The non-profit Couchsurfing organization was formally closed in December 2011.
Couchsurfing International Inc. is a hospitality exchange and social networking website. The website provides a platform for members to "surf" on couches by staying as a guest at a host's home, host travelers, or join an event.
Couchsurfing International Inc refers to two separate legal entities. The first was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organization, and was liquidated in 2011. Its assets were sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel, later renamed Couchsurfing International, Inc.,[1] which defines itself as “a mission-driven for-profit corporation”.[5] As of August 2012, the company has raised $22.6 million in investment capital, while reporting no revenue.[5]
Etymology
Couchsurfing is a neologism referring to the practice of moving from one friend's house to another, sleeping in whatever spare space is available, floor or couch, generally staying a few days before moving on to the next house. The term pre-existed the website in vernacular usage; for example, "Couch Surfer" was the title of a song by Bran Van 3000 written in the 90s.
The company, its website, and the general culture of hospitality exchange it is meant to support are all commonly referred to as "couchsurfing". The "c" and "s" are sometimes capitalized, giving "CouchSurfing". Participants frequently refer to themselves as "couchsurfers" or "surfers". "CS" and "CSer" are used as abbreviations.
Membership and site
Registration is free of charge, but payment of an annual fee is a factor in user access to services. CEO Billock envisions increasing the number of services available only to paid members.[6] Members are asked to provide information and photos of themselves and of the accommodation they offer, if any. More information provided by a member, and other members, may affect the chances that someone will find the member trustworthy enough to be their host or guest. Members looking for accommodation can search for hosts using several parameters such as age, location, and gender.
Homestays are consensual between the host and guest, and the duration, nature, and terms of the guest's stay are generally worked out in advance.
Demographics
Cities with over 4,000 registered Couchsurfing as of 3 January 2011Countries with over 500 registered Couchsurfers as of 3 January 2011
As of January 2013, there were over 5.5 million registered profiles at Couchsurfing (all profiles ever created, including duplicate, dormant and deleted profiles).[7] Founder Casey Fenton stated in 2011 that approximately one-third of the profiles registered at that time were active. As of August 2014, Couchsurfing Incorporated states that 400,000 people log-in over a period of one week.[8] According to information on the Couchsurfing site, since 2011 a significant number of fake membership profiles have been created with the intention of inflating membership statistics. In March 2012, 65% of New York City profiles were intentional fakes. The systematic creation of fraudulent membership profiles has continued through August 2014, with numerous locations across the globe registering rates of 50% or more.[9]
Ownership and management
Jennifer Billock, CEO of CouchSurfing since October 2013
Couchsurfing International, Inc is a privately owned for-profit corporation, incorporated in 2011 in the State of Delaware by Casey Fenton and Dan Hoffer.[1] In contrast to some published statements, Couchsurfing is not a Benefit Corporation.[1] As a privately held corporation, Couchsurfing chooses to not publish any financial data, nor information about its stockholders, majority or minority. After the corporation purchased the assets of the previous non-profit organization in 2011, according to company press releases, a $7.6 million first-round investment was raised by Benchmark Capital,[10][11][12] with the ambition of going public at a future date.[13]
In August 2012, Couchsurfing received an additional $15 million in funding from lead investor General Catalyst Partners, with participation by Menlo Ventures, as well as existing investors Benchmark Capital and Omidyar Network. The additional funding brings the company’s total funding raised to $22.6 million.[14]
After replacing Dan Hoffer, Tony Espinoza stepped down as the chief executive of Couchsurfing in October 2013, amid layoffs constituting 40% of employees. Considerations included an $800,000 monthly expenditure rate, which could be difficult to control, considering revenues.[3] He was replaced by interim CEO Jennifer Billock.[3] In August 2014 she was designated permanent CEO by a renewed Board of Directors.
As of 11 August 2014, Couchsurfing’s current Board of Directors includes: Couchsurfing founders Casey Fenton and Daniel Hoffer, Benchmark General Partner Matt Cohler, General Catalyst Managing Partner Joel Cutler, and Couchsurfing CEO Jennifer Billock. Replacing founder Fenton as Executive Chairman is former travel site Expedia CEO Erik Blachford.
History
Conception
The Couchsurfing project was conceived by Casey Fenton in 1999,[15] according to Fenton's account. The idea arose after finding an inexpensive flight from Boston to Iceland. Fenton randomly e-mailed 1,500 students from the University of Iceland asking if he could stay. He ultimately received more than 50 offers of accommodation. On the return flight to Boston, he began to develop the ideas that would underpin the Couchsurfing project. He registered couchsurfing.com the same year.
Fenton developed the code intermittently over the next few years.[15] The site was launched with the cooperation of Dan Hoffer, Sebastien Le Tuan, and Leonardo Silveira[15] as a beta in January 2003, although none of these except Fenton was a member of the original board of directors. The project became a public website in January 2004. Former CEO Hoffer stated that when Couchsurfing first started, he made sure to write up a contract between Fenton and himself that detailed what would happen if CouchSurfing were to ever go for-profit, as he suspected it one day would.[16]
Initial growth of the site was slow. By the end of 2004 the site had just over 6,000 members. In 2005, growth accelerated and by the end of the year, membership stood at just under 45,000.[7] As of October 2011, shortly following its privatization, Couchsurfing had over 3 million active and inactive members (Fenton stated the number of active members was approximately one million) [citation needed] and was the most popular free accommodation site.[17] As of October 2011, the site had an Alexa Global Traffic Rank of 1,729, but by September 2014 had descended to 3,178.[18]
2006 database loss and relaunch
In June 2006, the project experienced a number of computer problems resulting in much of the database being irrevocably lost.[19] Due to the volume of critical data that had been lost, Casey Fenton was of the opinion that the project could not be resurrected. On 29 June 2006, he sent an e-mail to all members: "It is with a heavy heart that I face the truth of this situation. Couchsurfing as we knew it doesn't exist anymore."[20]
Fenton's e-mail was met with vocal opposition to the termination of the project and considerable support for its recreation. A Couchsurfing Collective was underway in Montreal at the time and those in attendance committed to fully recreating the original site, with users to re-enter their profile data. "Couchsurfing 2.0" was announced early in July 2006, with the intent to be operational within 10 days. The initial implementation of Couchsurfing 2.0 actually launched after only four days with the current Couchsurfing slogan "Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time". Since the site relaunch, the project has received international media coverage.
Couchsurfing collectives
From 2006 through 2011, development of the website was run in large part by Couchsurfing Collectives: events which may last days or weeks, bringing groups of Couchsurfers together in a chosen city, to develop and improve Couchsurfing. Collectives have taken place in Montreal, Vienna, New Zealand, Rotterdam, Thailand, Alaska, Costa Rica and Istanbul.[citation needed] The collectives ended with the privatisation of Couchsurfing in 2011, given that the use of volunteer labor is forbidden in commercial enterprises by the US federal government.[21]
In August 2011, Couchsurfing announced its change of status to a for-profit corporation.[24] Couchsurfing International Inc refers to two separate legal entities. The first was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organization, and was liquidated in 2011. Its assets were sold to the private for-profit corporation Better World Through Travel, later renamed Couchsurfing International, Inc.,[1] which defines itself as “a mission-driven for-profit corporation”.[5] A $7.6 million investment was raised by Benchmark Capital,[10][11][12] with the ambition of going public.[13] The site had previously been financed by donations from members and revenue from the voluntary identity verification service. Second and third rounds of investors contributed another $15 million.
The announcement that Couchsurfing had become a for-profit corporation has raised objections from members.[25]
August 2014 security breach
According to the Couchsurfing Community Support Team, on 15 August 2014 “the part of Couchsurfing’s system that sends email to members was breached and an email was sent to approximately 1 million members.” [26] According to a CS Ambassador and IT consultant, the email contained malicious code, an XSRF attack (a Cross-site request forgery), including “embedded on-site action calls loaded as an image”,[27][28] which would have erased reader’s membership data and deleted member profiles. By design or by accident, the action calls were deactivated in the original code. Couchsurfing censored some posts on the site referring to the incident and generally refused to explain how the breach was made.[27][29]
Safety and criminal activity
Given the nature of hospitality networks, based on inviting strangers into private homes, safety was a primary concern.
Safety Mechanisms
There are mechanisms Couchsurfing Inc claimed increase safety and trust, which were previously all visible on member profiles for potential hosts and guests:
An optional credit cardverification system, verifying addresses with a postcard.
Personal references, which hosts and guests have the option to leave after having used the service to comment on what their experience with person they are leaving a reference for was like. It is also possible to leave neutral or negative references if it is deemed appropriate.[30] Negative references are sometimes removed by the site when they are deemed to have been done in a retaliatory or unfair manner.[31] Members tend to rely heavily on references when trying to determine whether another user is "safe" or not.
A personal vouching system was discontinued in November 2014.[32]
Couchsurfing states that "all members are responsible for their own safety".
Then CEO Tony Espinoza stated in 2013 that none of the three primary safety mechanisms were reliable, and that sexual abuse, although certainly under-reported, was shockingly prevalent, including among Couchsurfing ambassadors.[33][citation needed]
Couchsurfing-related sexual assault charges
Several individual sexual assault and harassment charges have been brought forward by mainly female guests against their male hosts. Sexual assault and harassment charges in Leeds (UK, 2009),[34]Marseille (France, 2012)[35] and Padua (Italy,2014)[36][37] have had extensive coverage in the international press.
Controversy
Terms of Use controversy
In September 2012 Couchsurfing updated its terms of use. These were criticized by many members of the community. The former German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Peter Schaar, publicly criticized the terms of use and informed the US Federal Trade Commission about the serious shortcomings in the Terms of Use.[38] Schaar has stated that these terms would be inadmissible under German and European data protection law.
Rollout of the Place Pages and site-wide censorship
In December 2012, major changes were made to the Couchsurfing website when the Place Pages system was instituted.[39] Individual cities pages were replaced with Place Pages.The Place Pages were felt to have many user security and safety issues, geographical and technical problems, be difficult to navigate, and to encourage misuse of the Couchsurfing website.
People unhappy with the Place Pages voiced their concerns on group message boards and made attempts to speak with the company directly. In late February 2013 a prominent ambassador in Chicago was banned from the site by having his profile and posts deleted. In early March 2013, a well-known ambassador in Berlin was banned as well. The banning of the two ambassadors, in addition to a third person, was perceived by their supporters as being motivated by the company's desire to silence its internal critics and thus was the result of censorship. The company maintains that the two users violated the company's Terms of Use and that the deletions were not the result of censorship.[40][41][42] In the history of Social Networking, Couchsurfing has often been cited for what not to do. As of January 2014, there has been an ominous lack of press or social media engagement (relative to users and valuation) since reorganization in 2013.
On the Berlin, Chicago, and other message boards there was a loud outcry against the bannings and perceived censorship. Some users felt that Couchsurfing, as a for-profit company, would no longer uphold the open culture of hospitality exchange.
^ ab"Security Breach". Retrieved 19 August 2014. Cite error: The named reference "Security Breach" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
