Airbnb Names Former Amazon Exec as CFO, Books $1B in Revenue

NEW YORK—Airbnb has named former Amazon executive Dave Stephenson as its new CFO and recognized “substantially more than $1 billion in revenue” as the home-sharing platform readies for its anticipated initial public offering in 2019.

Previously, Stephenson spent 17 years at Amazon, where he was most recently VP and CFO of the company’s Worldwide Consumer Organization, which is responsible for all of Amazon’s global website sales including Amazon Prime and subsidiaries such as Whole Foods and Zappos. He will start in early January and report to CEO Brian Chesky.

Prior to that, Stephenson was the VP of Amazon’s international consumer business and has led finance across many areas of the company, including North America retail, merchant services and Amazon Web Services (AWS). In addition, he served as president/CFO of Big Fish Games and spent nearly a decade at Procter & Gamble in a variety of finance and engineering roles.

Stephenson is the second Amazon executive to join Airbnb this year, following Greg Greeley, former VP of Amazon Prime and delivery experience, who was named president of homes.

“Dave is one of the best financial operators in the world and there’s no one better prepared to serve as our CFO,” said Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO and head of community. “I’m proud of everything we’ve achieved, but Airbnb is just getting started. In the years ahead, Dave will be Airbnb’s quarterback for long-term growth, driving us to be even more efficient and leverage what makes Airbnb unique to create new businesses and continue to expand.”

Airbnb Shares Quarterly Update

Airbnb is positioning itself for growth. For the first time in its 10-year history, the home-sharing platform released details about how the business is faring.

In a memo, the company shared: “The third quarter of 2018 was the strongest quarter in Airbnb history, and the first quarter in which Airbnb recognized substantially more than $1 billion in revenue. To date, there have been more than 400 million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings around the world. Investing in our community, our strong brand and our global presence are powering significant growth. For example, the number of guest arrivals in the third quarter increased by 91% in Beijing, 79% in Mexico City, 70% in Birmingham, England, and 67% in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Additionally, Airbnb’s growth has occurred across a wide range of cities, towns and regions and not just a small number of metropolitan areas. In 2018, there have been over 350 city regions with at least 100,000 guest arrivals. In 2013, there were nine city regions with at least 100,000 guest arrivals.”