Homestay Specialist Airbnb Names Head to China Lodge

(Beijing) — Shared economy specialist Airbnb announced its appointment of a China chief with more than a decade of experience in Silicon Valley, a half year after it formally launched its hotel alternative services into the fast-growing market.

Ge Hong has joined Airbnb as vice president, responsible for the company’s China business, the company announced on Thursday. He joins from social networking giant Facebook, where he worked for seven years, most recently building up the business of placing advertisements in users’ news feeds, according to his LinkedIn account. Before that he worked for four years at Google as a software engineer.

“Ge Hong’s previous experience shows that he has extraordinary leadership and executive capabilities,” Airbnb said in making the announcement. “We believe that Ge Hong’s rich knowledge and experience in the IT sector will give the greatest impetus to Airbnb that it needs as it enters China.”

Airbnb announced Ge’s appointment shortly after unveiling its new Chinese name, Aibiying. It also revealed that 60-70% of its China-based users now can access the service through their accounts on the popular WeChat instant messaging platform, and that the service now accepts Alipay, the local form of electronic payments that is similarly popular.

The company formally launched in the fast-growing China market last December, bringing its service that lets travelers arrange short-term stays in vacant or shared homes. The move was also source of some controversy, since Airbnb said it will share China users’ data with local officials, something that is already required of traditional hotels.

Following that launch, the company said it was is preparing for a major ramp-up that would see its China-based headcount grow from about 30 at that time to more than 300 by the end of 2018.

Spokesman Nick Papas said the company expected to have 100,000 listings in China by the end of last year, making it the second largest accommodation provider in the country, relative to hotels. He added the company expected to take the top position this year, thanks to its growth rate of more than 100%.

In China, Airbnb’s largest rival is the homegrown Tujia, which is backed by leading Chinese online travel agent Ctrip.com International Ltd. as well as U.S.-based HomeAway.

Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)