This article is from WeChat public account: Silicon Star (ID: guixingren123) , author: Duchen Du, editor: Vicky Xiao, original title: “Breakthrough: Airbnb will close its local business in China and take down all its listings”, the source of the title image : Visual China
Just two weeks after releasing its “biggest update in a decade,” Airbnb is making another big news.
According to multiple media reports, the online short-term rental and travel company will officially shut down its local business in China. These include:
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Airbnb China (Airbnb) will completely delist nearly 150,000 listings and experience businesses in China, leaving only the outbound business; it is expected to be completed this summer.
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Airbnb China plans to formally inform its employees in China of the news as early as Tuesday, May 24, Beijing time.
Although it has completely shut down its local business in China, Airbnb has not completely “broken off”, but will continue to maintain a large team in China.
According to Silicon Stars, Airbnb’s future team in China will be mainly composed of engineers involved in the research and development of global products and technology projects, as well as the business and customer service teams responsible for Airbnb’s Chinese users’ outbound travel. The total number of people will be around several hundred people.
In fact, outbound travel orders from China are still a business that Airbnb is very concerned about. That’s why the company will still retain teams locally to serve this segment of consumers.
It is said that in recent years, the local listing and experience service business in China has only accounted for less than 1% of Airbnb’s global revenue.
After the news came to light, Airbnb’s stock price fluctuated slightly today, closing at $112.5. Airbnb’s current market cap is about $72.1 billion.
Airbnb in China
Airbnb was founded in 2008, set up a small-scale team in China in 2014, and started business in the Chinese market in 2015. At the end of March 2017, the name “Airbnb” was set as the Chinese name of the brand and product, which is officially named as a company. The identity of a localized company that provides online short-term rental services in China.
Company founder Brian Chesky attended the company’s 2017 press conference in Beijing, and expressed his expectations for Chinese “millennial” users: young Chinese travelers see the world from a completely different angle than before. We hope Airbnb and our new travel platform will resonate with them and inspire them to travel in new ways.
Chesky’s compliments to young Chinese users are based on expectations for the huge market in China.
After that, Airbnb’s global and China divisions have been actively operating in the Chinese market, and soon made some good results:
For example, only two years after entering China and one year after being officially named, China has become the most popular destination country for Airbnb users around the world to travel in the New Year. Among the top 10 most popular travel destinations, China accounted for 6, and the urban agglomeration around Shanghai and Wuhan became the most popular New Year’s Eve destination cities.
In that year, Airbnb’s listing growth rate in China reached an astonishing 100%, and listings also achieved sinking and diversification:
Image source: Airbnb, Pinwan
However, having a Chinese name does not mean that it is truly localized.
The problem of difficult feedback from Airbnb’s customer service has been criticized by users and the industry in the early stage of localization in China; while competitors such as Tujia and Xiaozhu, which are truly local companies, have significantly reduced their revenue by integrating WeChat mini-programs/payment and other means. The cost of customers has brought great market share suppression to Airbnb.
As a result, for a long time, Airbnb’s China business was a well-liked but not well-received existence, and was criticized for being “unacceptable.”
As for the growth of listings in China that Airbnb considers, it also faces fierce competition in the online short-term rental industry: many listings are registered on many platforms at the same time, not only on Airbnb.
However, a report from iiMedia Research showed that in January 2020, Airbnb was almost on the verge of gaining a firm foothold in China, and was significantly higher than other similar apps (Oyo, Tujia, etc.) in the penetration rate of homestay booking apps. , ants, piglets, etc.) .
No one expected that the epidemic that hit from the sky disrupted everything, and the entire tourism and travel industry, including online short-term rentals, suffered a serious blow. In the early days of the pandemic, Airbnb struggled, laying off about 25% of its workforce in May 2020, before going public in blood in November of that year.
Fortunately, Airbnb stopped its losses in time. In addition to layoffs, it also transformed its main global business form from global cross-border to local short-distance travel. Through this strong turnaround, it found a new growth point in the “post-normal” era. down. At the same time, Airbnb’s China business has failed to “return blood”.
Therefore, many people are not surprised to see the news that Airbnb will shut down its local business in China. After all, the Chinese business now accounts for only about 1% of its revenue, and even before the epidemic, it was only 5%. With U.S. stocks plummeting for several days and major technology companies tending to be conservative in spending, this may be a helpless move for Airbnb.
However, for Chinese hosts who want to run their listings on the platform to get some income, or to meet different tourists, they can only say goodbye to Airbnb.
This article is from WeChat public account: Silicon Stars (ID: guixingren123) , author: Spectrum Du Chen
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