民宿短租網站愛彼迎上周四稱將在2020年申請首發上市，將成為亮相華爾街的一系列重磅科技公司中的又一成員。

愛彼迎未具體說明IPO的時間安排。此前曾有投資者預計它將像優步、Lyft、Zoom和Pinterest等許多同類科技企業一樣在今年上市。

無論如何，愛彼迎都會帶來一次重磅IPO。在2017年9月的最新一輪私募中，該公司估值已達到310億美元。

在愛彼迎披露IPO計劃前，其他科技獨角獸公司在IPO之后表現不一。獨角獸是業界對價值10億美元及以上公司的稱呼。首發上市以來，Zoom和Pinterest的季報一直表現強勁，從而推動股價飆升。兩家公司當前的股價都仍高于首發價。

但優步和Lyft上市后股價持續下滑，原因是季度虧損嚴重以及投資者意識到它們很難盈利，甚至是長期而言。

對于申請上市的虧損企業，華爾街已經出現了一些不耐煩跡象。最生動的例子就是共享辦公空間提供商WeWork。外界原本預計該公司將在下周首發上市，但由于其470億美元的極高私募估值、巨額虧損以及CEO對董事會的嚴格控制連續受到投資者質疑，本次IPO已經推遲。

IPO研究及投資公司Renaissance Capital負責人凱思琳·史密斯說：“私募市場愿意給予的估值和公開市場支持的價值已經脫鉤。私募估值無法在股市上得到延續。”

但史密斯指出，2019年對IPO來說仍是個好年份，表現較好的新股的比重超過了那些虧損最嚴重的新上市公司。

由聯合創始人兼CEO布萊恩·切斯基領導的愛彼迎預計不會成為虧損額最高的公司之一。今年初，該公司稱在不計利息、稅款和其他成本情況下已經實現盈利，但未披露美國通用會計準則下的凈利潤。

史密斯稱：“如果愛彼迎大量虧損，我就會認為它將遇上麻煩。但我覺得情況并非如此。”

已經為IPO做好準備的愛彼迎一直在進行擴張。

今年6月，愛彼迎推出了高端房源服務Luxe，精選2000多套豪華房源。其中包括一座法國城堡、一座牙買加海濱別墅和一幢南非海濱豪宅。此項業務有望與萬豪的豪宅租賃業務Homes & Villas相抗衡。

此外，愛彼迎最近收購了酒店預定App HotelTonight，后者2017年3月的最后一次估值為4.63億美元。這款App可以幫用戶在最后時刻找到打折的酒店，從而改善愛彼迎提供的精品酒店名單。預計它將幫助愛彼迎吸引更多的用戶。

愛彼迎還在加強自己的管理團隊，聘請了維珍美國創始CEO費雷德·里德負責自己的交通運輸業務。它還沒有詳細介紹自己在這方面的計劃，僅表示該業務將包括“可以改善交通運輸的思路與合作”。

去年底愛彼迎任命大衛·斯蒂芬森為首席財務官。他曾任亞馬遜全球消費業務副總裁兼財務主管，現在負責愛彼迎的全球網站銷售。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

Airbnb said on Thursday that it would file for an initial public offering in 2020, marking what will be another in a string of huge Wall Street debuts for tech companies.

Airbnb, which rents homes to vacationers, did not give a specific timeline for its planned IPO. Some investors had expected the company to go public this year, like many of its tech peers did, including Uber, Lyft, Zoom, and Pinterest.

Whatever the case, Airbnb's IPO promises to be a blockbuster. In its latest round of private financing in September 2017, the company was valued at $31 billion.

The news of Airbnb's IPO plans follow mixed IPOs by fellow tech unicorns, the industry's term for companies that are valued at $1 billion or higher. Zoom and Pinterest's have reported strong quarters since their IPOs, sending their stocks soaring. Both companies are still trading above their debut pricing.

But shares of Uber and Lyft have steadily fallen since their public premieres, fueled by huge quarterly losses and the realization by investors that profits will be difficult to achieve, even in the long term.

Wall Street is showing some signs of impatience with money-losing companies filing for IPOs. The most vivid example is co-working office giant WeWork, which was initially expected to hold an IPO next week, but then delayed it after investors raised a litany of concerns over the company’s sky-high private valuation of $47 billion, huge losses, and the CEO's tight control over the board.

“There has been a disconnect between what the private market is willing to value and what the public market supports,” said Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital, an IPO research and investment firm. “Private valuations have been unsustainable in the public market.”

Regardless, 2019 has been a good year for IPOs, with the stronger performers outweighing the biggest losers, Smith added.

Airbnb, led by co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky, is not expected to be among some of the biggest money losers. Early this year, the company said it was profitable excluding interest, taxes, and other costs but did not reveal a net profit using generally accepted accounting standards. During the second quarter, the company said it had “substantially more than $1 billion” in revenue from more than 7 million listings on its service in more than 100,000 cities worldwide.

“If Airbnb were a large money losing company, I would say it’s going to have trouble,” Smith said. “But I don’t think that’s the case.”

And the company, readying for the IPO, has been pushing to expand.

In June, the Airbnb debuted a new luxury service called Luxe with more than 2,000 high-end rentals, including a French chateau, a Jamaican oceanfront villa, and a South African beach house. The service is expected to compete with Marriot’s luxury home-rental service, Homes & Villas.

Additionally, Airbnb recently acquired hotel room app HotelTonight, which was last valued at $463 million in March 2017. The app, which helps users find last-minute hotel rooms at discounted rates, bolstered Airbnb’s boutique hotel listings and was expected to help the company attract more customers.

Airbnb has also been beefing up its executive team with hires like Fred Reid, the founding CEO of Virgin America who now oversees Airbnb's transportation efforts. The company has yet to detail exactly what it plans for transportation, only saying it will include “ideas and partnerships that can make transportation better.”

Late last year, Airbnb brought on chief financial officer Dave Stephenson, the former vice president and finance chief of Amazon’s worldwide consumer organization responsible for the company’s global website sales.