Words
Brad Stone: 'We should watch Uber and Airbnb closely'
It’s really not the sharing economy at all, though that phrase has been a useful one for the companies At the start of the book you note that the dictionary definition of an upstart is either “a newly successful person” or “someone who does not show proper respect to the established way of doing things”... I wanted to frame the defining question of the book for the reader. Are these brilliant entrepreneurs who have built tremendous businesses through sheer creativity and ingenuity? Or are they renegades that grew in large part through contempt for the status quo? There’s an ambivalence that surrounds companies like Uber and Airbnb, and I think this question over their identity – and the dual meanings of the word “upstart” – gets to the heart of it. My own squishy answer, of course, is that they are a little bit of both. You’ve written about Silicon Valley for more than 20 years… have we reached peak Valley yet? In terms of the business impact, I don’t think so. There’s a new set of transformative technologies such as machine learning, AI and virtual reality that will spawn another set of big tech franchises. But in terms of cultural impact, perhaps we are at peak Valley. For decades, technology entrepreneurship has been revered, and people like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk were heroes. Now we have to contend with lost jobs due to automation, the effects of digital addiction and simple fatigue with all this constant change. So perhaps our feelings toward Silicon Valley are about to get a lot more complicated. You met some of the individuals who had similar startup ideas to Uber and Airbnb but didn’t become billionaires. Have these people been able to move on and were they reluctant to be featured? I call these companies the non-starters. They had the same ideas but were too early, or too nice, or too idealistic. They all shared a strain of wistful regret; it is difficult to see someone else execute the same idea and win unimaginable success and riches. The best story was the founder of a company called Seamless Wheels – a pre-Uber limo service – who abandoned the business after getting a death threat on his voice mail, probably from a limo fleet owner. What’s the best call Travis Kalanick has ever made? Surrendering in China in an expensive battle with local rival, Didi Chuxing. Last year Uber lost $2bn trying to win that market; Kalanick couldn’t bring himself to sacrifice his dream of building a truly global network. But the rules of competition in China will always favour the local champion and Didi, it turned out, had the same access to capital as Uber. By stepping away from the fight, Uber not only saved its balance sheet from more destruction but negotiated an impressive 17% stake in its rival. And the best call Brian Chesky has made? Branding the Airbnb user base as a “community”. For years before Airbnb, people posted their homes and spare rooms on the internet (via sites like Craigslist and Couchsurfing.com). Chesky and his colleagues drummed up an evangelical spirit to their endeavour and held meet-ups and, in later years, global conferences of hosts. It got Airbnb users to feel part of something larger and strengthened their ties to the company, even when it meant that they were violating provincial laws.
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