2022年5月24日

据报道，就在Airbnb宣布进入“旅游新世界”的同一个月，它放弃了在这个世界上人口最多的国家为国内旅游提供便利的尝试。据美国全国广播公司财经频道率先报道，在加强对中国市场的关注六年后，Airbnb将终止其在中国的短租业务。一位知情人士告诉英曼，该公司将继续在中国开展业务，专注于中国居民的出境游业务，但到今年夏天，所有广告都将被撤下。此举影响不大，因为中国的预订量仅占该公司业务的1%。尽管如此，这标志着中国6年多以来向全球最大经济体之一扩张的努力宣告结束。该公司没有立即回复记者的置评请求。一位熟悉这一决定的人士说，该国与大流行相关的严格和持续的封锁促使其决定将重点转移到该地区。该人士说:“爱彼迎预计，随着边境重新开放和新冠肺炎疫情消退，来自中国的出境游将反弹。”“亚太地区的跨境旅游也是如此。”2016年，爱彼迎首次在中国开设了办事处。 It had long faced far steeper regulatory requirements that made it difficult to compete in the market, according to numerous reports detailing the company’s struggles to hire a head of Airbnb China. It also had to hire local engineers to focus on designing a user experience that met the needs of Chinese consumers, CNBC previously reported. It all made doing business in the country more costly before further disruption from the pandemic. It confirmed what others had suspected: It can be difficult for American tech companies to compete in China. In 2017, Chinese media speculated the company would fail to compete with local competitors. “Tujia ranks as the primary rival in the Chinese market, which sports a valuation of over US$1 billion, with competitors such as Xiaozhu and Mayi also making China a far more competitive market than what Airbnb faces elsewhere.” The outlet pointed to Uber’s failure to thrive in the country as evidence that Airbnb could fail to gain a foothold despite its intentions of expanding there. “Sporting some 75,000 property listings in China, Airbnb is also dwarfed by local competitors — Tujia lists around 500,000 properties in China, and has also been expanding its pool of listed properties throughout East Asia,” Jing Daily wrote. “Xiaozhu, while small in comparison to Tujia, has said that it expects to report 500 percent organic growth for 2016, and reached over 100,000 listings last year.” Airbnb had been in talks to acquire Xiaozhu, Insider reported in 2016. That deal never went through, and Xiaozhu eventually reached unicorn status and remained an Airbnb competitor in the country. As further evidence of the reaction to the announcement, Airbnb stocks ticked up in after-hours trading after finishing slightly up for the day.