Airbnb's long-awaited move announced: Home-sharing company will go public in 2020

NEW YORK – Home-sharing company Airbnb said Thursday it plans to go public in 2020.

It’s a long-awaited move for the San Francisco company, which was founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, who needed some extra cash, so they put air mattresses on their apartment floor and charged $80 per night.

Since then, Airbnb has grown into one of the largest home-sharing platforms. The company said this week it has more than 7 million listings in 100,000 cities worldwide.

Airbnb said it made “substantially more than” $1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of this year, the second time in its history that revenue topped $1 billion. It didn’t reveal its profits.

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Investors may be cautious after some big IPO flops this year. The ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft debuted on the market, but they continue to lose money and trade well below their IPO prices. WeWork, which runs shared office spaces, delayed its IPO this week.

Airbnb has spent the past several years broadening its offerings in advance of an expected IPO. In May, it bought Hotel Tonight to help guests find last-minute hotel deals. In 2017, it acquired Luxury Retreats to raise the level of its accommodations. And it added “experiences” to its platform, so guests can book local tours, cooking classes and other activities.

Airbnb faced some backlash in New York and Barcelona, Spain, where it was accused of encouraging over-tourism and raising rents because it takes living spaces off the market.