Airbnb’s China chief quits after four months on job, delivering setback to company’s growth plan
Ge Hong is leaving to take up another unnamed role, just as home-sharing giant promises a major push for business in the mainland
The head of Airbnb in China is leaving the business after just four months in the post in what appears to be a major setback for the world’s largest home-sharing site’s plans to expand in the market it considers of “fundamental importance”.
It confirmed on Tuesday that global vice-president and head of China Ge Hong is leaving the company to take up another unnamed role.
Kum Hong Siew, its regional director for Asia Pacific, will take over from Ge as it searches for a permanent successor, it said in a statement.
Ge, who previously worked for Google and Facebook, was unable to be reached for comment by press time.
Appointed only in June after what was a lengthy search process, he was hailed as a key figure in the company’s strengthened effort to crack the massive Chinese market, where many Western internet giants – including US ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies – have crashed and burned, losing out to smaller but more aggressive domestic players.
Now considered the world’s fifth largest private tech company by valuation, Airbnb is already facing brutal competition from the local rival sites such as Tujia and Xiaozhu, and a nascent home-sharing market that hasn’t officially gained regulatory approval from the Chinese authorities, despite the government encouraging the overall development of a sharing economy to spur new economic growth.