#3

We wish Airbnb and Uber would let us share and order anything

Snacks / Saturday, January 02, 2021

Ubering to the Airbnb... and coordinating the Grubhub delivery for check-in — aka: tech saturation Level Insanity. Uber and Airbnb have a lot in common: both are popular sharing platforms, both are used as verbs, and both crushed old-school industries (taxis + hotels).

  • Since launching in 2009, Uber has expanded from rides to food delivery with Uber Eats — and it's now buying Postmates. We think it could do more.
  • Since launching in 2008, Airbnb has expanded from short-term rentals to long-term stays and "Experiences." Spoiler: we think it could do way more.

5 stars for verb-iness... Uber and Airbnb don't actually specialize in rides and stays — their value is safety, convenience, and reliability (and the tech that powers them). Pre-2009, riding in a stranger's car was #1 on the list of things your parents said you shouldn't do. Now, many don't think twice about hopping into one at 1 am. Airbnb has made booking a stranger's condo as normal and predictable as ordering from Amazon (always stalk the reviews).

Airbnb and Uber should go full horizontal... That is, they should expand to sharing and delivering anything (legal). With its trusted brand and platform, Airbnb could expand from home-sharing to "anything-sharing" — think: parking spaces, storage space, boats, and RVs. Uber has expanded from delivering people to delivering food. Now it's dabbling with medication and package deliveries in select cities — we think it should go all-in on "delivery anything."

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