Airbnb Inc, the high-flying startup for booking home rentals around the world, has ambitions to develop a slate of original shows to whet customers’ appetite for travel, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
“Brian wants to create a studio,” one of the people said. The mentality: “Let’s do shows. Let’s do films, because we want to be travel-everything.”For at least three years, Airbnb has batted around ideas for creating or licensing mini-series and documentaries about travel, and shows featuring Airbnb homes, guests and hosts, one of the people said. It has discussed working with studios as well as starting its own.
In an interview, Airbnb’s top policy and communications executive, Chris Lehane, said the company is considering streaming films and shows through its app as well as through other video platforms. Offering original content and other media is an increasingly popular strategy in Silicon Valley, where technology companies are desperate for deeper relationships with internet users and their lucrative data.
Airbnb’s original magazine remains central to this effort. Published by media conglomerate Hearst since May 2017, the Airbnb Magazine will be a jumping off point for other content that the company develops. It is the darling of CEO Chesky, something the billionaire founder hopes will become a collector’s item like old print editions of “Rolling Stone,” Lehane said.
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