Airbnb rebrands as Aibiying in China, plans to triple workforce and double investment in the country in 2017, integrates with Alipay and WeChat
But the bigger question remains: Can it successfully compete with the reigning “Airbnb of China,” Tujia? — Continuing on his global tour of six cities …
Context & Ripple Effects
Airbnb's China commitment has been building for two years: a CEO search run with Sequoia and China Broadband Capital in 2015, then reported acquisition talks with Xiaozhu that never closed. The rebrand to Aibiying, Alipay and WeChat integration, and doubled investment are the organic alternative to both paths — build the local company rather than buy one.
The move lands in a market where Tujia had already raised $300M at over $1B back in 2015 and would go on to add Ctrip itself as an investor. By wiring payments and social sharing into the two apps Chinese travelers actually live in, Airbnb is conceding that translation was never the problem — distribution rails were.
First-order effects
- Chinese guests get a native-branded service with Alipay checkout and WeChat sharing built in, removing the payment and social friction that favored Tujia and Xiaozhu for years.
- Airbnb's China operation triples its workforce and doubles its investment in 2017, moving from a satellite office to a locally staffed business that can compete on supply recruitment, not just inbound demand.
Second-order effects
- Tujia answers with capital: it raises another $300M at a $1.5B valuation led by online-travel giant Ctrip, tying the incumbent's war chest and distribution to China's biggest OTA.
- With the Xiaozhu deal off the table, Xiaozhu stays independent and free to differentiate on hardware — its plan to install facial-recognition smart locks across Chengdu listings is exactly the kind of local feature battle Aibiying now has to fight.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Western consumer platforms entering China converge on full localization — local brand, local payments, local team — because acquisition targets either refuse to sell or price themselves out once a giant like Ctrip backs them.
- Home-sharing in China consolidates around OTA-backed capital: whoever controls domestic travel distribution, not whoever invented the category, sets the terms of competition — a dynamic the eventual 2018 numbers, with Airbnb China listings up 106%, suggest the localized push at least kept Airbnb in.
The trend: Global consumer internet companies are learning that China entry requires rebuilding the product on local rails — local brand, local payments, local teams — because homegrown rivals locked into domestic distribution cannot be out-translated, only out-built.