Vacation rental firm Airbnb said on Tuesday it will shut down all listings and experiences in mainland China from 30 July 2022, joining a long list of Western internet platforms that have opted out of the China market.

The company made the announcement in a letter posted to its official WeChat account addressed to its Chinese users without elaborating on the reasons behind the decision. The San Francisco-based company said Chinese users would still be allowed to book listings and experiences abroad.

“We have made the difficult decision to refocus our efforts in China on outbound travel and suspend our homes and Experiences of Hosts in China, starting from July 30, 2022,” Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder of Airbnb, wrote in the letter.

The Global Times newspaper, citing a source close to the company, said Airbnb had decided to shut the domestic business down because it was too costly and complex to operate, which had been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Reuters