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Airbnb co-founder Blecharczyk (archive image): "Difficult decision made"
Photo: MONEY SHARMA / AFP
Travelers will soon no longer be able to book rooms via Airbnb in China.
The company announced this on Tuesday.
"We have made the difficult decision to refocus our efforts in China on outbound travel and to suspend our China host accommodations and events beginning July 30, 2022," said Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk.
However, Chinese customers would still be able to book rooms outside of China.
Airbnb did not give reasons for this decision.
Airbnb started its business in China six years ago.
Since then, the company has had about 25 million customers there.
According to the company, bookings in China accounted for only one percent of all bookings worldwide in recent years.
The platform is struggling with strong competition in China.
In recent years, the Chinese government's strict isolation measures in the corona pandemic have also made business more difficult.
Airbnb's withdrawal joins a ranks of Western internet companies like LinkedIn and Yahoo that have pulled out of China in recent months after Beijing restricted tech companies' operations.
Google services have not been available in China for years, and Facebook had never even appeared in the country.
Numerous restrictions on online platforms
Online platforms in China, for example, are obliged to make data of Chinese users available to the authorities upon request and to remove content that is prohibited in the country – such as references to the Tiananmen massacre.
There are also other regulations, for example in the video game sector.
Last summer, the Chinese authorities set a maximum number of hours that minors could spend playing online games.
Children and young people are only allowed to play three hours a week – on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
After the announcement of the withdrawal, Airbnb's stock turned negative.
In the pre-market US business, she lost three percent.
Sol/Reuters/AFP