Airbnb has claimed its internet traffic has taken a hit due to Google's search algorithm, as it accused the tech giant of favoring its own competing travel services on its search engine.
The San Francisco-based vacation rental company, which is preparing to go public next month, submitted its initial IPO filing on Monday including a list of 'risk factors' the business is facing.
Among them is the increasing competition from search engines including Google, which has been using its own services to promote new travel sites Google Travel and Google Vacation Rental Ads.
'We believe that our SEO results have been adversely affected by the launch of Google Travel and Google Vacation Rental Ads, which reduce the prominence of our platform in organic search results for travel-related terms and placement on Google,' Airbnb said in their
Airbnb Inc. on Monday filed its initial IPO with the SEC to go public as soon as December