My read on this:
Airbnb is a web company.
The web is transitioning from Web2 to Web3, and they know it very well.
Most host have no idea but they are very well aware.
The same investors in Silicon Valley who bet on Airbnb are now very well aware too.
Web3 envisages platforms differently: everyone has, by design, a seat at the table via Governance and Ownership of tokens (crypto currency).
In other words if Airbnb goes Web3, we'll all get "Airbnb tokens" we can trade on exchanges for Bitcoin, U$, Euro and so on.
This may sound outlandish to most here, but Airbnb knows it very well.
Here's what makes me think that:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbnb-meeting-ceo-idUSKBN16E2QH
https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/airbnb-plans-to-consider-cryptocurrencies-and-bl...
https://www.coindesk.com/airbnb-co-founder-backs-22-million-funding-for-crypto-dealer-sfox
Now, Airbnb is a big company and there are for sure internal tensions between early investors who want to cash out on the OPA and others, @Brian first, who have a longer term view (the 21st century company https://blog.atairbnb.com/open-letter-to-the-airbnb-community/).
Now, assuming Brian is on the longer term, crypto friendly, community first view:
- if he wins, we will get a real seat at the table. Not shares, but tokens. In crypto this is called "reverse token airdrop". Check out what happened with UNI from Uniswap last summer. We early adopters got thousands o even tens of thousands of U$ in tokens (real money). A big roadblock will be regulation but, hey, this is happening already everywhere.
- if the early investors win, we'll see more of what we have been seeing recently: a rent seeking operation kept afloat as long as possible with manipulative marketing.
My guess, being a tension, is that we'll see both, in waves, and it's going to be pretty confusing for most of us.
It's an internal struggle, and we're in the middle.