Airbnb is planning to close their Chinese operations following the nation’s “zero-covid” policy.
Home and rental experiences in the nation will be wiped from the company’s website completely by Summertime, says company sources. Chinese sales only made up 1% of the company’s revenue over the past few years.
The company’s Chinese branch will be shifting their focus to getting Chinese users to travel to other destinations, not vice versa as before.
Over the years prior to the pandemic, the number of Chinese citizens traveling to foreign countries tripled, growing to 155 million travels by 2019. However, following 2020’s worldwide Covid lockdowns, that number has falen dramatically.
China has had some of the most strict lockdown policies since 2020.
In 2016 Airbnb entered the Chinese market, getting over 25 million guests with time. However, the already-difficult and expensive operation had gotten even worse due to the lockdowns, leading the company to end their listings in China.
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