Seen through the eyes of travel information publishers, Airbnb holds a dream position: a huge base of 25 million potential readers/users, spread over 34,000 cities in 190 countries, well in tune with the brand’s core product and attributes.
I had never thought of AirBNB in this way but if you look at their mobile applications and recent marketing movies, it makes a lot of sense. Could you imagine AirBNB in 10 years essentially eating up Yelp, HomeAway and even Lonely Planet? Local listings, reviews, recommendations is exactly what FourSquare has shifted to with checking-in being something only nerds do. It’s a huge market.