[keenahn]

User acquisition is probably the biggest challenge for an early-stage startup (http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html). Your definition of "spamming," is pretty broad.

"Spamming" by itself is not malicious. In the case of Path, the app is only as valuable as my network of friends who is on it, so you can be damn sure I'm going to invite them. In the case of AirBnB, people saw the ads, signed up and ostensibly got value out of AirBnB, so what was the harm?

Not sure what your problem with "spamming," is (even though you have provided two examples that are pretty different), but I imagine that yes, startups will continue to grow at all costs because they have to in order to survive.

[rush-tea]

My definition spamming is by market your product to untargeted audience. for path example, it's clearly the contacts in your address book is untargeted people as they have no interests in Path.

As for airbnb, this is more like junk emails, where everything is automated, fake, and you just pray that you can get 1-2% hits. yes, it's kind of targeted audience since the users are clicking the ads, but the ads itself is a FAKE ads because it does nothing but directs you to another site, just like the nigerian million dollar spam. I mean airbnb is a real site, but the ads content is 100% fake. maybe phishing is a better word than spam.

[dangrossman]

Airbnb essentially just e-mailed people that listed rentals on Craigslist with a message that said "hey, you should list this on Airbnb.com too". You could call that spam, but there's nothing fake about the content of the message, nor is the linked website purporting to be anything it's not.

[martey]

"...there's nothing fake about the content of the message,..."

It has been almost 2 years since this story broke, so I think it is beneficial to read the original article and the HN comments that appeared at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2603844

I think nhagen - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2604918 - summed up what is wrong with the emails best:

"I don't hate that they did this, but I hate that they tried to pretend they were anonymous women that happened to really like AirBnB. Why be so shady about it and instead why not just be honest?"

I think it is clear that AirBnB also understood that the Craigslist messages were not above board, based on the apology that Christopher Lukezic, their spokesman, sent to several news publications.

"We have since learned that some of these remote contract sales people were apparently aggressive with their outreach and may have used Craigslist to attract customers to our service who were not open to solicitation. This is not a tactic we condone or endorse, and it is our policy to forbid such actions."

[rush-tea]

I thought airbnb also posted a fake CL ad stating that a room is available, then when someone contacts the ad, then it says that the renter also posted at airbnb and redirect users to airbnb as well?