In 2016, Airbnb decided to build their own payments platform. This is the story:
Airbnb might not strike you as a payment powerhouse at first glance, but just like how PayPal was huge for eBay, payments are a big deal for Airbnb's global travel empire.
Back in the day, when Airbnb was starting, it was all about connecting hosts and guests, but payments were this messy, awkward thing done offline.
CEO Brian Chesky had a cringe-worthy experience at SXSW where he kept forgetting to pay his host, and it got super awkward.
That led him to declare that Airbnb needed to handle payments itself.
And that's how their payment system was born, starting with PayPal and paper checks.
As Airbnb grew, they had to get more global, which meant dealing with all sorts of payment quirks in different countries. They realized they needed their own global payments setup.
For example, in Brazil, credit cards weren't the norm for online payments, so they introduced a payment method called Boletos, where people could pay in cash or through their bank.
Initially, their payment system was cobbled together without much thought for the future, using Rails and basic models.
But as they handled more money and faced more complex needs, they had to level up. They created three new systems:
𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗣𝗜: This made handling complex transactions, taxes, and different Airbnb products much smoother. It basically simplified the payment process.
𝗣𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗚𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘄𝗮𝘆 & 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀: They streamlined the way payments worked, making it easier to handle different payment methods in various countries.
𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗣𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: They revamped their financial reporting system, making it more scalable and easier to maintain. This system kept track of all the money moving through Airbnb.
