Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, has a tidy theory about the evolution of the internet. In his view, it’s comprised of three phases. The first was in the ’90s, when people logged on en masse. Then came the age of social media, with users populating vast, virtual networks like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The coming decade, Gebbia muses, will be about bringing people together in the real world. One vivid example is Tinder, the data app that shows people who’s attracted to them and also nearby. In other words, it’s a digital service with a real-world payoff.
