Airbnb CEO: ‘We Are Ready to Step on the Gas’ for International Expansion
Photo Credit: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky speaking with Skift CEO Rafat Ali At Skift Global Forum in September 2022. Skift
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Despite risks from regulation and competition, there is a huge opportunity for Airbnb to expand further around the world beyond its five core markets. It's a big world out there.
Airbnb execs have used the phrase "expanding beyond the core" to mean launching new products and services for guests and hosts, and also their hope to lift growth beyond the company's main five markets: The U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, and France.
The new services for guests and hosts have been slow in coming. But expansion into under-penetrated markets picked up during the first quarter.
Airbnb said it continued to invest in "less mature markets" where growth in gross nights booked was more than double that of the five core markets, albeit from a lower base.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky leaned into that idea during the company's first-quarter earnings call Wednesday: "I think at this moment, we are ready to step on the gas," he said.
"And by stepping on the gas, I don't mean it's going to be a significantly greater investment, but a much greater velocity becau
