[brabel]

Airbnb is a good example of "success" by doing nothing new, just pushing past law or other external difficulties that no one else managed before.

Like you say, there had been similar apps for several years. CouchSurf-style websites were common, and the transition to paid accommodation provided by normal people is obvious from there, but no one could get past the difficulty of getting people to pay for something that was commonly done for free, and getting this done without legal issues.

AirBnb, to my knowledge, was likely illegal in most places it worked, but similar to Uber, was on perhaps a gray area that allowed it to continue working until it was so big it cold lobby politicians to acommodate it within the law.

Only a handful of successes can happen this way, and I think all that could, have already happened.