Airbnb將正式進軍中國市場 Airbnb Seeks to Expand in China With Local Help

HONG KONG — For large Internet companies in the United States, the prevailing wisdom has long been that China is off limits.

香港——對於美國的大型互聯網公司而言，“中國是禁區”是一個長期而普遍的共識。

Beijing’s concerns about being unable to control foreign sites, combined with regulations that require companies to censor and monitor users, has led many start-ups to heed the experience of forebears like Twitter and Facebook and refrain from opening a local China site.

北京對無法控制外國網站感到擔心，再加上一些規定要求公司對用戶進行審查和監控，很多初創企業因此吸取了Twitter和Facebook等前輩的教訓，不在中國本土開設網站。

But that may be changing.

但這種情況可能會改變。

With its announcement on Tuesday that it was expanding in China, Airbnb joined a growing list of large American Internet companies that have begun experimenting with new models to enter the Chinese market. With more than 600 million Internet users, China is a rich prize.

越來越多美國大型互聯網公司正在嘗試採用新的模式，進軍中國市場，現在Airbnb也加入了這個行列；本週二，Airbnb宣佈將在中國擴張業務。中國擁有逾6億互聯網用戶，是一個富有的礦藏。

In a statement on its blog, Airbnb said outbound bookings from Chinese tourists had risen 700 percent during the past year, making it the company’s fastest-growing market of customers booking stays outside their home country. Airbnb, a start-up based in San Francisco, allows people to offer their homes for rent; it completed a fundraising round in June of more than $1 billion.

Airbnb在其博客上發表聲明，說在過去一年，中國遊客境外訂房服務飆升了700%，成爲該公司“境外訂房”領域增長最快的市場。Airbnb是一家總部設在舊金山的初創公司，用戶可以用它出租自家的住所；在今年6月的一輪融資中，該公司籌集了逾10億美元資金。

Airbnb offered few details of how it would meet that Chinese demand. But the company said it wanted to “create a truly localized platform” while being “prudent” in establishing operations within China. To help, the company said it would work with the Chinese venture capital firms China Broadband Capital and Sequoia China, the local affiliate of the American firm, to increase its presence in the country.

對於Airbnb將如何達到中國的要求，該公司沒有提供具體細節，但它表示希望“建立一個真正的本地化平臺”，並在中國境內“謹慎”經營。爲了做到這一點，Airbnb表示，它將與中國風險投資公司中國寬帶產業基金和美國紅杉資本在中國的子公司紅杉中國(Sequoia China)合作，在中國擴大業務。

The first move for the venture capital firms will be to help recruit a chief executive for Airbnb’s operations in China before expanding the local team.

風投公司的第一個行動，就在是幫助該公司擴充本地團隊之前，招募一名首席執行官來負責Airbnb在中國的業務。

The strategy closely resembles one taken by the professional social network LinkedIn, which worked with the same two venture capital firms when it introduced a local site in early 2014. LinkedIn also hired a separate chief executive for its China operations.

這非常類似於職業社交網絡領英(LinkedIn)曾經採取的戰略。LinkedIn在2014年初推出中國本地的站點時，也與這兩家風險投資公司進行了合作。LinkedIn也單獨聘請了一位首席執行官來負責中國區的業務。

LinkedIn’s strategy was to have its partners help the company work with the Chinese government. In particular, China Broadband Capital is politically well connected. Founded by Edward Tian, an entrepreneur who once ran a telecommunications company with the son of the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, China Broadband has assisted other American businesses, like Evernote, in entering China.

LinkedIn的策略是讓合作伙伴來幫助該公司和中國政府打交道。中國寬帶產業基金尤其擁有良好的政治人脈。該公司曾協助印象筆記(Evernote)等其他美國企業進入中國，其創始人田溯寧曾與中國前國家主席江澤民的兒子共同經營一家電信公司。

In an interview last year, a company spokesman said China Broadband saw its role in the LinkedIn deal as helping the American company communicate with the government.

該公司發言人在去年的一次採訪中表示，在LinkedIn的交易中，該公司認爲自己的作用是幫助美國公司與政府溝通。

Although it is unclear what demands Airbnb might face, proposed Chinese laws dictate the company must store Chinese customer data inside China. That could mean giving the government access to data not just about the domestic travels of Chinese, but also about where they stay abroad.

雖然目前還不清楚Airbnb可能會面臨哪些要求，但中國正在擬議的一些法律規定，各公司擁有的中國用戶數據必須保存在中國境內。這可能意味着政府不僅可以獲得中國人在國內旅行的數據，還能獲得他們在國外旅遊的數據。

But cracking the Chinese market must happen first. Brian Chesky, the chief executive and a co-founder of Airbnb, wrote in the blog post that Chinese tourists have been the top spenders internationally since 2012. Expanding inside China will allow the company to make money on their domestic travels as well.

但首先要做的是打入中國市場。Airbnb聯合創始人兼首席執行官布萊恩·切斯基(Brian Chesky)在博客中寫道，從2012年起，中國遊客已經躋身於國際旅遊的主要消費羣。Airbnb在中國境內擴張，可以從中國的國內旅遊市場中賺到錢。

To do so, Airbnb will run up against a local analogue, Tujia, which is already valued at more than $1 billion and offers access to hundreds of thousands of properties across China. Like Airbnb, Tujia helps people market homes to tourists for short-term stays, but it also provides an array of other services around the rental, like cleaning and managing properties.

要做到這一點，Airbnb將與中國本土品牌途家開展競爭。途家的估值已逾10億美元，其網站上提供了數以十萬計的中國住所。像在Airbnb上一樣，用戶也可以在途家上把住所出租給遊客短期居住，但途家還提供一系列和租房相關的服務，比如打掃和管理物業等。

It is unclear whether Airbnb will take up similar services to persuade Chinese to open their doors to visitors. They have an experienced adviser in the industry in the form of Sequoia China’s founder, Neil Shen, who is known in China for starting the Chinese travel site .

目前尚不清楚Airbnb是否會採用類似服務，說服中國人向遊客敞開大門。他們有一名經驗豐富的行業顧問——紅杉資本中國基金創始人沈南鵬，他在中國因爲創建旅遊網站攜程網()而聞名。

In his blog post, Mr. Chesky said Mr. Shen “has deep experience in the Chinese Internet and hospitality sectors.”

切斯基在博客文章中稱，沈南鵬“在中國網絡及服務領域擁有豐富經驗”。

Even as LinkedIn and Uber have led the way for Airbnb, neither has managed to avoid causing a stir. Some LinkedIn users complained online that the company had failed to communicate how and why it was censoring content for users in China. It also briefly censored posts in Hong Kong, which enjoys freedom from Beijing’s content restrictions.

先行一步的領英和優步(Uber)沒能避免引發不滿。領英的一些用戶在網上抱怨稱，該公司沒有表明他們如何及爲什麼審查中國用戶的內容。該公司還一度對香港的內容加以審查，而那裏是無需接受北京的內容管制的。

And several Uber offices have been raided in recent months by local Chinese police and regulators who say the company’s service is illegal. Uber drivers and taxi drivers alike have protested in different cities. Uber is also working to ensure that more of the data from its China operations are stored within the country, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

近幾個月來，優步的幾個辦公室遭到當地警方及監管機構的突查，他們稱該公司提供非法服務。一些城市的優步司機和出租車司機進行了抗議。據一名知情人士透露，優步還在努力確保更多中國業務的數據儲存在中國。

All three companies are likely aware of the potential political fallout that could come if they change their minds. Google, which once acceded to China’s demands to censor content, noisily reversed course in 2010, delivering uncensored results to Chinese users from servers in Hong Kong.

這三家公司可能都認識到，如果它們改變主意，可能會帶來政治後果。谷歌(Google)曾同意中國提出的內容審查要求，但在2010年高調地逆轉路線，通過在香港的服務器爲中國用戶提供不受審查的搜索結果。

That soured the company’s relationship with the Chinese authorities, and Google products are blocked in China.

此舉致使該公司與中國當局的關係惡化，谷歌產品在中國被封。