, revealing the company has a contract with a "data hosting services provider" to spend at least $1.2 billion by 2027.
While the filing doesn't explicitly disclose the name of the data hosting services provider in question, it reads elsewhere that Airbnb relies "primarily" on Amazon Web Services for cloud computing services to host and deliver the company's platform. Indeed, the company has been a heavy AWS user since early in its existence.
In practice, that means that if a customer uses less cloud computing capacity than their contractually-agreed minimum, they pay the difference back to AWS. Originally, the filing says, Airbnb committed to spending at least $1.2 billion through 2024, but the data hosting provider agreed to extend the terms of the contract until 2027, meaning Airbnb can spend less on cloud services each year and still meet its commitment. Airbnb disclosed in the filing cost of data hosting services decreased $63.5 million between the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2020 and the same period the year before.
This IPO filing comes towards the end of a difficult year for Airbnb: The COVID-19 pandemic hit its core short-term rental business hard, particularly early on, leading to a steep drop in revenue.