Thoughts and insights from Airbnb’s great Q4 2022 results (transcript):
- Three strategic priorities: (1) make hosting mainstream, (2) perfecting the core service, (3) expanding beyond the core. While it covers a lot, it’s great to see a company that is able to clearly to communicate the main bets in such a way. Especially being able to list 3 bets, not 10.
- Supply & Demand: “the name of the game is pointing demand to where we have available supply”. One example for this product strategy is the new categories feature Airbnb launched a year ago. This way, when guests land on the site, Airbnb emphasizes places where there is supply. Win-win for everyone.
- Organic growth of hosts: 36% of the new available hosts started out as guests in Airbnb, and this number is going up year-over-year. That’s impressive. Brian mentions the network effect as “guest becomes host and host becomes guest”. The more guests they have, the more hosts, and the more guests.
- Brian was asked about competitors’ loyalty programs. Brian’s answer: “The best loyalty program is building a product people love so much they want to come back”.
- Throughout the call, I loved their focus and obsession on the customer.