Airbnb has been in the news a lot recently, and not just because of founder mode.
For a few years, I used Airbnb's downloads as a proxy for the impact of lockdowns on society, seeing demand dip and then rise.
Lockdowns are very much behind us but Airbnb's downloads are still a good proxy for travel - and by its summer numbers, it seems everyone is traveling somewhere!
See, the Summer of 2024 has been Airbnb's biggest in terms of new downloads! Our estimates show that between June and August, Airbnb's mobile apps saw 19.1M new downloads from the App Store and Google Play.
I compared downloads to the same three-month period (aka "Summer") every year back to 2018 and noticed something interesting - while Airbnb's downloads rose after lockdowns, the growth stopped in 2023. Summer downloads actually shrunk a teeny tiny bit when compared to 2022.
That's why 2024's 24% increase is even more of a win for Airbnb.
Year-over-year change:
In 2018, Airbnb saw 9.8M downloads and managed to push them into the double-digit region by 2019, which made 2020's 35% dip sting even more. But the summer of '21 undid that, and the summer of 2022 gave Airbnb the most growth - in % - it's ever seen at 62%.
Airbnb is truly one of a kind. Not that there aren't others like it out there, but they're not on most people's minds like Airbnb is. That, combined with the increase in mobility post-lockdowns, means Airbnb will continue its growth (and may even make its way back to NYC).
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