Month: August 2018

It’s almost unheard of to see three unicorns join forces to fund a startup, but that’s exactly what has happened in Indonesia.

Ride-hailing company Go-Jek, e-commerce firm Tokopedia and travel booking startup Traveloka — each of which is valued in the billions of U.S. dollars — have come together to provide a Series A funding round for PasarPolis, a digital insurance startup in Indonesia aiming to tap Southeast Asia’s growing internet economy.

PasarPolis started out as an insurance comparison site but today it offers micro- and modular-insurance online. Go-Jek, Tokopedia and Traveloka are three of its major clients through which it offers ‘click box’ policies that are bundled with ride-hailing trips, e-commerce sales and travel deals.

The round itself is undisclosed but TechCrunch understands that it is in range of $5-8 million, as was earlier reported by Deal Street Asia.

PasarPolis founder and CEO Cleosent Randing told TechCrunch in an interview that the deal was strategic and aimed at developing new products with the three companies, which he estimates provide “access to 100 million insurable hits per month.” He said that the startup could be picky because it is already cash flow positive.

“We were very very selective with this round, it’s something we are keeping quite low profile,” he explained. “It’s more of how we can be the provider of choice for the largest digital companies in Indonesia… we feel it’s a strategic investment and collaboration to advance micro insurance via the internet.

“Do they believe in the vision and can they help make the vision a reality but giving customers much cheaper, more modular insurance which is more relevant in today’s digital economy?” he added.

Beyond obvious consumer-focused products, PasarPolis has developed programs such as life insurance for Go-Jek drivers, and health care initiatives for SMEs that sell product on Tokopedia. In the travel space, he pointed out that growth in insurance revenue for companies like Expedia is outstripping ticket sale growth which bodes well for Traveloka.

PasarPolis is currently waiting on the result of an application for an insurance license which will give it new options for products beyond its current setup of working with insurers on underwriting. That’ll take some time, however, and right now the focus is on developing new insurance products, cementing its position in the market and also expanding into new markets in Southeast Asia — which now has more internet users than the entire population of the U.S., according to a report co-authored by Google.

Its work with Go-Jek will take it into markets like Vietnam and Thailand — where Go-Jek is expanding its ride-hailing business — but Randing said he is also in talks with other companies and insurance providers to offer more modular options for consumers. That could take the form of usage-based car insurance, or cover for public transport-based delays, he explained.

“Our goal is to make insurance less expensive than half of cup of a Starbucks coffee,” Randing said. Adding that the company may look for new funding in early 2019 as it grows its regional footprint.

Interestingly, PasarPolis has already gone overseas by tapping India for talent — which is something Go-Jek and others have also done. Randing said the company has 15-20 engineers in Bangalore, while the core team, partner support and tech integration staff are housed in Indonesia.

In a very unusual move, WikiLeaks has been subpoenaed via Twitter. In a tweet on Friday, a law firm representing the Democratic National Convention in its civil lawsuit against WikiLeaks and other defendants served legal documents formally notifying the non-profit that it is being sued. The lawsuit also names a long list of other people and organizations, including the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, that the DNC claims worked together to sway the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.

@wikileaks By Court order, you are being served with the following legal documents: https://t.co/ICg8qWnsUy, https://t.co/ZP2tTPJ4pb, https://t.co/RKue30s4hM, https://t.co/q5g0G1rQpQ.
All of these documents may be found here: https://t.co/NOCgvQhh2j.

— Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll Process Server (@ProcessServiceC) August 10, 2018

The Twitter account has no other tweets and appears to have been set up this month by Cohen Milstein, the DNC’s law firm, for the purpose of serving papers to WikiLeaks.

The DNC filed a motion in federal court in Manhattan last month, asking for permission to subpoena WikiLeaks on Twitter after several unsuccessful attempts by email. The DNC argued that the WikiLeaks Twitter account is very active and an April tweet appeared to confirm that the organization was aware of the lawsuit.

Though using Twitter to serve legal documents is unusual, it has legal precedent, with the DNC noting that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California had previously decided that Twitter could be used to notify defendants who had an active account.

In addition, another social media network, Facebook, has also been used to serve legal documents before.

WikiLeaks was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, who is currently living under asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The DNC lawsuit argues that the massive trove of internal DNC emails released by WikiLeaks in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, including ones written by Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta, was part of a conspiracy to damage Clinton’s presidential run and “destablilize the U.S. political environment.”

“Instant booking” apps that let tourists sign up for activities on very short notice have been in the news a lot lately, partly because of Klook’s new unicorn status, but also because of the proliferation of startups in the space, especially in Asia. With so many instant booking apps, are there any niches left to fill? FunNow thinks so. Instead of targeting tourists, FunNow serves locals who want to find new things to do in their cities. The Taipei, Taiwan-based startup announced today that it has raised a $5 million Series A led by the Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund, with participation from CDIB, a returning investor, Darwin Venture and Accuvest. The capital will be used to expand FunNow into Southeast Asian and Japanese cities.

Along with a pre-A round closed last July, its newest funding brings FunNow’s total raised since its launch in November 2015 to $6.5 million. FunNow currently claims 500,000 members and 3,000 vendors, who provide more than 20,000 activities and services daily. Co-founder and CEO T.K. Chen says the startup will focus on building its presence in Hong Kong, Okinawa, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Osaka and Tokyo.

One noteworthy fact about its Series A is the participation of Alibaba, which is beefing up its online-to-offline (or O2O, the business of enabling users to book and pay for offline services) offerings as competitor Meituan-Dianping prepares to go public in Hong Kong. A roster of Alibaba apps, including Koubei for local bookings, food delivery platform Ele.me and travel app Feizhu, compete against Meituan-Dianping, which describes itself as a “one-stop super app” because it offers all those services.

A not-for-profit initiative, the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund supports startups that might eventually contribute to the tech giant’s ecosystem. While Alibaba’s O2O apps are focused on capturing a bigger share away from Meituan-Dianping in China, Chen says future synergies may include listing FunNow’s activities on Koubei so Chinese tourists can continue using the app when they travel. (Chen added that Alibaba wants FunNow to expand in Southeast Asia as soon as possible.)

Even with a backer like Alibaba, however, the obvious question is how does FunNow compare with other instant booking apps? The most notable ones are Klook and KKday, but other players include Headout, Voyagin, GetYourGuide, Culture Trip, Peek and even Airbnb’s new “Experiences” feature.

Chen, who notes Klook’s Series A in 2015 was also $5 million, says FunNow’s deep dive into the local market sets it apart. Its biggest categories are last-minute hotel bookings, like hot spring resorts in Taipei that offer rooms for blocks of several hours in addition to overnight stays; restaurants and bars; massages and other spa services; and events like music festivals and parties.

Chen adds that catering to locals looking for fun stuff to do in their own cities means FunNow’s user engagement is high, with 70% of each month’s gross merchandise volume from repeat customers. The rest comes from first-time users and about 60% of people make another booking within 30 days after their first purchase. FunNow expects to make revenue of $16 million in 2018, three times what it made in 2017.

Most of FunNow’s users are young, in the 25-to-35 age bracket. “We are like Uber, but for booking restaurants, massages, hotels or other kinds of activities around you. We are also targeting spontaneous consumers, because almost all of our bookings are for the next 15 minutes to hour. If you look at our data, 80% of our bookings are for the next hour,” says Chen.

The company tailors its technology platform to local users, too, and relies on a patented algorithm that makes real-time availability calculations to prevent overbookings by syncing with merchant databases. Chen says users can see all available slots based on their location and search perimeters in less than 0.1 seconds and updates in real-time, so people don’t click on something only to find it’s no longer available.

FunNow also screens vendors before adding them to the platform and will delist businesses that rate below 3.5 stars. The convenience is what draws users back to FunNow instead of, say, just reading reviews on Google or asking friends for recommendations and then messaging or calling for a reservation.

Another challenge that potentially arise in the future is if Klook, KKday or other instant booking apps for tourists decide to start serving locals as well. Chen says he believes those startups will continue focusing on the growing tourist market and demand for half-day or all-day tours.

“If they want to cut into our play, they need to first find merchants one by one and also deploy strong systems to the merchant side,” says Chen. “However, once merchants use our system, it’s unlikely for them to use two systems to control availability, because you’d need to update all of them to avoid overbooking.”

Despite its first mover advantage, FunNow is also constantly improving its tech, Chen says. “Even in a minute, a business might have sold the seat to a walk-in customer, causing a overbooking and that’s the worst thing to see.”

Disenchantment is the latest animated series from Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama.

The show premieres on Netflix on August 17, and we talk about our initial impressions on the latest episode of the Original Content podcast. Our guest host Brian Heater is a big fan of Groening’s previous creations, and he also interviewed Groening for TechCrunch.

While Disenchantment brings Groening’s funny, skewed approach to a medieval fantasy setting, it isn’t a parody, exactly. It’s packed with jokes, but they rely more on the characters and on general zaniness, rather than references to (say) The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.

Some of us weren’t completely won over the first couple episodes. The most promising aspect of the show is its central trio of characters, including the rebellious princess Bean (voiced by Broad City‘s Abbi Jacobson), her personal demon Luci (Eric Andre) and the runaway elf Elfo (Nat Faxon).

We also discuss recent streaming headlines, including a new show for Apple from the team behind It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and new details emerging about Disney’s plans for its yet-to-be-named streaming service.

You can listen in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You also can send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

Thanks to Anchor for letting us record in their Manhattan podcasting studio before it officially opens.

So, to recap: Satellite communication systems worldwide are “protected” by easily cracked hard-coded passwords. The private internet connecting the world’s mobile phone operators remains replete with vulnerabilities. Russia has successfully hacked into American power-plant control systems. Oh, and voting machines in use in 18 states can be remotely hijacked.

Do you see a theme here? We assume that everything is fine, that the world in which we live rests on solid foundations, that competent grown-ups are in charge of the fundamental infrastructure on which our society rests, which have been constructed as fault-tolerant, resilient systems. We assume somebody somewhere is at the switch, keeping a sharp eye on things.

In some cases, such as aviation, that does indeed seem to be the case. In others, the infrastructure is too decentralized and disconnected to be seriously at risk. But in far too many others, our we have constructed a perfect-storm-in-waiting of tightly coupled networks, zero oversight, and laughable attempts at security. Authority without responsibility, in other words. And in those cases, the assumption that our structural foundations are fine is a laughable pipe dream.

Reminders of this state of affairs come every month, with every infosec conference, every excited burst of news coverage following the discovery of a new high-profile hole. We patch the holes — maybe — but we don’t change our approach. At last week’s Black Hat conference, its creator Jeff Moss mused: “attackers have strategies, but defenders only seem to have tactics.”

This is tacitly deliberate. We could have a strategy of hardening our collective infrastructure to improve its security, but the daunting list of upgrades (or downgrades) that would require would be ruinously expensive. This isn’t a problem unique to information security: for instance, 54,000 bridges in America need repair, too. Are we going to repair all 54,000 anytime soon? Don’t make me laugh.

I’ve observed while travelling that one of the most striking differences in quality of life, between nations with comparable wealth, is simply what’s culturally acceptable. (A famous example: in Japan it is not culturally acceptable for trains to be late. In wealthier America … not so much.) The only way we’re going to harden our infrastructure, and fix our bridges, if it becomes culturally unacceptable for them not to be fixed.

I don’t see that happening. Instead, in a wealthy world of increasing economic disparity, I expect us to increasingly see two-tier infrastructure; stable, secure, reliable infrastructure for the 20%, and a haphazard, kinda-mostly-functional, vulnerable tier for the 80%. “Natural monopolies” such as power grids will be replaced by e.g. private solar power and PowerWalls. At some point one of the US mobile phone provides may well decide that it’s strategically worth it to become the Apple of phone service, charging twice as much for far better service and security. Etcetera.

Unless, of course, some kind of perfect storm arrives first, and our security problem turns into a genuine crisis, or even catastrophe. I’m an optimist; I don’t think that will happen. But it’s increasingly hard to ignore the possibility.

It’s time to talk about election security.

Over the weekend at Def Con, the annual hacker convention in Las Vegas to discuss some of the latest and greatest (or scariest) trends in the wild world of hacking, a pair of election security hacking demonstrations set up for adults and kids alike offered up some frightening revelations about America’s voting infrastructure. (I’m not even going to begin to touch Voatz.)

For 11 year-old Emmett from Austin, hacking the website for the Florida Secretary of State was as easy as a simple SQL injection.

While it took Emmett only 10 minutes to break into the election reporting section of the Florida Secretary of State web page, it’s important to note that these pages were set up as replicas.

The idea, according to event organizers from Wickr (a secure communications platform), “was mainly focused on breaking into the portions of the websites that are critical to the election process, [so] the kids worked against the replicas of the webpages where election results are reported by secretaries of state.”

“The really important reason why we’re doing this is because we’re not taking the problem serious enough how significantly someone can mess with our elections,” said Sell. “And by showing this with eight year old kids we can call attention to the problem in such a way that we can fix the system so our democracy isn’t ruined.”

Some executives at big corporations share the same concerns. For Hugh Thompson, the chief technology officer at Symantec, the risks are real — even if the problems won’t manifest in the most important elections.

As Thompson (who worked on election security in the early 2000s) told The Financial Times, “The risk that I think most of us worried about at that time is still the biggest one: someone goes into a state or a county that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of the election, is not going to change the balance on x, y or z, but then publishes details of the attack,” he said. “Undermining confidence in the vote is scary.”

Last month at San Diego Comic Con, I fulfilled my childhood (and let’s be honest, current) dream of stepping inside a NickToon. In Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles VR Interview Experience, I interacted with turtles Mikey and Donnie—voiced live by series talent, Brandon Mychal Smith and Josh Brener, respectively.

I stood against a green screen, selected an avatar (I chose Arnold from Hey Arnold!), put on an Oculus Rift headset, and was transported onto a New York City rooftop. I inhabited a 3D form, but as I looked ahead, I saw two 2D turtles. I interviewed the characters in real time, and their movements perfectly corresponded to their answers–there was no discernable lag.

Given that AI isn’t able to match the conversational speed and nimbleness of real humans just yet, companies like Oculus are experimenting with using live actors in their VR experiences to approximate in-person interactions. However, this was the first time I’ve experienced a live melding of 3D and 2D worlds in VR.

Behind the scenes, this “magic” was made possible by four computers, two puppeteers, two voice actors and a team of eight people running the various stations. (The crew were all wearing ninja bandanas, naturally). Adobe Character Animator, Epic Unreal Engine, and NewTeK NDI were all used to create the interview experience. The pièce de résistance was the bright purple keyboard that was piloted by two team members (one for each turtle). Each key featured a different animated pose, and so the actions of the turtles could be “animated” in real time, akin to playing a symbol piano.

According to Chris Young, SVP of the Entertainment Lab, the impetus of the activation was that his team was looking for an innovative way to help socialize Nickelodeon’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at SDCC and so they came up with the idea of a VR press junket.

The Entertainment Lab has been exploring all aspects of virtual cinema pipelines with animated characters; using full body and facial performance capture, and doing real-time playback in game engines. Per Chris: “Whether it’s streaming live performances into virtual experiences or recorded for a more traditional linear output, these techniques create another tool that we can use to create compelling content for our audience.”   

Even without the bandanas, the team had great synergy: “The best part about my team is that everyone brings a different expertise. From artists to engineers, the combination of skills and background made this creatively and technically possible” said Chris.

Although I teased the turtles for being “flat” in my interview, I love that this creative choice was made. It would have been unsettling to suddenly see what is 2D in 3D.

For example, I enjoy the premise and plot of Virtual Rick-Ality, but one of my main criticisms of the game is the connection between assets. Rick and Morty the animated series is 2D, but the game makes them into bulbous characters. This disconnect is off-putting and hurts the immersion of the game.

Although the VR Interview Experience was created specifically for Comic-Con and Nickelodeon doesn’t currently have plans to release a version to the public, they are toying around with other activations for fans.

However, VR isn’t where exploration ends for Nickelodeon, they’re also dabbling in AR. Nick’s new SCREENS UP initiative, first launched at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Sports Awards, allows viewers to hold their mobile devices (or more likely, parent’s mobile devices) up to the screen while watching to reveal hidden AR content.

This app-driven TV and mobile experience is one of the first in the U.S. designed for kids and families. Expect to see more hybrids like this in the future, as it encourages the watching of live TV as well as app downloads; two desirable outcomes for television content providers.

Overall, the best part of my Ninja Turtles Comic Con demo was how silly and good-natured it all was. With heavy headsets and an onslaught of first person shooters, VR can be kind of serious! This felt social and delightful — the improvisational nature of the conversation allowed me to forget I was in a digital space, I was just hanging out with some dope turtles. It’s a credit to Nickelodeon that they could make something this complex look like child’s play.

[gallery ids="1690189,1690191,1690192"]

The “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Live” virtual reality experience was built entirely in-house by Nickelodeon’s Entertainment Lab, which spearheads long-range research and development efforts around new technologies for Nickelodeon and its audience. Chris Young is the SVP of the Entertainment Lab, overseeing its creation. The new Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series premieres September 17th on Nickelodeon.

Last month at San Diego Comic Con, I fulfilled my childhood (and let’s be honest, current) dream of stepping inside a NickToon. In Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles VR Interview Experience, I interacted with turtles Mikey and Donnie—voiced live by series talent, Brandon Mychal Smith and Josh Brener, respectively.

I stood against a green screen, selected an avatar (I chose Arnold from Hey Arnold!), put on an Oculus Rift headset, and was transported onto a New York City rooftop. I inhabited a 3D form, but as I looked ahead, I saw two 2D turtles. I interviewed the characters in real time, and their movements perfectly corresponded to their answers–there was no discernable lag.

Given that AI isn’t able to match the conversational speed and nimbleness of real humans just yet, companies like Oculus are experimenting with using live actors in their VR experiences to approximate in-person interactions. However, this was the first time I’ve experienced a live melding of 3D and 2D worlds in VR.

Behind the scenes, this “magic” was made possible by four computers, two puppeteers, two voice actors and a team of eight people running the various stations. (The crew were all wearing ninja bandanas, naturally). Adobe Character Animator, Epic Unreal Engine, and NewTeK NDI were all used to create the interview experience. The pièce de résistance was the bright purple keyboard that was piloted by two team members (one for each turtle). Each key featured a different animated pose, and so the actions of the turtles could be “animated” in real time, akin to playing a symbol piano.

According to Chris Young, SVP of the Entertainment Lab, the impetus of the activation was that his team was looking for an innovative way to help socialize Nickelodeon’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at SDCC and so they came up with the idea of a VR press junket.

The Entertainment Lab has been exploring all aspects of virtual cinema pipelines with animated characters; using full body and facial performance capture, and doing real-time playback in game engines. Per Chris: “Whether it’s streaming live performances into virtual experiences or recorded for a more traditional linear output, these techniques create another tool that we can use to create compelling content for our audience.”   

Even without the bandanas, the team had great synergy: “The best part about my team is that everyone brings a different expertise. From artists to engineers, the combination of skills and background made this creatively and technically possible” said Chris.

Although I teased the turtles for being “flat” in my interview, I love that this creative choice was made. It would have been unsettling to suddenly see what is 2D in 3D.

For example, I enjoy the premise and plot of Virtual Rick-Ality, but one of my main criticisms of the game is the connection between assets. Rick and Morty the animated series is 2D, but the game makes them into bulbous characters. This disconnect is off-putting and hurts the immersion of the game.

Although the VR Interview Experience was created specifically for Comic-Con and Nickelodeon doesn’t currently have plans to release a version to the public, they are toying around with other activations for fans.

However, VR isn’t where exploration ends for Nickelodeon, they’re also dabbling in AR. Nick’s new SCREENS UP initiative, first launched at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Sports Awards, allows viewers to hold their mobile devices (or more likely, parent’s mobile devices) up to the screen while watching to reveal hidden AR content.

This app-driven TV and mobile experience is one of the first in the U.S. designed for kids and families. Expect to see more hybrids like this in the future, as it encourages the watching of live TV as well as app downloads; two desirable outcomes for television content providers.

Overall, the best part of my Ninja Turtles Comic Con demo was how silly and good-natured it all was. With heavy headsets and an onslaught of first person shooters, VR can be kind of serious! This felt social and delightful — the improvisational nature of the conversation allowed me to forget I was in a digital space, I was just hanging out with some dope turtles. It’s a credit to Nickelodeon that they could make something this complex look like child’s play.

[gallery ids="1690189,1690191,1690192"]

The “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Live” virtual reality experience was built entirely in-house by Nickelodeon’s Entertainment Lab, which spearheads long-range research and development efforts around new technologies for Nickelodeon and its audience. Chris Young is the SVP of the Entertainment Lab, overseeing its creation. The new Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series premieres September 17th on Nickelodeon.

This week the business and tech world was stunned when Elon Musk hinted on August 7, via Twitter of course, that he wanted to take Tesla private. The estimated price tag for such a move is commonly put at up to $72 billion. Shortly after that no ‘white knights’ appeared and Tesla’s shares plummeted.

But today, Bloomberg came out with a new report which might well fan the flames of speculation on Monday.

Its story has sources which say that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund (called the Public Investment Fund or PIF) was already in talks with Tesla to become a significant investor before Musk’s tweets.

The timing of this revelation is important, because the PIF has already built up a stake — valued at about $2 billion — just short of 5 percent in Tesla in recent months.

One could easily surmise that the world’s biggest crude oil producer might well be considering a stake in the world’s most iconic electric car company to hedge against oil. Indeed, that is exactly what Bloomberg’s sources are telling them.

Now, part of the reasons the PIF might be talking to Tesla is that the car maker is alleged to have already had limited talks with SoftBank, of which PIF is a major baker.

What makes these rumours so interesting is that Saudi Arabia’s government is planning to supercharge the PIF into a $2 trillion fund.

And a major (let me repeat that) major focus of the PIF is tech techology. Why? The Saudis are extremely keen to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy and it needs a war-chest and technology assets to do that.

This policy is being driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the next in line to the thrown and dubbed ‘MBS’ by everyone in Saudi.

Since he was named heir-apparent last year he’s been on a tear, restricting the powers of the religious police, removing the ban on female drivers and various other cultural reforms. He’s also driving the country’s tech policy, which last week appointed Steve Wosniak as a “tech ambassador”.

He’s also behind Saudi Vision 2030, a huge national plan to diversify the economy, and develop public service sectors such as health, education and infrastructure. Technology will be a key enabler and driver of these numerous changes. Saudi Arabia is the largest spender on ICT in the Middle East, with spending estimated at $35 billion in 2015 and expected to surpass $39 billion by 2019.

Then there’s Neom, the planned mega city close to the border region of Saudi Arabia and Egypt which will be 33 times the size of New York and make Dubai look like a village. This is being backed by $500 billion from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and international investors.

Put all this in the context of a ‘mere’ $72 billion for Tesla, an icon of the industry, a millennial Crown Prince who is hot for tech, and a sovereign wealth fund which will eventually hit $2 trillion, and Elon Musk’s hints that he may find enough funding to take Tesla private might not look so fanciful after all.

Image Credit: Ahmed Kutty/Gulf News

Happy 10th anniversary Airbnb.

When we first wrote about the company a decade ago, it was a spare website cobbled together by its founders for the low low price of $20,000.

In the years since, the marketplace Airbnb created has radically transformed the rental landscape in cities, created an entirely new hospitality market and surged to a valuation of roughly $31 billion.

As it prepares for an initial public offering in 2019, it’s worth a look back on how far the company has come, and how its founders’ vision for a new type of way to monetize unused apartment space for budget travelers has become the engine driving a new kind of travel and new experiments in modern living (for better or worse).

When we wrote about the company in 2008, the pitch for Airbnb’s services had already been set.

AirBed and Breakfast will definitely appeal to younger travelers, and conventioneers who can’t find a regular hotel room. In overbooked Denver, where 20,000 people will be descending for the Democratic National Convention, hotels are already sold out. More than 600 people have found alternative accommodations through AirBed and Breakfast, and 50 to 100 new listings appear every day. Prices range from $20 a night for an airbed to $3,000 for an entire house.

Indeed, it’s likely that there would have been no Airbnb without the 2008 presidential campaign. The election created a serendipitous confluence of an incredibly unique historical moment where a groundswell of demand could be met by a new type of supply and Airbnb’s co-founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were there to capitalize on the opportunity.

It’s good to remember that in 2008, the co-founders were claiming that they could barely make rent. And they were certainly strapped for cash for the fledgling business. There, again, the 2008 election presented them with an opportunity.

“The world thought we were crazy,” Gebbia recalled in an interview.

But the RISD grads had that $20,000 in seed funding and politically themed cereal boxes to tide the business over. It was the cereal gimmick — selling Obama O’s and Captain McCains – for $40 a box that got them the hearing from Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham and acceptance into the accelerator.

Three years later, the business was a rocket ship. It had pulled in a (whopping for the time) $112 million investment from Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, and General Catalyst and was already on the path to bulldozing the old models of hospitality with a shared vision for visiting any city anywhere in the world.

“Airbnb, with its strong management team and engaged worldwide community is on a path to become a transformational company,” said Yuri Milner founder of DST Global, in a truly understated statement at the time.

So transformational, in fact, that the company would go on to raise billions more atop that hundred-million-plus Series B round.

But that success has not come without a certain cost.

For all of the ways in which Airbnb claims to be unlocking the local economy, it can’t avoid the accusations that it has locked out local renters in favor of financial speculators who are buying up apartments to lease to a traveling class rather than sustain a viable and vibrant neighborhood for the actual citizens that live there.

One study, published earlier this year (and funded by the AFL-CIO and the Hotel Trades Council), indicated that the company significantly impacted rental prices in New York.

… the study estimates that Airbnb has driven up long-term rental prices by 1.4 percent, or $384 per year, for the median New York City renter. The research suggests that both restricted availability in the long-term rental market and increased financial incentives in the short-term rental market account for this increase.

It’s those kinds of figures that have led to the sometimes aggressive pushback from local real estate advocates. Indeed, it was just about three years ago that San Francisco protestors from the Coalition on Homelessness took over Airbnbs headquarters to protest what they viewed as the company’s complicity in the surge in evictions and homelessness in the city.

In a 2015 letter to New York legislators, Airbnb’s public policy chief at the time, David Hantman, wrote, “The majority of hosts use the money they earn to pay their bills and stay in their homes.”

And in a separate blog post (now apparently lost in a site redesign) around the same time, Hantman took Airbnb’s argument further. “In fact, Airbnb makes cities more affordable,” Hantman was quoted as writing in Vice. “Sixty two percent of Airbnb hosts in New York said Airbnb helped them stay in their homes and the typical Airbnb host in New York earns $7,530 per year — a modest, but significant amount that can make a huge difference for families.”

The company’s kerfuffles with regulators (a sort of mirror image of the woes faced by fellow marketplace service Uber and its American competitor Lyft) have not effected the way investors are valuing the virtual room-for-rent-filled house that Chesky and Gebbia have built.

As we reported earlier this year, Airbnb raised nearly $4.4 billion in funding as a private company, to date, and reports say it is on track to make between $3.5 billion and $4 billion in revenues this year from its business connecting travelers with private homes and an array of other related services.

That’s a long, long way from matching would-be attendees to the 2008 Democratic National Convention with air mattresses or sofas in Denver.