AirbnbAccording to two people familiar with the matter, China is closing down its domestic business. According to two sources, the company plans to inform employees in China as soon as Tuesday morning. 

All mainland Chinese listings — homes and experiences — will be taken down by this summer.

Airbnb launched mainland China in 2016, and is now facing increasing competition from local players. According to sources, the market segment is already expensive and difficult to run. This problem was made more severe by the pandemic which increased their severity. 

The last several years have seen a small percentage of the revenue from China, despite the fact that Airbnb has in-country branding efforts and Nathan Blecharczyk as the CEO, which has led to the creation of an Airbnb Cofounder. 

According to sources, Chinese outbound travel is a greater opportunity for Airbnb. The company will now refocus its efforts on listing Chinese tourists who are traveling abroad. According to one source, there was little overlap between Airbnb’s domestic and outbound businesses. According to one source, Airbnb will keep a Beijing office with many employees.

Despite a wider selloff of tech stocks this year, the company’s shares fell more than 30% but is still trading at a high price above its 2020 IPO price ($68). In the beginning days of the Covid Pandemic, Airbnb was a struggling company. laying off about 25% of its staffThe company became public in November 2020. According to the company’s IPO prospectus it mentioned in its prospectus that Chinese hosts used a distinct cleaning protocol for covid transmission, which was different from the global five-step program.

As people started to travel again, business has rebounded and the company has experienced an improvement in its performance. uptick in long-term rentals this yearMany employers offered flexible working arrangements during the pandemic. The Chinese economy has taken a longer time to heal, with the government having to periodically lock down in order to combat subsequent outbreaks of the virus.

Airbnb did not respond to our request for comment.