Unicorn: AirBnB

This week we're learning about Unicorn companies, which is a privately owned start-up company valued at over $1 billion (and even better, the Canadian tech unicorns are known as narwhals). One of the most well-known and third most successful of recent Unicorns is Airbnb. Airbnb is a website for people to list, find, and rent lodging in most cities all over the world. It has over 1,500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries. It was founded in August 2008 in our own backyard of San Francisco. I've used Airbnb on numerous occasions and I completely understand its success from those encounters with it. It's so much cheaper than most hotels and if you truly want to experience a city it puts you right in the centre with a local. I plan on using Airbnb all throughout my travels this summer in Europe and will continue to use it in the future.

Because of this new and innovative way to travel, Airbnb is currently valued at $25.5 billion after its latest round of funding. In eight years it has accumulated that much money... thats insane! The industry that they operate under (and created in the first place) is known as "alternative accommodations space" and the industry is estimated at a worth of $100 billion and Airbnb has taken ownership over a quarter of that.

As of now, Airbnb's IP patent portfolio consists of 7 different patents. A main one is; US 20150154163 A1 "Third party assets merging for embedment into web pages." But, perhaps a way for them to bolster this portfolio is to acquire patents on their non-obvious innovative software aspects that have put them ahead of their fellow competitors.

Their competitors, who include other "alternative accommodations space" companies such as Tripping, Roomorama, and Homeaway, along with everyday hotels, Airbnb is killing the game. The graph below displays the fact that valuation for Starwood Hotels, Marriott International, Hilton, and Hyatt have all declined in the last year while Airbnb is just continuously climbing.