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Hot off a victory in San Francisco's elections, home-sharing startup Airbnb isn't taking a break.
2015-11-05
San Francisco residents voted Tuesday not to pass Prop F, a ballot initiative that would put a cap on how much homeowners could rent their homes.
During an election debrief turned victory speech, Airbnb's head of global policy, Chris Lehane, issued a thinly veiled threat to other cities.
In sum, Airbnb says it has figured out how to mobilize its home-sharing network, and its membership numbers are almost totaling the NRA. Now that it successfully rallied its San Francisco user group, it's going to do the same in 100 cities across the US in the form of "clubs."
The presentation kicks off by suggesting that the local ballot initiative wasn't just a one-time thing, but part of a larger movement.
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Message No. 1: Airbnb helps individuals who are struggling to make ends meet.
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Message No. 2: Airbnb helps people travel on the cheap.
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The three countries it is not in: Syria, Iran, and North Korea.
Message No. 3: Airbnb hosts and renters are good neighbors. (As opposed to always partying, for instance.)
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So here's how Airbnb claims its community became a voting bloc.
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First, the basic characteristics of the Airbnb community in SF.
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Airbnb hosts and guests account for 17% of the San Francisco population.
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But how does that matter in an election?
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Airbnb hosts and guests outnumbered the voter turnout in Tuesday's elections.
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San Francisco's governing city council, called the Board of Supervisors, is elected by geographic districts, rather than citywide. Prop F was important to each district.
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Early polling showed that the Airbnb community was against Prop F.
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Here's how Airbnb harnessed the power.
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Lehane organized a group called the "Airbnb 11" or "SF-11".
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From each supervisor's district, Airbnb found a family who relied on the site to stay in the city.
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Then, Airbnb turned to 2,000 small-business supporters.
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Here's an example of a small business supporting the cause.
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Last, Airbnb led an effort to add it into their website.
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Here's how Airbnb changed its website to incorporate political messaging.
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GOTV means "Get Out The Vote" — the weekend before the election.
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No on F had 105,000 conversations with people — only 133,000 people voted in the election.
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Airbnb wasn't the only one leading the political campaigns.
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Home sharers created local political clubs.
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They created their own website and political campaigns.
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Here's the No on Prop F website.
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Citizens and hosts wrote their own posts as well.
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One post on Medium went viral. Airbnb ended up picking up some of the points it made for its own campaign, Lehane said.
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Airbnb also pitched the press on stories.
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Here's one example of an article.
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Other hosts just wrote their own editorials. Here's one that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the main daily paper.
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At this point in the presentation, Airbnb trotted out local hosts to continue to talk about Airbnb.
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"The SF lesson" here is that Airbnb represents a powerful political force.
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Airbnb is in all but three countries.
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Home-sharing is accepted around the world.
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San Francisco isn't unique with its issues.
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Here's what the national Airbnb community looks like.
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16% of hosts come from union household/families.
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Airbnb's community makes up 17% in San Francisco, but is smaller in other cities.
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There are now 4 million Airbnb users — just a million short of the size of the NRA.
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The support isn't only in San Francisco.
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Airbnb has the millennial vote when it comes to home-sharing.
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And the undecided vote. (At least if San Francisco is any guide.)
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It's not a passive issue. Voters would take action.
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Millennials are also more likely to oppose politicians who don't support Airbnb.
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In recap: The voting bloc is growing and in favor of Airbnb, Lehane says.
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This is how Airbnb will capitalize on it.
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Our cities are changing.
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They're no longer villages.
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They're no longer just big industrial centers.
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Airbnb wants to take advantage of the city of tomorrow — a diverse collection of aligned and locally involved groups. Basically, in this view, cities are returning to become a collection of villages.
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It's a movement.
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The organizing economic group in villages were guilds of tradespeople.
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Political parties grew out of fights for power.
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Labor unions grew out of fights for the people.
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So Airbnb wants to create its own political force of like-minded people. The company plans to set up 100 clubs in 2016.
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Airbnb has an international population it can leverage.
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The clubs are already happening around the world.
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Airbnb will supply the clubs with grassroots-organizing training.
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The clubs will be organized around five tenants.
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Airbnb will do its part to support them.
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Again: There will be 100 cities that have a grassroots Airbnb lobby in their backyard. San Francisco was just the start.
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It's a political movement, after all.
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Biz was a senior tech reporter in San Francisco, covering startups and venture capital.Before joining the Business Insider team in 2015, Biz was the assistant managing editor of Gigaom and an editorial fellow at Wired. She had previously worked as a newspaper designer for Gannett in Phoenix.
