Airbnb may be the most global among Silicon Valley’s mega-unicorns.
With homes and bedrooms available in 34,000 cities and 190 countries, Airbnb operates in more than double the number of territories as does ride-share giant Uber. And unlike Snapchat or Pinterest, which have grown mostly within the United States, the $25 billion home-sharing service now sees two-thirds of its trips booked across country borders. Europe is actually Airbnb’s largest market. But a truly international startup presents it’s own problems.
Airbnb’s VP of Product, Joe Zadeh, describes it with a questionable portmanteau: the “glocal” challenge. “We have to simultaneously build global and local, because for Airbnb to work we have to be everywhere,” he tells FORBES.
The fundamental tension that Airbnb has to solve is bridging this global-local gap. On one hand, there are certain parts of the travel experience that must be applied in all places, like cleanliness standards. Everybody wants freshly laundered sheets. On the other hand, so much of what makes Airbnb stand out from the millions of cookie-cutter hotel rooms you can stay in is the uniqueness of the local experience.
For example, translation becomes a delicate balance. If you’re traveling to Japan from the U.S., you probably want to read home listings in English. But if Airbnb automatically translated Japanese profiles, visitors might expect that their host speaks English as well. The current solution: displaying profiles in the local language, and adding an optional translate button.
Airbnb also has to customize its offerings based on the local payment options. With the Olympics coming to Rio this summer, Brazil is a key growth market for Airbnb. But last year the platform only supported U.S. dollars as a payment method in the country, which covered just 22% of Brazilian payment volume. Since then, the company has added much more: national credit cards that can charge in Brazilian currency Real, as well as Boletos, a cash payment system run by local banks, and installment plans.
NOTE CREDIT: http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/05/03/how-airbnb-expanded-to-190-countries-by-thinking-glocal/?linkId=24116232#5663aaaf1077
