Airbnb intends to raise public funds through an initial public offering (IPO) in the coming year and has filed its prospectus with regulators in the United States on November 16. The San-Francisco based vacation rental online marketplace, which operates in 220 countries and has booked 825 million guest arrivals leading to revenues worth over $110 billion in the last 12 years, was substantially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, it said. "In light of the evolving nature of COVID-19 and the uncertainty it has produced around the world, we do not believe it is possible to predict COVID-19’s cumulative and ultimate impact on our future business, results of operations, and financial condition. COVID-19 has materially adversely affected our recent operating and financial results and is continuing to materially adversely impact our long-term operating and financial results. However, we believe that as the world recovers from this pandemic, Airbnb will be a vital source of economic empowerment for millions of people." — Airbnb S-1 prospectus Key takeaways Bookings on the platform grew by 29% YoY to $38 billion and revenues grew by 32% YoY to $4.8 billion in 2019. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic bookings between January and September 2020 fell to $18 billion and revenues fell to $2.5 billion In 2019, the company had a net loss of $674.3 million compared to a net loss of $16.9 million in the previous year. It made $504.9 million in free cash flow in 2018 but due to higher operating expenses, this dropped…
