History
The company was founded in 2010 and launched in March 2011. Wimdu was registered as a limited company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH) in March 2011. [8]
Arne Bleckwenn and Hinrich Dreiling, the founders of Wimdu, previously founded and managed several other startups. [9] [10]
In June 2011, it received $90 million in investments from Kinnevik AB, which invested €25 million, and Rocket Internet. [11] [12] [13] [14] At the time, it was the largest investment in a European startup ever. [15]
By May 2011, Wimdu was available in 11 languages. [16]
In May 2011, Wimdu launched a spin-off business for the China market called Airizu. [17]
Shortly after the launch of Wimdu, Airbnb publicity criticized the business model, writing
"A new type of scam has been brought to our attention: Airbnb clones posing as competition. We’ve discovered that these scam artists have a history of copying a website, aggressively poaching from their community, then attempting to sell the company back to the original." [18]
Airbnb considered acquiring Wimdu, but decided against it as Airbnb was uncomfortable with Wimdu's culture and tactics. [19] [20] [21]
By September 2011, the site was available in 16 languages and offered 25,000 lodging options in more than 100 countries. [22]
In December 2011, WirtschaftsWoche rated Wimdu among the most important startups of 2011. [23]
By 2012, Wimdu claimed to be the biggest social accommodation website from Europe. [24] After the first year in business, Wimdu had booking revenues of $6.6 million per month. [25] [26]
In September 2012, due to rising costs, the company fundamentally changed its growth strategy. Activities of international offices were reduced and some employees moved back to the Berlin headquarters. [27] [28]
In 2013, Wimdu closed its separate China subsidiary Airizu. [29]
Peer-to-peer property rental companies faced new regulatory requirements beginning in 2013 in Germany. [30]
Wimdu continued its operations in Berlin despite 9flats shutting down its Berlin offices. [31] [32]
In January 2013, Rocket Internet evaluated selling the company. [33] [34]
In October 2014, the founders Arne Bleckwenn and Hinrich Dreiling left their positions at Wimdu at their own requests, taking positions on the advisory board. [35] The management was handed over to Arne Kahlke und Sören Kress, [36]
In November 2014, Wimdu expanded its activities at its Berlin headquarters. [37]
From 2013 to 2014, bookings on Wimdu increased by 31%. [38] In the first quarter of 2015, sales were up 34%. [39]
In February 2015, Italian conglomerate Mediaset and Wimdu signed a media for equity deal. [40] Mediaset invested "several million euros" in Wimdu and gave it advertising on the Mediaset TV channels. [41] The investment funded expansion [42] [43] and by April 2012, Wimdu expanded in Italy, Spain and other Southern European countries. [44]
In April 2016, Berlin adopted a law that restricted private apartment rentals. [45] [46] Wimdu then filed a lawsuit against the law, arguing that the law illegally restricts the fundamental rights of hosts. [47] [48] [49]
In October 2016, the company announced a merger with 9flats. [50] [51] In October 2016, 9flats acquired the company. [52]
In December 2016, it was sold to Wyndham Destinations's Novasol brand of Denmark. [53] [54] [55]
In August 2017, the company had 12,000 listings in Germany, compared to 160,000 for Airbnb. [56]
In May 2018, NovaSol was acquired by Platinum Equity. [57]
In September 2018, it was announced that the website would shut down by the end of the year and all employees were fired. [58] [59] [60] [61]
The company is now part of the HomeToGo Group, also owned by Rocket Internet. [62] [63]
Controversies
Rocket Internet, which is led by the Samwer brothers and was invested heavily in Wimdu, is renowned for its aggressive entrepreneurship and leadership style. [64] [65]
Wimdu has been accused several times of being a clone of Airbnb, [66] [67] [68] In response, representatives of the company stated that although the concept may seem similar, Wimdu has a unique approach, treating "different countries, different cultures, in different ways". [69] Wimdu offers a "hotel light" experience in a market where Airbnb has the "first mover advantage". [70] Airbnb and Wimdu are competitors, especially in German-speaking Europe. [71]
In January 2016, Wimdu was accused of not assisting hosts with vandalism and Wimdu refused to compensate the owner of a Berlin apartment that had been destroyed, beyond offering a dedicated "insurance" for such damages. [72] [73] Wimdu denied the allegations and pointed out that the host had demanded an "excessive refund" in this case. [74] Die Zeit invited experts to check the standard form contract, which was deemed to be unsatisfactory. [75]
On 30 May 2016, a Dutch TV program, Groeten van Max, showed fake images used to advertise lodging. Wimdu refused to comment and expelled the inquirers from its offices. [76]
In April 2018, Paris filed a lawsuit against Wimdu and Airbnb for allowing listings of lodging without specific registration numbers. [77]
