{"id":13185,"date":"2024-11-01T19:35:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T19:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=13185"},"modified":"2024-11-01T19:35:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T19:35:48","slug":"what-an-airbnbopoly-game-says-about-silicon-valleys-standoff-with-lina-khan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=13185","title":{"rendered":"What an \u2018Airbnbopoly\u2019 Game Says About Silicon Valley\u2019s Standoff With Lina Khan"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Four years ago, one of Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 top donors\u2014the billionaire cofounder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman<\/a>\u2014celebrated the IPO of Airbnb<\/a>, a company he was heavily invested in, by fashioning Monopoly boards where the game\u2019s \u201cjail\u201d space is replaced by \u201cgovernment regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee, many billionaire tech investors have come out of the woodwork to support her campaign. While they often tout Harris as a business-friendly politician, they\u2019ve been vocal in their dislike of Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan\u2019s antitrust agenda<\/a>. Hoffman is one of the most influential donors in that group. He has donated tens of millions of dollars in support of the Biden and Harris campaigns and has organized other wealthy tech investors to do so as well.<\/p>\n

When Airbnb went public in December 2020, the company was valued at more than $47 billion. Hoffman sent at least a handful of other investors a board game styled after Monopoly called \u201cAirbnopoly,\u201d according to images of the game obtained by WIRED. A top Airbnb investor confirmed that he was one of several people who received the game from Hoffman and his venture firm Greylock Partners.<\/p>\n

The box is labeled as \u201ca Reid Hoffman and Greylock production,\u201d and it contains all of the pieces typically included in the classic board game, like cards, dice, and game pieces\u2014all with a travel theme. Instead of a top hat or a thimble, players can navigate the board with an airplane seat, golf club, flip flops, and so on. The spaces on the board are customized, too, to include airports instead of railroads and Airbnb locations rather than Atlantic City streets. In one telling modification, instead of a \u201cGo to Jail\u201d space, the board tells players to go back to a \u201cGovernment Regulation\u201d corner space. If players avoid government regulation, they move across a path titled \u201cProgress.\u201d<\/p>\n

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