Startups often rail against copycat companies, arguing that they steal their business and their ideas. But maybe the secret to beating clones isn’t to waste time trying to shut them down — it’s to accept them and focus on being bigger, better and faster. Read more »
Airbnb has topped 4 million total bookings over the past year, showing huge growth for a startup that’s just about five years old. it also shows the idea of apartment sharing and collaborative consumption in general is catching on, as the company expands internationally. Read more »
The team behind design sales site Fab.com was outraged to discover a U.K.-based rival that seems to mimic not only their business but also their look. But outrage may not be enough to stop Germany’s Samwer brothers from going big with their latest clone. Read more »
Mark Gilbreath of LiquidSpace predicts that the driving force of the sharing economy will become time, and the companies that can do business in real-time will occupy a more strategic, and profitable, place in the ecosystem. Read more »
In the past few years we have seen accommodation-sharing company Airbnb grab a valuation of over $1 billion and car-sharing leader Zipcar squeak into profitability sooner than expected. Those developments, among others, suggest the share economy is alive and well, but how can this space continue ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The GigaOM RoadMap conference on Nov. 10 gathered leaders and visionaries to discuss how, thanks to technological and generational shifts, society as a whole is becoming more connected — not only in the media we consume and the social networks we use but also in the way we interact with devices and manage our resources. This research note takes a look back on the event in order to analyze this new era of connectivity across various industries, from Jack Dorsey’s idea of becoming “more human,” not less, to the concept of “invisible technology” and data, the fuel of the new century. Companies mentioned in this report include Airbnb, Netflix and Twitter. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The founders aren’t happy when people call HouseTrip a clone of Airbnb, but the European holiday rental site is hoping to go head-to-head with its American rival after scooping a substantial new round of investment. Read more »
Thirty years after Steve Jobs and Bill Gates revolutionized personal computing, there’s a new generation of entrepreneurs focused on bringing people together. Folks like Zuckerberg, Dorsey and Crowley are leading the charge in changing the way people communicate andinteract with each other. Read more »
Connectedness was the theme of our first GigaOM RoadMap conference and we talked to smart speakers and attendees all day long. Here are the GigaOM and GigaOM Pro editorial teams’ highlights and key takeaways from yesterday’s events, plus some photos from the event. Read more »
The old idea of reuse is at the heart of the web-based sharing economy which uses the maturation of the Internet and mobile to enable the sharing of under-utilized resources. Is it a trend that can have a real impact on reducing waste? Read more »
For decades now, folks in America have generally prized the idea of ownership — especially regarding homes. But according to Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky, as the world’s population gets larger and technology makes us more connected, the adulation of ownership is slowly starting to wane. Read more »
One of the hottest electric vehicles, Tesla’s second car the Model S, won’t be available until 2012, but you’ll have a chance to check out the Beta version of the Model S at GigaOM’s RoadMap event this Thursday, November 10th, in San Francisco. Read more »
Brian Chesky, co-founder and chief executive officer of San Francisco-based AirBnB will be a headline speaker at GigaOM RoadMap conference scheduled for November 10 in San Francisco and will talk about the potential of the new people-to-people economy. More details inside. Read more »
Blazing fast networks, cheap silicon, always-on devices and a torrent of data will fundamentally change everything — how we consume media, how we work, and even who we are. We examined 10 areas that show how connectivity is profoundly changing the present and future of technology. Read more »
The trials and tribulations of the solar industry dominated the third quarter as warnings about a storm of dangerous market forces in the industry finally reached an outcome with Solyndra’s bankruptcy. But not all was dismal for the cleantech industry during the quarter. Car sharing continues to reduce resource consumption, and much capital flowed to that sector. On the data center side of the industry, Google provided insight into exactly how much energy the tech giant uses, as well as the carbon footprint of its data centers. Companies mentioned in this report include Solyndra, Zipcar, Airbnb and Silver Spring Networks. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Neighbor-to-neighbor car sharing startup Getaround has raised a seed round of funding of $3.4 million. Investors in the round include TechCrunch creator Michael Arrington‘s Crunchfund, Redpoint Ventures, General Catalyst, and a group of angel investors. Read more »
With the stock market in flux, do tech startups stand a chance when it comes to luring investors? To find out, we polled GigaOM readers on what’s hot, what’s not, which sectors might favor buyouts versus IPOs and how it all will change in the near ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Collaborative consumption refers to a class of new businesses that use the web to enable the sharing and bartering of goods and services — from cars to apartments to office space. The market evolved out of the first generation of general-purpose P2P marketplaces such as Craigslist and eBay and is now tied to the way we use the Internet and cell phones. GigaOM Pro conducted a survey of GigaOM readers to gauge the popularity of the collaborative consumption movement, which services readers are using and the impact certain security concerns will have on the growth of industry. This research note examines the survey’s results and provides analysis on the current state and future of the web-sharing market. Companies mentioned in this report include Zipcar, RelayRides, thredUP and Airbnb. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free GigaOM Pro trial subscription. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Greylock Partners, the VC firm backing companies such as Cloudera, Airbnb and ZipCar hired DJ Patil, formerly the chief product officer at Color, as a data scientist in residence. Greylock’s trying to help its companies monetize the rich vein of user data on the web. Read more »
Skillshare is riding the P2P wave and has built a platform for users to offer real-world classes of any kind to interested students. It is expanding to San Francisco and Philadelphia later this month and is closing its Series A round soon. Read more »
If you thought renting out a room in a house via Airbnb was cool, try renting our someone’s car. That’s what Getaround does, and for this week’s Green Overdrive, we sit down with Getaround to check out the company’s brand new, yet-to-be unveiled, iPhone app. Read more »
The emerging web-sharing movement, which includes startups like Airbnb, RelayRides, and ThredUP, has its roots in the maturing way that people use the Internet and cell phones, and its future economy will rise around location, niche groups and capital-intensive, under-utilized and time-sensitive objects. For entrepreneurs looking ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With all the attention (not all of it good) that collaborative consumption companies like Airbnb have been getting lately, we’ve been mulling over some tips for entrepreneurs looking to either start one of these companies now, or hoping to make one of these companies succeed. Read more »
It’s been a tough week for peer-to-peer home rental service Airbnb, which has come under fire for its sluggish and inconsistent response to an Airbnb user whose home was burglarized and vandalized. In a contrite blog post, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky laid out new safety initiatives. Read more »
The Airbnb horror stories that have emerged in recent days expose the biggest pain point for the economy that has built up around using the web to share “stuff,” from apartments to cars to tools: security. Read more »
AirBnB, a San Francisco–based person-to-person room-, apartment- and house-rental startup, has raised $112 million in Series B funding from a group of investors including Russian Internet investor DST Global, General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz. AirBnB has raised about $120 million. More details after the fold. Read more »
San Francisco–based VidCaster is taking the beta tag off its online video distribution platform, opening for anyone to sign up. For example, companies that want to use video for marketing but don’t have the resources to build and maintain a whole site themselves. Read more »
Ownership is old-school. The folks at Collaborative Lab have put together this infographic and startup list to highlight all the innovation that is happening around using the web to share “stuff.” Read more »
The problem of feeding and providing energy to 9 billion people by 2050 will require many technology solutions. But in a unique way, the web and mobile can act as a sort of operating system for physical stuff, leading to more efficient use of resources. Read more »
Airbnb, the peer-to-peer apartment and house rental website, is rumored to be raising $100 million in new funding at a whopping $1 billion valuation. But based on the company’s revenue and growth prospects, that number may not be as shocking as it seems. Read more »
While using the web to share “stuff” is still a relatively new concept, the business model is being adopted by a growing number of companies, and I think it has started to reach a tipping point and become more mainstream. Read more »
Airbnb has added Ashton Kutcher — comedic heartthrob, coveted angel investor and Twitter-master extraordinaire — to its team of investors, the San Francisco based startup announced in its blog this evening. Read more »
Whoever thought that renting your bed to strangers would work? But Airbnb has made it work and now Getaround, a peer-to-peer car sharing service, is looking to find similar success by letting people rent out their cars to other users. Read more »
While I’ve noticed a bit of a slump in cleantech these days, one of the bright spots has been using the web to share resources, from rooms, to cars to “stuff.” Airbnb’s co-founder Joe Gebbia and RelayRides CEO Shelby Clark, chat with Collaborative Consumption Lab’s Lauren Anderson. Read more »
As kids, we were all taught to share our favorite toys. At Green:Net Shelby Clark from RelayRides and Joe Gebbia from Airbnb talked about how their companies are leveraging the power of social media to take sharing into the grown-up world. Read more »
Do you think companies like Facebook, Twitter and Amazon should clean up their acts and stop using coal? Are you into electric vehicles? Do you want to know what’s next in the clean energy market? Then tune into the live stream of GigaOM’s Green:Net conference. Read more »
Our third annual Green:Net event is coming up on April 21 (yep, next week!) and we’re getting really excited about all the great speakers, announcements and discussions that will go on. Here’s a cheat sheet of 10 things you can’t miss at the show. Read more »
The online travel is hot stuff again, as a new generation of startups look for innovative ways to disrupt the travel industry. Now high-end British site OneFineStay has raised its first round of capital as it looks to add a little class to the field. Read more »
Airbnb has finally reached critical mass by providing a platform for renting out rooms to people on the Internet. Now it’s using web video to showcase some of its most interesting properties and to put users at ease with renting rooms to and from strangers. Read more »
Brian Chesky, CEO and co-founder of AirBnB, shared the company’s story and the lessons he learned in three years of chasing a dream. One of the most valuable lessons? It’s better to be broke than well-funded. His other tip: Conventional wisdom is overrated + Video Interview Read more »
