After announcing in mid-April that Airbnb’s China business volume increased nearly three times year-on-year in the first quarter，Early July，Airbnb once again announced that its business in China has nearly tripled in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year。

“House listings where Chinese people live in China。" Peng Tao, President of Airbnb China, who has been in office for just one year, clarified the statistical caliber of the three-fold growth to "Perspective"，This means，No matter on the supply side or the demand side，Airbnb has indeed achieved good results in the past six months。

And publishing relevant data so intensively，It is enough to prove that Airbnb China and its trading team，Need a victory to prove yourself。

In the four years since I officially entered China，Airbnb has never attracted the attention of the outside world like another sharing economy giant Uber，This is closely related to its conservative and cautious strategy of entering China。At the same time，Continuous revision of strategy for entering China，And the changes and turbulence of the team in China，All interfered with the process of short-term rental giants establishing their influence in China。

Mid last year，The position of Airbnb China head who has been idle for nearly a year finally has a new candidate，As an entrepreneur who once founded bread travel，Peng Tao’s appointment has attracted a lot of expectations from the outside world，Peng Tao chooses to use business growth rate to prove his ability。

Compare to data，What is more worthy of attention is what is behind the growth，Changes in Airbnb China’s development strategy and team，Facing the complex Chinese market，This global short-term rental giant is trying to share the huge Chinese market cake，Becomes another person worthy of attention。

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Although historical experience shows that，The Chinese market is a tough nut to crack，But in terms of the opportunities contained in the huge market，The risk seems bearable。

About the importance of the Chinese market，Airbnb has gone through a process of understanding。

Li Ang, who started operating Airbnb in Shanghai in 2011，is one of the earliest Airbnb hosts in China，He has participated in two Airbnb Global Host Conferences held in Los Angeles and Paris at his 188bet app own expense，Is a loyal supporter of Airbnb platform and corresponding culture，Also witnessed the development process of Airbnb in China。Today，He still remembers it clearly，The scene when an employee from Airbnb Asia headquarters in Singapore contacted him and came to Shanghai to visit the house。

“They did not pay attention to the Chinese mainland market at that time，I just started to understand gradually。They will be curious about China: I don’t even do it seriously，Not even an Office，There are also people here who are my customers，So they will come to interview you，I will also come and find out。”

Reality quickly drove Airbnb to make a decision，August 2015，Airbnb announced its official entry into China，Started its long localization process。

The time when Airbnb announced its official entry into the Chinese market，This coincides with the fierce battle between Uber China and Didi，The business war that Liu Qing called an “epic showdown”，Shows the market and the public the energy contained in the sharing economy，Because of this，As another originator of the sharing economy，Airbnb’s every move in China has also attracted much attention。

Different from Uber’s rapid implementation，Airbnb’s strategy tends to be conservative，However, acting cautiously still cannot avoid twists and turns on his way to China。

The first stage of entering China，Airbnb’s focus is on expanding its popularity among Chinese outbound travel users，In other words，Expand local housing resources、Developing the local market is not the focus。The formulation of this strategy was related to the current situation of the domestic short-term rental market at that time: the lack of social credit system、Low supply and poor quality、Supervision is not clear。

To this，Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk (Chinese name: Bai Siqi) also explained in an interview with "Periphery" in 2015，Reason for choosing this strategy，This is because on the one hand, there are huge numbers of Chinese outbound tourists，On the other hand, it is also to temporarily avoid direct competition with existing domestic players。

Careful testing leads to the first anniversary of officially entering China，Airbnb’s Chinese name is still undecided，The person in charge of business in China has not been found yet。To this，Domestic colleagues once gave a "regrettable" evaluation。

This is obviously not a long-term solution。September 2016，Airbnb begins to expand its China team；March 2017，At the first media conference after officially entering China，Airbnb announced its Chinese name Airbnb，Introduced a Chinese face to the outside world-Vice President of Technology Ge Hong。

In the exquisite western restaurant beside the Bund，Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and Ge Hong appeared together，Sensitive people caught the message that the Chinese team will have a new leader，However, Ge Hong was not the protagonist 188bet online sports betting of that conference，The media present did not have the opportunity to communicate with him。

June of the same year，Ge Hong was appointed as the global vice president of Airbnb，Full responsibility for Airbnb China affairs，Also the product director and technical director of Airbnb China，Ge Hong has a strong technical background，This appointment reflects Airbnb’s desire to continuously improve its product，The idea of ​​achieving better localization results。At this stage，Airbnb, which places great emphasis on platform tonality, does not want to make special changes in its operations for the Chinese market，Although at that time，China’s local short-term rental players have gone offline、Extend to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain。

The month of taking office，Ge Hong led the team to launch a story function customized for the Chinese market，You can think of it as a simple travel guide。However, the idea of ​​product-driven localization encountered setbacks in personnel matters，Four months after taking office，Ge Hong resigned from Airbnb，Even once involved more disputes about private life。Meanwhile，Information about internal strife in the Airbnb China team is also circulating。

In order to stabilize the situation，At the same time as Ge Hong left office，Bai Siqi takes up the position of Chairman of Airbnb China，In parallel with personnel changes，This is another revision of Airbnb’s China strategy by Bai Siqi: setting up a local customer service center、On-site optimization of experimental housing、Establish landlord academy, etc.。These measures that require going offline were not previously recognized by Airbnb，But in the face of changes in China’s short-term rental market，Sticking to the original approach may miss opportunities，So make more local improvements around the Chinese market，And it becomes less unacceptable。

A series of changes occur at the same time，There is always a vacancy for the person in charge of the China region from the mainland，Until July last year，Airbnb announced that Peng Tao, the founder of Bread Travel, will serve as President of Airbnb China。

Due to various previous setbacks，Peng Tao’s appointment has attracted greater expectations from the outside world。

Independent operating system

Different from the initial stage of entering China，The current cake that Airbnb is targeting is no longer limited to China’s huge outbound travel population，But put it into the larger domestic market，Let Chinese people live in Chinese housing，This is also the largest KPI set by the US headquarters for Peng Tao，It can be broken down into two parts: quantity and quality。

Since last year，Airbnb began to emphasize its growth in lower-tier markets in its external communications，In the summer report released not long ago，Airbnb mentioned that the number of tourists in Qinghai Haixi increased 188bet online sports betting by 9 times。Based on information provided by Airbnb，海西、Yanbian、Rizhao、Zhanjiang、Xuzhou，These are not places in traditional big cities，Already contributing to Airbnb’s impressive revenue growth。

Peng Tao thinks，Sinking is what Airbnb must do，Because “any enterprise cannot take root in third- and fourth-tier cities”，To expand Airbnb’s business to lower-tier cities，Obstacles that hinder the expansion of network effects must be removed，This means Airbnb needs to be in the product、Marketing、Make new adjustments in operations around low-tier cities。

Peng Tao did not clearly indicate which obstacles are included，But he introduced many product innovations in products since he took office: search based on POI and time、Landlord homepage and landlord marketing platform, etc.，These innovations are unique to China。

At the same time，China has also established an independent product team，Luan Hao, the current product manager of Airbnb China, is an important employee recruited by Peng Tao after taking office，Where has he been?、Served in local product teams such as NetEase Cloud Music，Compared with IT elites from Silicon Valley，This is a local player who is more familiar with Chinese user habits and psychology。

For a global company originating in the United States，It is not easy to try so many localizations for a single market，Behind the changes，It is the continuous iteration of concepts and cognition。

“Peng Tao put forward many goals，Brings our team a lot of urgency。”

September 2018，In a bungalow building in the old town of Shanghai，Bai Siqi and Peng Tao jointly attended the event and were interviewed by the media，This is also the first public event Peng Tao participated in after taking office。Questions facing "Periscope"，Bai Siqi said the above sentence。

Peng Tao’s explanation of "Pianwang"，The so-called sense of urgency mainly comes from the cognitive level，“I’ll analyze it with him，The biggest pressure that all international companies face in China is the need to treat China as a different operating system，This sentence is relatively simple to say，It’s hard to do。”

A simple example is，Although from the first day of entering China，Airbnb executives emphasized that they are learning and understanding Chinese culture，But not until last year，Only for landlords in Airbnb China to access Alipay for room payment settlement - previously there were only two methods: PayPal and international wire transfer。

Helping Airbnb colleagues in the United States better understand China is one of Peng Tao’s jobs，“We will now have some activities specifically to bring American colleagues to China，Better invite to Beijing。First of all, it feels like Beijing is so big，He didn’t expect it to be so big，So big。Secondly after they come，I found that no Chinese people carry wallets，All use mobile payment，After 188bet online sports betting coming，Just talk to me，‘Tao，Give me some money in my account，Otherwise I won’t be able to settle the account’。It was quite a shock to them，They know China is different，I didn’t know it was so different，The only explanation is different operating systems。”

Communication and persuasion at the cognitive level gave Peng Tao greater autonomy，You can decide for yourself what matters in "Periance"，What questions need to be discussed with the headquarters，Peng Tao’s answer: It’s basically a separate start-up company，There is no big difference from running a startup before。

Wandering Balance

How to maintain the balance between platform tonality and improving service quality，Once one of the doubts about Airbnb from the outside world，To this，Airbnb is still taking a cautious approach、The strategy of slowly advancing。For example, the customer service issue that was once criticized and could only be communicated through email，It was after being affected by a series of negative events that promoted improvements - 2017，Airbnb decides to establish a local customer service team，Today，Local users can already contact Airbnb’s customer service team through phone calls。Peng Tao expressed to "Pianwang"，The size of the customer service team will be further expanded this year。

Brand、Quality and community are the three keynotes set by Bai Siqi for China business，Compared with China’s local homestay short-term rental players，Community is the most important aspect of Airbnb’s operations that has its corporate culture imprinted。

Landlord Academy established in the second half of 2017，It is specially established by Airbnb to cultivate the operational capabilities of domestic hosts，In different cities，Airbnb will send offline event information to hosts from time to time，Invite Superhosts to share successful experiences。The content of offline activities will also be uploaded to the online WeChat official account，For more hosts to view。

Li Ang has been invited to participate in offline activities to share，The time cost of back-and-forth communication and traveling to the venue is not small，But Airbnb provides no other compensation except lunch boxes。As a senior landlord，Li Ang doesn’t have many interactions with Airbnb on weekdays，What drives Li Ang to devote time and energy is still his personal identification with Airbnb culture。

Afterwards，Due to Li Ang’s achievements in housing operations，And its contribution to the community，He was selected as the team leader by Airbnb，And went to Beijing to participate in the training organized by Airbnb。

Squad leader is Airbnb’s host operation method established more than a year ago: select outstanding hosts from hosts in various places to become squad leaders，Become the person in charge of the relevant area，Airbnb does not pay compensation，But some team leaders have the opportunity to go abroad and communicate 188bet Online Sports Betting and Casino with Airbnb hosts in other countries and regions。

“This is Chinese characteristics，This is a community we built based on China。" Peng Tao introduced。

Host Academy and squad leader mechanism help Airbnb manage its huge host group in a more refined way，Compared with its Chinese disciples，Airbnb puts more emphasis on intervening in the host’s “software”，Instead of directly reaching out to the property operation，This may have a greater impact on the landlord community than currently perceived。

Li Ang told "Periscope"，Although Airbnb invested in Citystay last year，But on the landlord’s side，The impact of Chengsu is too small to be felt。Because many domestic homestay short-term rental platforms have begun to launch their own properties，This causes the platform traffic to tilt toward those listings，This means that the platform acts as both a referee and an athlete，Not fair to third-party landlords，This is also an important reason why Li Ang chose to stick to Airbnb。

Compared with local competitors，Airbnb’s approach can win over more hosts，But at the same time，This may sacrifice some speed and efficiency。

More attempts are still being made on a small scale，For example，To make up for some deficiencies in offline operations，The platform will cooperate with third-party suppliers，Started in March last year，Airbnb has introduced a professional third-party linen washing and distribution agency in Shanghai。And Xiaozhu、Tujia and other local players，Has launched the independent brand of Rent Commune focusing on the problems that may be encountered and the demand generated in the operation of B&B，Part of Tujia’s team started a business and launched Youjia B&B, which is positioned as a “second landlord”。

It can be seen from Airbnb’s actions，Although he is the pioneer of global homestay short-term rental platform，But on the issue of how to adapt to the Chinese market，Native apprentices are now the objects of Airbnb’s observation and learning。

Like a scale，A former Airbnb representative，Domestic local players represent the other side，Now Airbnb is moving at both ends of the scale，Find the most suitable way of survival for you through careful exploration。

*This articleSource: TengNews "Perspective", author: Han Yimin, original title: "Perspective｜After many twists and turns in entering China, has Airbnb found the right path to develop in China？》.