Let's compare eBay to AirBnB.
eBay incorporated in 1996, AirBnB in 2008. After 6 years of existing, eBay's revenue in 2002 was $1.21 billion[profitable]. AirBnB's revenue after 6 years is $400+ million[not profitable].
Now, eBay got that revenue+profits by 2002 when:
> (1) there were only few hundred million people online - 7x less than now. Slow internet connection, ugly websites, no mobile.
> (2) people were somewhat insecure about transacting online and paying was pain in the ass.
> (3) they were only popular in the US, UK, AU and had recently entered Germany.
Compare that to AirBnB, which after the same number of years operates in environment where:
> (1) there are over 3 billion people online.
> (2) payments online are very common(booking hotels pioneered by other companies) and easy.
> (3) says it operates in 190 countries, 20+ languages.
Even after all these advantages, they only got 1/3 of eBay's revenue in 2002 with the same current valuation.