Airbnb Inc is showing China some love.
The US home-sharing giant is adopting the name Aibiying (愛彼迎) in China, one that translates as “welcome each other with love,” as it doubles investment in the nation and triples its local workforce to serve the world’s largest population of travelers.
The start-up intends to ramp up its Chinese business after more than doubling listings in the nation to about 80,000 last year, Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky said.
Photo: Reuters
This year, it plans to offer customers in Shanghai its fledgling Airbnb Trips service — a menu of options that can include concert tickets and restaurant reservations.
It will begin to market “Experiences,” a feature that from yesterday would let visitors to the eastern Chinese city book local-led excursions — including going behind the scenes of a traditional folk opera and learning about dough figurines.
“There’s a whole new generation of Chinese travelers who want to see the world in a different way,” Chesky told a news briefing in Shanghai. “We hope that Aibiying and our Trips product inspires them to want to travel in a way that opens doors to new people, communities and neighborhoods across the world.”
Airbnb, last valued at more than US$30 billion, is accelerating its drive into Asia after turning profitable for the first time, according to people close to the company.
Since its start in 2008, the company has raised more than US$3 billion to pursue its goal of becoming a full-service travel company and expand its business around the world.
While Airbnb is established in Asian markets such as Japan, it has made slower gains in China. The nation is dominated by local rivals almost two years after Chesky told Bloomberg News he was “getting really serious” about getting in. Still, it is a market of 300 million millennials starting to explore solo travel that cofounder Joe Gebbia has described as “on fire.”
Yesterday, Chesky said Airbnb’s total Chinese guests jumped 146 percent last year.
“They don’t want tour buses. They don’t want tour packages. They don’t want tourist areas. Instead they want local experiences,” Gebbia said in an interview last week. “It couldn’t be more exciting to think about this wave of Chinese millennials that are starting to earn incomes now.”
Airbnb has taken its time building relationships with Chinese movers and shakers — it still has not named a local chief executive.
A 2014 partnership with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) made it easy for Chinese users to pay for Airbnb rentals with Alipay, the local equivalent of PayPal. A tie-up with Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) got Airbnb built into WeChat, by far China’s dominant messaging app.
Last year, Airbnb teamed up with the governments of four major cities, including Shanghai and technology hub Shenzhen, for tourism promotions.
Hooking up with the government could help the start-up head off the sorts of clashes that have taken place with local officials from New York and Barcelona to its home town of San Francisco.
However, any move within China pits Airbnb against local leader Tujia (途家), which lists more than 450,000 homes and is constantly adding more.
Its backers include Ctrip.com International Ltd (攜程網) — the world’s second-largest online travel agency — and HomeAway Inc.
Tujia’s edge stems in part from its understanding of the needs of Chinese travelers — it provides services from property management and inspections of listings to cleanups after guests leave.
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