Airbnb's European rival is dead. Long live its Chinese rival!

2 min reading time

Published on 02/10/18 - Updated on 17/03/22

 Xiaozhu Headquarters. Source : REUTERS/Elias Glenn

While Xiaozhu has entered into talks to raise more than $200 million, the German Wimdu announced it would cease all activities at the end of the year

Within 24 hours, two announcements regarding the future of accommodation rental platforms, each claiming to be Airbnb's rival, will have been made:

The first comes from Berlin, where the head office announced that the company's activities would be closed as of January 1, 2019. Wimdu had managed to raise $90 million to expand but was facing "significant financial and commercial challenges" according to the release.

To read: Wimdu, ex-rival of Airbnb, is closing down

The second announcement comes from Beijing where Xiaozhu, which offers private accommodations for rent and services to landlords to improve their housing, has entered into talks to raise $200 million. Among the potential investors, Singapore's sovereign fund would be on board. Xiaozhu.com's current investors include Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, as well as Legend Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, MSA Capital and Capital Today.

At a time when Europe is trying to expand its network of digital companies in order to compete with the Californian giants, China is successfully building strong rivals: Alibaba and Huawei now have several hundred customers and can compete with Amazon and Motorola. In the hotel industry, advances in artificial intelligence are notable in China ( Artificial Intelligence: Are European hoteliers lagging behind Chinese and American hoteliers? ) and could eventually become one of the keys to group development.

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