Travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have hit hard the hospitality industry including the vacation rental online marketplace company Airbnb, Inc. (Airbnb) in 2020. However, in the second half (H2) the company reported recovery in business activities when domestic travel picked up. Later, the company announced its initial public offering (IPO) and got listed in NASDAQ stock exchange. Against this backdrop, IPO emerged as the most discussed trend among influencer discussions on Twitter and contributed huge conversation spike during H2 2020 (as on 16 December 2020), finds GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Airbnb Influencer Platform revealed 250% surge in influencer conversations around IPO during H2 compared to the previous six months.

Smitarani Tripathy, Influencer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “In December, a major conversation spike was noticed among influencers discussion on Airbnb, when the company got listed on NASDAQ and the company’s share price soared more than double the listing price on the first day of trading. The company’s market capitalization also crossed US$100bn on this day, which is one of the biggest US IPO gains in 2020.”

In November, another conversation spike was noticed when Airbnb filed its paperwork for an IPO of up to US$1bn. The filing showed that the company turned profitable in the third quarter despite the COVID-19 pandemic and reported net profit of about US$219m, which emerged as another key driver for influencer conversation spike.

In October, another conversation spike was noticed when Airbnb hired Johnny Ivey, former lead designer of Apple Inc. (Apple) and co-founder of design firm LoveFrom, to develop and design product and services.

Ms Tripathy concludes: “In August, a conversation spike for Airbnb was noticed, when the company imposed more stricter limits and forbidden all house parties and gatherings in its listings worldwide. The company also removed the ‘event friendly’ and ‘parties and events allowed’ search filters from its house rules to adhere with COVID-19 public health mandates and promote responsible travel and stay.”