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Airbnb is a website for people to list, find, and rent lodging. It has over 1,500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=https://www.airbnb.com/about/about-us )〕 Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company is privately owned and operated by Airbnb, Inc. As of July 2011, the company had raised US$119.8 million in venture funding from Y Combinator, Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global Solutions, General Catalyst Partners and undisclosed amounts from Youniversity Ventures partners Jawed Karim, Keith Rabois, and Kevin Hartz, and from A Grade Investments partners Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary. In April 2014, the company closed on an investment of $450 million by TPG Capital at a valuation of approximately $10 billion.〔(TPG-Led Group Closes $450 Million Investment in Airbnb ''Wall Street Journal'', April 23, 2014. )〕 As of March 2015, Airbnb is raising a new round of funding that will place the company at a $20 billion valuation. ==History== Shortly after moving to San Francisco in October 2007, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia created the initial concept for AirBed & Breakfast during the Industrial Design Conference held by Industrial Designers Society of America. The original site offered short-term living quarters, breakfast, and a unique business networking opportunity for attendees who were unable to book a hotel in the saturated market.〔Botsman, Rachel, and Roo Rogers. "What's Mine Is Yours: the Rise of Collaborative Consumption." New York: ''Harper Business'', 2010. Print.〕 At the time, roommates Chesky and Gebbia could not afford the rent for their loft in San Francisco. They made their living room into a bed and breakfast, accommodating three guests on air mattresses and providing homemade breakfast. In February 2008, technical architect Nathan Blecharczyk joined as the third co-founder of AirBed & Breakfast. During the company's initial stages, the founders focused on high-profile events where alternative lodging was scarce. The site Airbedandbreakfast.com officially launched on August 11, 2008. To help fund the site, the founders created special edition breakfast cereals, with presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain as the inspiration for "Obama O's" and "Cap'n McCains". In two months, 800 boxes of cereal were sold at $40 each, which generated more than $30,000 for the company's incubation and attracted Y Combinator's Paul Graham. After its inauguration, the site expanded to include properties in the market between hotels and CouchSurfing. In January 2009, Y Combinator invited Chesky, Gebbia and Blecharczyk to join the incubator's winter session for three months of training. With the website already built, they used the $20,000 Y-Combinator investment to fly to New York to meet users and promote the site. They returned to San Francisco with a profitable business model to present to West Coast investors. In March 2009, the name Airbedandbreakfast.com was shortened to Airbnb.com, and the site's content had expanded from air beds and shared spaces to a variety of properties including entire homes and apartments, private rooms, castles, boats, manors, tree houses, tipis, igloos, private islands and other properties. One year later, there were 15 people working from Chesky and Gebbia's loft apartment on Rausch Street in San Francisco. To make room for employees, Brian Chesky gave up his bedroom and lived through the Airbnb service until the company moved into its first office space. The company continued to experience rapid growth through the year and in November 2010 raised $7.2 million in Series A funding from Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital, and announced that out of 700,000 nights booked, 80% had occurred in the past six months. In February 2011, Airbnb announced its 1 millionth booking since its inception in August 2008. Then, in January 2012, Airbnb announced its 5 millionth night booked internationally through the service. In June 2012, the company announced 10 million nights booked, doubling business in 5 months. Of these bookings, 75% of the business came from markets outside of the continental United States. On May 25, 2011, actor and partner at A-Grade Investments Ashton Kutcher announced a significant investment in the company and his role as a strategic brand advisor for the company. By October 2013, Airbnb had served nine million guests since its founding in August 2008.〔Lawler, Ryan. October 20, 2013. TechCrunch. "(Airbnb Has Now Served 9M Guests Since Being Founded, Up From 4M At The End Of Last Year )"〕 In December 2013, the company reported it had over six million new guests in 2013, and nearly 250,000 properties were added in 2013. In July 2014, Airbnb revealed design revisions to their site and mobile app, and introduced a new logo.〔Baldwin, Roberto. July 16th 2014. Thenextweb. "(Airbnb updates design and introduces controversial new Bélo logo )"〕 Some considered the new icon to be visually similar to genitalia,〔Brody, Ben. July 17th 2014. CNN Money. "(This is Airbnb's 'obscene' new logo )"〕 but a consumer survey by Survata showed only a minority of respondents thought this was the case.〔Mathew, Troy (July 16, 2014). ("Airbnb logo redesign survey: More people see hearts than naughty parts" ). Survata.〕 In June 2015, Airbnb decided to sponsor Manor F1 Team. Their logo appeared on the cars on the front nose and on other areas. it also appeared on team wear and the drivers overalls. In October 2015, Jersey City, New Jersey became the first city in the New York metropolitan area to legalize Airbnb, and add it to their existing body of hotels and motels that pay taxes. In the past, businesses were regulated by zoning laws, but Mayor Steven Fulop stated that the city does not have enough inspectors to deal the number of local units being rented out, approximately 300 of which rented through the service as of that date, and that rapid-evolving technology such as Airbnb made doing so impossible. Under the new legislation, Airbnb pays the city 6 percent hotel tax on the residential properties whose owners rent temporary living space to tourists for under 30 days, which is estimated to bring $1 million in revenue to the city, and expand tourist capacity beyond the city's 13 existing hotels. Airbnb will also provide insurance protection to homeowners in the event damage done to their residence by renters. The new laws will not prevent condominium associations from voting to prohibit use of Airbnb in their buildings.〔Sullivan, Al (October 18, 2015). ("Jersey City to legalize Airbnb" ). ''The Hudson Reporter''.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Airbnb」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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