Airbnb changes name in China as it doubles investment

The US home-letting firm decides the Chinese version of 'welcome each other with love' is the way to boost its appeal to the country's increasingly global travellers.

6. Shanghai. Johannes Eisele / AFP

The US-based home-sharing juggernaut Airbnb is looking to expand in China by adopting the name “Aibiying” in the country and boosting investment.

The decision to rename as Aibiying, which translates as “welcome each other with love”, comes alongside the firm’s move to double investment in the country and triple its local workforce to serve the world’s largest population of travelers.

The start-up intends to further grow its Chinese business after more than doubling listings in the country to about 80,000 in 2016, said the chief executive Brian Chesky. 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 ismarketing “Experiences”, a feature that from today lets visitors to the eastern Chinese city book local-led excursions.

“There’s a whole new generation of Chinese travellers who want to see the world in a different way,” Mr Chesky said 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 recently turning profitable for the first time, according to people close to the company. Since its start in 2008, the company has raised more than $3bn 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 country is dominated by local rivals almost two years after Mr Chesky said he was “ getting really serious” about getting in. Still, it is a market of 300 million millennials starting to explore solo travel that co-founder Joe Gebbia has described as “on fire”. On Wednesday, Mr Chesky said Airbnb’s total Chinese guests jumped 146 per cent in 2016.

“They don’t want tour buses. They don’t want tour packages. They don’t want tourist areas. Instead they want local experiences,” Mr Gebbia said. “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 made it easy for Chinese users to pay for Airbnb rentals with Alipay, the local equivalent of PayPal. A tie-up with Tencent 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 tech 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 own home-town of San Francisco.

But any move within China pits Airbnb against the local leader Tujia, which lists more than 450,000 homes and is constantly adding more. Its backers include Ctrip.com International – the world’s second largest online travel agency – and HomeAway. Tujia’s edge stems in part from its understanding of the needs of Chinese travellers: it provides services from property management and inspections of listings to clean-ups after guests leave.

Airbnb however has the advantage of being able to offer more extensive global accommodation to a growing wave of international vacationers. The company estimates outbound travel from China grew 142 per cent last year, and that it has served more than 5.3 million of the country’s globe-trotters. China remains crucial to fulfilling Airbnb’s goal of connecting people around the world, Mr Chesky added.

“That must start with the biggest country on earth, right here,” he said.

* Bloomberg

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