Airbnb in talks to buy its China-based rival Xiaozhu
26 Nov 2016
Short-term home-sharing site Airbnb is in talks to buy its China-based rival Xiaozhu, in order to expand its user base and international presence, Bloomberg reported.
Airbnb, which is valued at about $30 billion after a fundraising round in September, is looking at the world's biggest outbound tourist market.
Airbnb has around 75,000 properties for rent in China, while Xiaozhu has over 10 million active users and around 100,000 properties for rent in 301 cities in the country.
Xiaozhu is China's second-largest home accommodation service firm, and is currently valued at $300 million
A successful transaction would be largest deal in China's home-sharing service industry.
Founded in August of 2008 and based in San Francisco, California, Airbnb allows people to list or rent short-term stay in residential properties, with the cost of such accommodation set by the property owner.
The company gets its revenue through service fees from both guests and hosts with every booking.
It has over 2,000,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 191 countries.
