Airbnb, a San Francisco-based company, announced, Tuesday, its plan on expanding to China, the world's second-largest economy. China Broadband Capital (CBC) and Sequoia China will be the company's "strategic partners" in navigating the market, CNBC reported.
There is a rise on the number — 700 percent — of Chinese guests renting rooms through Airbnb. According to Bloomberg, it made China the fastest growing outbound market for the company.
As part of the planned expansion, Brian Chesky, chief executive officer of Airbnb, will be scheduling trips to China in September and October. "We're going to invest quite a lot in China, but we're still deciding how much," Chesky said.
Meanwhile, its partnership with the two Chinese Companies will help Airbnb "navigate the China market and create a truly localized presence for the company."
"And as we move into our next phase of expansion in China, we know we will need deep local knowledge and expertise to keep this momentum going," Airbnb's CEO added.
Before expanding though, the venture capital firms would need to hire a chief executive for Airbnb's operations in China — a strategy that closely resembles with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site, which worked with the same firms in 2014, when it introduced a local site.
The demands Airbnb will be facing are yet to be seen, but the proposed Chinese laws must be considered. Chinese data must be stored in China as the law dictates.
Uber, an international transportation network company, which made its way to China's market is reportedly working on that demand, making sure that more data from its China operations are stored within country. This follows the raid that happened in the recent months by local Chinese police and regulators claiming that their service was illegal.
Airbnb revealed only a few details of how it would meet with China's demands. However, the company stated that it wanted to create a "truly localized platform," The New York Times learned.
