Airbnb Just Announced a Major Relaunch – Here’s What’s Changing

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Hey everyone,

To be honest I never thought that North America would ever get the SuperChat App like China’s WeChat

But I guess Brian Chesky CEO of AirBnB got really inspired following the OpenAI event.

And I’m not kidding this guy really wants to drastically rethink his own company, spending Thanksgiving weekend alone outlining a bold reinvention of Airbnb.

But my question is why?

Why to reinvent if you have literally close to no competition.

or maybe there’s something else

Let’s find out in today’s Spotlight.

What’s inside today’s newsletter:

• 🌐 Tech Pulse

• 🛠️ Build of the Day: Learn Cursor

• 🔐 Prompt Vault: Hook Builder

• 🔧 New Tools on the Block

• 🔎 Spotlight: Airbnb Just Announced a Major Relaunch

• ✅ To-dos

🌐 Tech Pulse

• Microsoft and OpenAI in "Tough Negotiations" Over Partnership Restructuring

  OpenAI and Microsoft are engaged in challenging negotiations regarding OpenAI's corporate restructuring plans. While OpenAI aims to convert its business arm into a public benefit corporation with its nonprofit board maintaining control, Microsoft-which has invested $13 billion in OpenAI-is reportedly a key holdout for approval. Discussions center on Microsoft's equity stake in the new for-profit entity and potentially extending their technology access agreement beyond the current 2030 deadline.

• Amazon Reveals New Human Roles in AI-Dominated Workplace

  Amazon offered insights into how human jobs are evolving alongside AI implementation, showcasing new roles designed to complement rather than be replaced by automation technology. The company highlighted positions focused on AI oversight, training, and specialized skills that robots cannot yet master.

• Venture Capital in 2025: "AI or Nothing"

  A viral discussion on Hacker News highlights the stark reality of today's venture capital landscape: "Venture capital is moribund except AI. AI is moribund except OpenAI". The analysis examines how OpenAI's dominance is reshaping investment priorities across the tech sector.

• Google's Open-Source Gemma AI Models Hit 150 Million Downloads

  Google's Gemma collection of openly available AI models has reached a significant milestone of over 150 million downloads, demonstrating the growing demand for accessible AI tools among developers and businesses.

• GitHub Reveals Real-World AI Coding Performance Data

  GitHub published findings from a live video demonstration evaluating how AI models perform in practical coding scenarios with GitHub Copilot. The blog post details key performance metrics and insights for developers considering AI pair programming tools.

• SimilarWeb Report: AI Coding Tools See 75% Traffic Surge

  SimilarWeb's latest AI usage report reveals developer-oriented AI tools have experienced a 75% traffic increase over the past 12 weeks, while writing and content creation tools have declined by 11%. The report highlights Lovable's astonishing 17% growth and suggests early-stage AI disruption is beginning to erode legacy platforms' utility.

• Google Introduces On-Device AI for Scam Detection

  Google announced enhanced AI-powered scam detection capabilities for Android's Google Messages app, using on-device AI to identify investment fraud and other scam attempts. The feature expands the platform's existing protection systems with more sophisticated pattern recognition.
  *sponsored

🛠️Build of the Day

Idea: How to use Cursor (+ best tips) by Steve (Builder.io)
Stack: cursor
Why this: Learn the Cursor in the best way from the creator of builder.io 
*sponsored

🔐 Prompt Vault

This week’s AI shortcut to save time or spark action.

🧠 Prompt Name: Hook Builder
Write irresistible hooks for your landing page or launch post in seconds.

📋 Prompt:

💡 Why it’s useful:
Whether you're launching on Product Hunt or polishing your landing page, this prompt helps you skip the brainstorming and instantly generate compelling copy that boosts clicks and conversions.

💼 From our Partners

🔧 New Tools on the Block

1. Gadget: The fastest way to build and scale apps with AI.

2. Shadow: Meet once, stay ahead—Shadow helps you follow through.

3. NotionApps 2.0: Build web apps & portals from Notion without coding.

4. Generated Assets: Turn any idea into an investable index with AI.

5. Dolphin AI: Track customer requests from calls on autopilot

Want to sponsor your tool in our newsletter? CLICK HERE
*sponsored

🔎 Spotlight: Airbnb Just Announced a Major Relaunch – Here’s What’s Changing

Look, Airbnb is making some serious moves right now. They're not just doing rentals anymore - they're going all-in on becoming THE PLATFORM for real-world services and experiences.

Brian Chesky felt inspired from the OpenAI, but the thing is his desire to make AirBnB as app that has everything a person needs is to good to be true.

The reason is this models exist in the China where there are super apps like WeChat for one stop for everything. But personally I think the north american market is not ready.

And if they were someone would have done that long time ago.

This strategic shift, detailed in an intense writing spree, aims to elevate Airbnb from a vacation app to a fundamental connection platform, leveraging its existing infrastructure and design expertise to build a vast network of service providers and users.

Here's the deal: they're taking their trust system (the thing that made us comfortable staying in strangers' homes) and applying it to basically everything you might want to do in the real world.

This matters for two big reasons:

1. If you're building anything in the local services space like I am, Airbnb just became your competition. And let's be real - they've got the money and the name to become a major threat overnight.

2. They're working on next-level identity verification that could turn your Airbnb profile into your internet passport. Pretty game-changing when you think about it.

They're starting with 22,000+ experiences and planning to scale to "hundreds" of services. Classic move - wait for the small players to prove the market works, then come in and take over.

For us builders, this is both a warning sign and a wake-up call. It might crush some indie service marketplaces, but it also pushes us to get super focused on niches they won't bother with.

Source: Wired

 😂 Builder Memes

✅ Call to Build

Try this today:

“Can you build barcode generator using cursor in 1 hour?”

Tag us if you do.

If you like today’s issue, consider subscribing to us.

That’s a wrap! Catch you in tomorrow’s edition. 👋

—Harman

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