pamphlets. Hip hop music is playing in the background. The seven-bedroom house is well-appointed and Mashele charges R299 ($25) a night.
<div id="attachment_35881" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35881" class="wp-image-35881 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-1024x681.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/rooom.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A room at the Vilakazi Backpackers costs R299 ($25) a night. Photo by Karen Mwendera.</div>
That’s not a bad bargain for the local life that his guests, who he says are mostly from America, Germany, Brazil and France, want to experience.
According to Airbnb, most guests choose to live like locals. Mashele says they would rather walk to tourist destinations and buy local food from the outlets on the famous Vilakazi Street.
One of Mashele’s partners is Soweto Outdoor Adventures run by Kgomotso Pooe, also his long-time friend. Their collaborations offer his guests quad-bike tours, paddling and boating rides, trips to Orlando Towers and indulging in local cuisine such as magwenyas (deep-fried dough balls) with atchar and white liver and kota (half loaf of bread filled with curry), ending the day with a shisanyama (meat cooked over an open fire).
On the opposite side, in Orlando East, is a bed-and-breakfast in operation for over 16 years. TDJ’s BnB is a home-owned business catering for local and international visitors. Their aim this year is to start using the Airbnb services to help increase their profits.
“We are looking forward to getting new guests from all over the world,” says TDJ’s manager Nomthandazo Ntshingila.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sometime-in-africa/2012/08/01/staying-in-hotels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Staying In Hotels</a>
She says joining Airbnb will give her an edge moving her numbers higher than the average 30 visitors she receives per month. Currently, a room at TDJ’s costs R454 ($38) a night.
For a more authentic experience, tourists can taste African beer brewed at the guest house. Another hotspot guests can visit is Sakhumzi, a Sowetan shisanyama restaurant and bar.
A key difference between Mashele’s and Ntshingila’s businesses is that the former has Wi-Fi on site allowing him to stay active on social media.
“One of the requirements to host with Airbnb was to offer Wi-Fi services to potential clients. We then got Wi-Fi before listing on the app,” says Ntshingila.
Hosts need to be constantly connected to an online platform and keep the most updated information on their availability and business.
The accommodation hosting platform tells FORBES AFRICA they are working on refining their offerings and making “regular updates to ensure people get exactly what they are looking for”. It’s clear that for the app to take off in townships like Soweto, homeowners need to be empowered with technology.
Airbnb says it’s planning to invest $1 million from 2018 to 2020 to promote and support community-led tourism projects in Africa. The project aims to support training in hospitality and technology for township residents.
Indeed, such investments will also help upskill those living in less-developed areas within Soweto such as Kliptown and Pimville, and as a result, reduce the barriers for entrepreneurs wishing to rent out their homes and bring in precious tourism dollars, much-needed in today’s difficult times.

air-bnb

Living Like Mandela

When we talk about the sharing economy, there are a lot of connotations around it, both positive and negative. The first two companies that come to mind are Airbnb and Uber, with the latter having its fair share of controversies regarding regulation not just in South Africa, but around the world.
Airbnb has been a pioneer of the sharing economy, with currently over 3 million listings spread over 65,000 cities in 191 countries. Since its inception in August 2008, the San Francisco-based company has hosted over 160 million guests globally, and that number continues to grow.
The astronomical rise of Airbnb that has shaken up the hotel industry is now worth over $31 billion (at the time of print), and raised over $1 billion in its latest round of funding (March 2017), bringing its total raised to date at over $3 billion.
It’s crazy to think that the company putting a huge dent in the hotel industry owns no property, at all.
In March 2017, the company shared some interesting insights through a report called <a href="https://press.atairbnb.com/app/uploads/2017/03/WomensReport_print_3-2-17_v1-2-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Women Hosts and Airbnb: Building a Global Community</a>. It said that while it cannot tear down the obstacles to empowerment women face worldwide, its platform is powered by a growing community of women hosts who are connecting with guests, each other and their local communities.
Airbnb says historically, female hosts have outnumbered their male counterparts around the world; and an estimated over 1 million women host on Airbnb, making up 55% of the global Airbnb host community. Additionally, women host at 120% the rate of men.
The company’s female hosts have been earning a significant income around the world, and in 2016 alone, South Africa came third by most earnings per host at over R25,350 (nearly $2,000), behind the US at $6,600 and Spain at $3,600.
Airbnb estimates that over 50,000 women around the world have used income from its platform to support entrepreneurship for themselves, launching a business, or as direct investment capital for a new business they are starting. The report also stated that globally, 62% of single mother hosts use their Airbnb income to help afford their home.
The South African economy has been boosted by R2.4 billion ($184 million) in 2016, which is an estimated sum of guest spending and host income, said Airbnb in a post in May 2017.
South African hosts saw over 400,000 guest arrivals into their homes last year alone, a massive spike from the 38,000 back in 2014.
The estimated income and guest arrivals in South Africa came from 16,000 Airbnb hosts spread across the country who are ‘regular people’.
“A typical host is 45 years old and 40 percent of them are freelancers, entrepreneurs or self-employed,” said the company.
Lize Hartley, a 28-year-old executive head within the telecommunications industry living in the Cape Town CBD, lets out a property she bought that is five blocks away from her current apartment.
Making the decision to become a host on Airbnb was a ‘no-brainer’ for Hartley, who had been renting out her guest room initially.
“I crunched the numbers, working out what kind of occupation rate and average price per night I needed to cover my bond and other costs; I was lucky enough to put down a higher-than-average – in terms of percentage – deposit, which also helped remove some of the risk,” says Hartley.
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Most of Hartley’s guests are international travelers – she estimates this to be about 85% – and thinks her listing shows up relatively high on the list due to good reviews.
“Once people land on your listing, good reviews are important, as are good photographs, which I had done professionally as soon as the place was ready to be rented.”
Hartley thinks the biggest element of empowerment is that Airbnb is a means for people to own property, who otherwise might not have been able to.
“It is especially important to me as a woman; we know that women don’t own nearly as much property as men do worldwide, without even delving into patriarchal property rights, wage gaps, and other systemic injustices that hinder women from owning property.”
Moreover, there’s no income disparity between Airbnb hosts based on gender, so the platform acts as an equalizer in a world where women have to fight for equality every day, says Hartley.
Buying a property to let out on Airbnb has always been an investment for Hartley, who looks at the long-term focus, rather than a means of increasing her disposable income. “I don’t treat the money I get from this as supplementary income, instead, all of that money goes straight into paying the bond off more quickly.”
Guests that Hartley got to know better, even returning ones from the US, have been interesting, she says.
“From lawyers working in Baltimore alongside the Black Lives Matter movement, to former national cross-country skiers, and art lovers opening galleries on the other side of the world, we really have met some incredible people.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2017/07/11/workplace-future-now/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Workplace Of The Future &#8211; Or Now?</a>
Another already empowered female with a successful career is 43-year-old humanitarian aid Belinda Bowling from De Waterkant, in Cape Town, whose Airbnb hosting has gone on to create a micro-business.
“It’s been fantastically empowering for my housekeeper and business partner, Nozi, who looks after the house on a day-to-day basis, without whom I couldn’t make this venture work successfully,” says Bowling.
Nozi has got an iPhone now, and we are able to communicate on bookings as if in the same room together, through the use of innovative apps that support the Airbnb phenomenon, she says.
“She’s also training up other unemployed women from her community, and sometimes outsources to them during busy times; she’s creating a micro-business, and becoming much more financially independent.”
“I’m enormously grateful for this outcome of this venture,” adds Bowling.
<div id="attachment_33785" style="width: 320px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33785" class=" wp-image-33785" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Belinda-Bowling-high-res-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="310" height="465" />Belinda Bowling (Photo supplied)</div>
Bowling built her house in Betty’s Bay nine years ago, which was more of an emotional investment, rather than a financial one, she says.
“It was a home for me in South Africa that gave me much-desired roots, bearing in mind my then transient and nomadic life working in humanitarian aid and international development.”
Due to her emotional commitment to the house, the decision to rent it out was something she avoided until 18 months ago, when it became a financial necessity.
“Returning home to work in Cape Town, I could no longer afford to maintain a second home that didn’t generate any income.”
Despite being wary of having strangers in her house and personal space, the perceived risks implicit in holiday rentals and the horror stories about nightmare guests, Bowling’s experience has been nothing but a very positive one, with a few lessons learned along the way, she says.
The experience and the income has both exceeded Bowling’s expectations, and some of her guests from Betty’s Bay have come to stay with her at her home in De Waterkant.
“I think Airbnb is a lot like Tinder, it matches people very successfully based on their interests, intentions and tastes. This is what makes it so disruptive and revolutionary – it’s highly personal, despite being a [impersonal] tech platform.”
Airbnb homes are (mainly) just that: (bespoke) homes, says Bowling.
“Not hotels, or mass market villa rentals all crammed with the same furniture. So the chances of the relationship being a positive one is much higher right from the starting point.”
Bowling loves hosting on Airbnb because being a part of ‘special family times’ has been most rewarding, from the ‘glam pad’ for the bride and her bridesmaids to a temporary home for first-time parents wanting to bond with their little one.
“These are intimate experiences that live with guests forever, and it’s an honor to be a part of that.”  &#8211; Written by Nafisa Akabor

The Sharing Economy: 400,000 Guests At Home

You don’t have to be there anymore. Last night, 500,000 people rented a roof over their heads in 57,000 cities through the web. Also, 640,000 homeowners and paying guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco.
It’s a money maker.
A typical South African Airbnb host, who shares space in his home, can make at least R28,000 ($2,000) a year, according to Airbnb data .
“South Africa is currently the largest market for Airbnb in Africa with 9,400 homes listed. South Africa is becoming an increasingly popular global destination, with the number of people staying in places booked through Airbnb in South Africa increasing by a staggering 257 percent. South Africans are embracing the service as well, with those using Airbnb to travel increasing by 163 percent,” said an Airbnb report last year.
“Airbnb is the worst idea that ever worked,” says Brian Chesky, Co-founder and CEO of Airbnb.
That’s not all.
On the internet, everything is for hire and anyone can make money. It is called the sharing economy. It allows people to make money from under-used things. You can rent out your house while on vacation, or rent out your lawnmower, piano or  car when not using it. It can be anything.
“I travel a lot and whenever I do, I make sure that my entire house in Stellenbosch is rented out for whatever days I would be gone for. I even let them use my helper if they need to and sometimes I even leave them my pets at an additional cost,” says Jean van der Merwe, a sharing economy devotee.
“I also rent someone’s house instead of a hotel when I’m away. This means I get to feel at home and experience the city like a local would at a cheaper fee.”
Van der Merwe says she rents musical instruments for her children, instead of buying.
“Children change their minds. So I just rent to see what they like and when we are done with it, I just return it to the owner.”
The impact is huge. Airbnb in the hospitality sector; Uber in transport; Spotify in media and Poshmark in fashion are leading the way. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), global revenue generated by this growing phenomenon is expected to be worth $335 billion by 2025.
“We’ve definitely seen a shift in consumption habits, specifically as it pertains to music. People are feeling less of a need to own a track of music, which is where Spotify comes into play. They would rather rent or share things instead,” says Amanda Havey, Vice President of On-Air and Brand Creative for VH1.
For Uber, the sharing economy has brought remarkable growth. Since 2013, the online ride-sharing company has taken off in 12 cities in sub-Saharan Africa, with no advertising. Its disruptive nature and low prices has put it on everyone’s lips. It connects customers through a smartphone app that tracks the journey. Leaked financial results show that the company had gross bookings of $3.63-billion in the first half of 2014 alone.
These figures can’t be ignored. But there is a trick to it. It works on trust and reputation. If you hire out your car, you trust someone will bring it back, in good condition.
According to a PwC survey, 51% of people surveyed say they can see themselves being providers in the sharing economy in the next two years, while 72% say they can see themselves being consumers in the sharing economy in the next two years.
“A potential Uber or Lyft driver, weighing the costs of a new car, may choose to spend more for a higher quality, more luxurious vehicle, knowing that it can yield return on investment rather than simply being a depreciating asset. A prospective homebuyer may look into purchasing a three-bedroom home rather than a two-bedroom, mindful that rental income from a spare room can cover the additional mortgage payment,” reads the study.
It sounds almost socialist in nature, but some argue that it leaves a bigger gap between the haves and the have-nots.
In Uber’s case, little by little, the dream of dominating the taxi ranks of the world is crumbling in Africa. For a start, many drivers complain they are exploited. Angrily, they have joined the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) and plan to take the company to the Labour Court – the antithesis of Uber’s free market philosophy. That could be a stumbling block in the sharing economy utopia.
The dispute is over Uber taking a cut from every trip; 20% for UberX and 25% for Uber Black.
“I joined Uber because they promised [we could] be our own boss and get a chance to earn up to R10,000 ($700). We have to work long hours for little income. The cost of living is too much, we’re not benefitting from Uber. They just came to Africa to abuse Africans,” says Joseph Munzvenaga, an Uber driver in Cape Town, who has been driving for the company for more than two years.
Julian Wenn, another Uber driver in Cape Town, says exploitation is an understatement.
“When people are desperate they will do anything, when a firm like Uber has you tuned into the channel of desperation you are bound to be exploited. The sad part is most drivers still don’t realize just how much they are being exploited,” he says.
What may stand up in the court, for the defence, in the sharing economy spirit, is that Uber classifies its drivers as independent contractors and not employees, hence they can avoid paying insurance and other costs companies cover for employees.
Uber spokesperson, Samantha Allenberg, says all drivers are independent operators and are free to work when they want.
“Uber is not a taxi, nor is it a taxi or transportation company. Ridesharing apps like Uber make it affordable and more efficient for riders to get around – especially in places where there is little public transport,” says Allenberg.
This paragon of the sharing economy is also controversial.
The Kenya Taxi Cab Association called for a withdrawal of Uber in the East African country, citing the lack of regulation. The call came on the day violence flared, in the capital Nairobi, as taxi drivers attacked Uber drivers. The association’s organizing secretary, Job Nzioka, says Uber is cheaper because they are not subjected to hefty levies, such as inspection fees, parking fees and operating fees.
In the midst of blood and chaos, investors think that Uber will not just survive, but thrive. They have put their money to drive Uber’s valuation up to $68 billion; much higher than Facebook when it was six years old. Uber has also launched UberEATS, an on-demand meal delivery service powered by its app.
Despite its troubles in Africa, Uber’s ambition is to be ubiquitous, just like many sharing economy companies.
It seems the sharing economy is too big an opportunity to miss.

Tag: Airbnb

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