Airbnb says it will go public next year

Airbnb has said that it will have its initial public offering in 2020.

The company is one of the last of the big unicorn herd that grew up roughly a decade ago (a herd that includes Uber, Lyft, The We Company and Postmates) to declare its public market intentions.

Yesterday evening the company announced it had hit over $1 billion in revenue for the second quarter 2019. It’s the second time in the company’s history that it pulled in more than $1 billion, according to the statement.

Airbnb also said that through September 15, 2019 users who list their homes and rooms on the company’s marketplace have made more than $80 billion since the company’s launch. The supplemental income for underpaid teachers alone clocks in at $160 million, and roughly 51% of people surveyed by the company said hosting has helped them afford their home.

The company also said that Airbnb’s housing stock now includes 7 million listings in more than 100,000 cities around the world. Airbnb says that over 1,000 cities have more than 1,000 listings — eight years ago, that figure was only 12.

Airbnb is also pulling in more money from its tourism business, with more than 40,000 tours and “experiences” booked in over 1,000 cities.

All of this travel has led to over $100 billion in economic impact across 30 countries, the company said.

This growth hasn’t come without controversy, and Airbnb’s success will depend on its ability to continue to thread the needle between government regulation over the company’s impact on housing prices and the creation of vacant apartments and homes that are only investment properties that increase Airbnb’s housing stock.

The company’s imminent public offering is good news for investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Manhattan Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, TCV, Firstmark and Altimeter Capital, which have collectively invested roughly $4.4 billion into the company, according to Crunchbase.

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