by Alec Hogg
For a business which five years ago was renting inflatable mattresses and is now valued at $24bn, Airbnb has reason to feel a tad important. So I guess it’s natural South Africans should be grateful top have been honoured by the flying visit of CEO Brian Chesky who broke into a Kenyan trip to pop into Johannesburg for a couple hours on Monday.
But it sticks in the craw when any global organisation puts this country so far down the pecking order that its SA country launch justifies no more than the CEO’s quick “show face and duck before dusk”. When I expressed as much on Biznews yesterday, Airbnb’s European spin doctor-in-chief chided me, saying he was “disappointed to read your commentary.” The fellow in question, one Nick Wilkins, kept digging by adding “I would ask you how many CEOs of Silicon Valley tech companies have visited South Africa at all?”
Erm, quite a few actually. There’s that fellow Elon Musk. SolarCity’s Lyndon and Peter Reve. How about Sequoia Capital’s Roelof Botha? Or emerging star, former Peregrine director Kevin Cimring of Jemstep. South Africans all, and regular visitors to their homeland. As for visitors, the faculty of Singularity University – mostly tech entrepreneurs – were here for three days a couple months back. South Africans punch far above their weight in Silicon Valley. Trouble is, people like Wilkins seem to think they’re actually Americans.
Yesterday’s top stories:
Opportunistic Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky jets in, out of SA, loses former fan
DA calls for suspension of SAA chair Myeni – actions grounding airline
Meet SA’s top hunter of rhino poachers, the Belgian Malinois called “Killer”
Robert “Rich Dad” Kiyosaki on two Grand Experiments – by God and Mankind
Nkandla ‘Must Have’ upgrades to convert smelly landfill
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