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Source: Sharp Finance (ID: xili-caijing)
On May 23, 2022, Airbnb may not have expected that a statement to withdraw from the Chinese market directly sent itself to the hot search.
Since 2013, it has started to deploy in the Chinese market, officially entered China in 2015, and changed its name to localized operations in 2017… In 2022, Airbnb’s nearly ten-year “entrepreneurship” in China ended in failure.
During this process, there were several profound images in Jun Sharp’s mind. It used to be so ambitious and ambitious.
In March 2017, Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky arranged a trip to China. During this several-day trip, he personally announced Airbnb’s Chinese name “Airbnb” and accepted several interviews with Chinese media. I also gave a public speech at Fudan University…
In one of them, I sat across from him and completed an interview of more than 20 minutes in “poor” English. Although it was not the first time in China and he did not speak any Chinese, he told me that he was learning Chinese.
When it comes to the Chinese market, Brian Chesky has bright eyes, and he believes that the Chinese market may grow to become one of Airbnb’s largest markets in the world.
He said that in 2009, the first Chinese user used airbnb, and for the next six years, airbnb has been learning the Chinese market. At first, the company was cautious about entering China and did not want to expand in China. It was not until 2015 that the company decided to enter China.
Brian Chesky has been to many countries around the world, and he expressed high expectations for China, especially the development of community (community), in an interview in 2017, including because of China’s demographic dividend, the personalization of the 100 million-scale millennial generation The way of travel, etc., the Chinese community, has the potential to become the largest in the world.
When Brian Chesky gave a public speech at Fudan University, the seats were full. When talking about China strategy, he said that he had talked with many American CEOs, as well as Chinese CEOs, including Jack Ma, Ma Huateng and Robin Li.
“Airbnb is not a Chinese version of the American Airbnb, but a Chinese company, and it only belongs to a part of this global network.” Brian Chesky said that the mistake American companies have made in history is that they came here and There is no difference at all. “They don’t do anything special in China, and they don’t have a unique value proposition.” “For us, it’s very important to be able to let go and be very humble.”
At the time, Brian Chesky was very ambitious.
After that, Brian Chesky doesn’t seem to have arranged interviews in China again, but, soon in October 2017, another co-founder of Airbnb, Nathan Blecharczyk, chief strategy officer, took over as Airbnb China himself. The position of the district chairman, and he has to come to China to supervise the war almost every month.
In Shanghai, I have the impression that I have seen Nathan Blecharczyk at least once. There were many Airbnb hosts at that time. The style and tone are very similar. At that time, I contacted 2 Shanghai landlords, and they had a common feature, and they all had the temperament of an artist.
In November 2018, Nathan Blecharczyk arranged a trip to Wuzhen, shared in a sub-forum, and accepted an exclusive interview with many media including CCTV. However, at that time, one of the issues that the media was most concerned about was still the problem of American companies being “unacceptable” in China.
Nathan Blecharczyk also revealed that Airbnb entered the Chinese market and received investment from Sequoia Capital China. Shen Nanpeng, the founder of Sequoia Capital China, was their intellectual supporter. During Wuzhen, Blecharczyk met with him in Wuzhen. Mr. Shen Nanpeng, introduced the latest situation in the third quarter, including the challenges and competition encountered.
At that time, Nathan Blecharczyk emphasized that China is our second fastest growing overseas market and one of the fastest growing national markets in the world. There are 120,000 residences in China, and about 10 million Chinese users use Airbnb. “In the Chinese market, the number of users using Airbnb has increased by 268% in the past year.” And at the beginning of 2018, Airbnb established a Chinese product team, “China is the only place outside the United States where the company has recruited a local product engineer team.”
Also in the summer of 2018, they went to California, USA for business, and stopped by Airbnb’s headquarters in San Francisco. They rented the office space of another sharing economy giant, wework, but the design of the whole space is very Airbnb, and the employees Resting places come in many forms. There, too, I got a feel for Airbnb’s American vibe.
(Photos taken in the US in 2018)
However, after 2018, there is almost no impression of things related to Airbnb.
Although in Airbnb’s 2020 and 2021 financial reports, we can still see a lot of paragraphs dedicated to the Chinese market (China).
For example, in its 2020 earnings report, Airbnb said: “We are also investing heavily to expand our business in China, which is a highly competitive market, both from a consumer and talent perspective. Operating in China will continue to incur significant expenses and we may not be able to be profitable in that market…”
In its 2021 earnings report, Airbnb said: “We will continue to incur significant expenses to operate in China, and we may never be able to achieve profitability or considerable supply penetration in that market. …”
Of course, in the past two years, affected by the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, Airbnb’s global development has also encountered certain challenges. In December 2020, Airbnb completed its IPO in the U.S. capital market, but the company has a net loss of $4.6 billion throughout 2020. Entering 2021, according to the financial report, the company achieved a total revenue of 6 billion US dollars, but still lost 352 million US dollars.
According to market research firm AirDNA, as of the end of April, Airbnb had more than 500,000 active listings in China and more than 6 million active listings globally.
For Airbnb, when will China’s continued investment pay off? In the short term, there is no timeline in sight.
And in China, all around, there are all wolf-like players. From the moment Airbnb announced its withdrawal, Meituan B&B, Tujia, Fliggy, Wooden Bird B&B, Xiaozhu B&B, etc. immediately took action, green review channels, one-click online, 5-minute review… I have to say, Airbnb is so hard in China!
Business is business after all, and no one wants to keep doing business at a loss. After so many years of tossing in China, Airbnb has still not gotten rid of “acclimatization”. The reason is that it does not provide unique value? Is the figure not low enough, not humble enough? …The once ambitious, now the flowers and waters are gone.
Starting a business is never easy. The experience honed in China hopes to inspire Airbnb globally. We sincerely wish its future, and look forward to the two founders Brian Chesky or Nathan Blecharczyk having the opportunity to come back to China and then to Shanghai.
Just like what Airbnb said at the end of that statement: There are confidants in the ocean, and the ends of the earth are like neighbors.
This article is reproduced from: http://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/csj/2022-05-28/doc-imizmscu3847334.shtml
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