According to Airbnb, adopting technologies like crypto and blockchain could be the key to future success
The COVID-19 pandemic may have stimulated the company's deliberations on crypto and blockchain
Airbnb believes the adoption of crypto and blockchain could also hurt their operations
By Shaukat Goraya
Airbnb has announced that it is considering integrating blockchain and crypto. The company announced the news in a prospectus for its planned IPO. The company reportedly filed the prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In the document, Airbnb stated that it was competing in an industry characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving standards, and consolidation, among other things. Therefore, the company believes that its adaptability to these factors is important to its continued existence.
According to Airbnb:
"Our future success will also depend on our ability to adapt to new technologies such as tokenization, cryptocurrencies, new authentication technologies such as biometrics, distributed LEDGER and blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality and cloud technologies. As a result, we intend to continue devoting significant resources to maintaining, developing and improving our technology and platform; however, these efforts could be more costly than expected and may not be successful."
According to Airbnb, such unexpected costs could prevent investing in the above technologies. This is because they can adversely affect business processes. The company added that further technological innovations, among other things, often lead to errors and weaknesses. Because of this, the company intends to carefully approach the integration of new technologies, as errors and weaknesses related to a major technical change could cause the company to lose its business or damage its brand reputation.
COVID-19 may have caused Airbnb's change of heart
This message comes after Airbnb once stated that it has no interest in accepting BTC or a cryptocurrency as a means of payment. However, the home rental platform noted in the filing that the coronavirus pandemic had hit them hard, causing a sharp drop in their revenues. The company reportedly managed to sell approximately ? 13.5 billion in gross bookings in 2020. That number, however, represents a 39% decrease in bookings for the company from a similar point in the past year.
In the prospectus, Airbnb said:
"In early 2020, when COVID-19 disrupted global travel, Airbnb's business declined significantly. Within two months, our business model began to grow again even with limited international travel, thus proving its stability."
Aside from Airbnb, other established companies are also showing great interest in crypto, especially given that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reign in different countries around the world. The latest company to announce its support for cryptocurrencies was PayPal, which enabled select users to trade several leading cryptocurrencies.
Donations:
BTC - 3KXN4SeMpFHxSkfVzzDNvHhrtjCRUwUcqu
ETH - 0xC41084FCA8c90D56385231D3d3fC6EaBa2c14530
USDT - 0x357DB53787dA850cbD496f50AEf64CB386A006b5
