What an ‘Airbnbopoly’ Game Says About Silicon Valley’s Standoff With Lina Khan

Four years ago, 1 of Vice President Kamala Harris’ apical donors—the billionaire cofounder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman—celebrated the IPO of Airbnb, a institution helium was heavy invested in, by fashioning Monopoly boards wherever the game’s “jail” abstraction is replaced by “government regulation.”

Since Harris became the Democratic statesmanlike nominee, galore billionaire tech investors person travel retired of the woodwork to enactment her campaign. While they often tout Harris arsenic a business-friendly politician, they’ve been vocal successful their dislike of Federal Trade Commission seat Lina Khan’s antitrust agenda. Hoffman is 1 of the astir influential donors successful that group. He has donated tens of millions of dollars successful enactment of the Biden and Harris campaigns and has organized different affluent tech investors to bash truthful arsenic well.

When Airbnb went nationalist successful December 2020, the institution was valued astatine much than $47 billion. Hoffman sent astatine slightest a fistful of different investors a committee crippled styled aft Monopoly called “Airbnopoly,” according to images of the crippled obtained by WIRED. A apical Airbnb capitalist confirmed that helium was 1 of respective radical who received the crippled from Hoffman and his task steadfast Greylock Partners.

The container is labeled arsenic “a Reid Hoffman and Greylock production,” and it contains each of the pieces typically included successful the classical committee game, similar cards, dice, and crippled pieces—all with a question theme. Instead of a apical chapeau oregon a thimble, players tin navigate the committee with an airplane seat, play club, flip flops, and truthful on. The spaces connected the committee are customized, too, to see airports alternatively of railroads and Airbnb locations alternatively than Atlantic City streets. In 1 telling modification, alternatively of a “Go to Jail” space, the committee tells players to spell backmost to a “Government Regulation” country space. If players debar authorities regulation, they determination crossed a way titled “Progress.”

Some spaces connected the committee necessitate the players to wage government-issued fines, taxes, oregon spot and information fees. “Recent developments successful American authorities marque you funny astir surviving successful Canada,” reads 1 of the game’s cards.

Airbnbopoly is intelligibly much of a novelty acquisition than a screed against large government. “Reid is simply a immense person of committee games, having played Settlers of Catan, et cetera, for many, galore years, truthful helium made a customized committee crippled called Settlers of Silicon Valley and talented it to galore friends,” says Aria Finger, podcast cohost and main of unit for Hoffman told WIRED. “Then for Airbnb helium thought a customized crippled would beryllium a nice, unsocial gesture, and the Monopoly committee easy lent itself to Airbnb's assorted rentals, truthful helium decided connected that.”

Still, it has go nationalist astatine a clip erstwhile Hoffman and his Silicon Valley contemporaries person called for Khan to beryllium fired nether a imaginable Harris administration.

Since Khan was confirmed arsenic seat successful 2021, the FTC has gone aft tech giants similar Amazon, Google, and Meta for imaginable anticompetitive behavior. Many of these lawsuits person failed, portion others are ongoing. Khan’s biggest triumph came successful August erstwhile a justice recovered that Google had maintained an amerciable monopoly successful the online hunt market.

In 2016, Hoffman sold LinkedIn to Microsoft, and helium sits connected the company’s board. Microsoft is reportedly presently nether FTC investigation arsenic portion of a probe into collaborations and investments successful artificial intelligence. A spokesperson for Hoffman did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.