Nathan Blecharczyk on Airbnb and the Sharing Economy

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4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2014

⏱️ 59 minutes

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Summary

Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder and chief technology officer of Airbnb, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about Airbnb, one of the earliest companies to use technology to allow individuals to share underused resources, and in the case of Airbnb, housing. Blecharczyk and Roberts discuss how a design conference and the Democratic National Convention got Airbnb started, how the company aligns incentives to overcome the trust problem of house-sharing, and the rise of technology and online social networks to make a new business model possible. Along the way, Blecharczyk gives his take on the role of luck vs. skill in entrepreneurial success and how Airbnb plans to expand its product offerings in the future.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:06.4	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:11.0	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find links
0:16.3	and other information related to today's conversation.
0:19.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:23.3	back to 2006.
0:25.4	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:27.9	We'd love to hear from you.
0:32.0	Today is August 7, 2014, and my guest is Nathan Bacharzek, co-founder and chief technology
0:39.3	officer of Airbnb.
0:41.6	This has been the summer of the sharing economy here at Econ Talk.
0:44.4	We even had a recent episode with Barry Winegast on law that ended up touching on the sharing
0:49.2	economy.
0:50.4	We had Mike Munger and I pontificating as academics about his significance, and we're closing
0:55.8	out the summer with arguably the most important, certainly one of the most important firms
1:01.9	of the sharing economy here at Airbnb.
1:03.9	So Nathan, welcome to Econ Talk.
1:05.5	Thanks for having me.
1:07.2	What is the business proposition for guests and hosts at Airbnb?
1:11.0	How does Airbnb make money and just give us the basic logistics of how it works?
1:16.7	Sure, we have 800,000 properties around the world in 192 different countries.
1:22.5	These are properties that are offered by individuals.
	...

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