'Airbnb for pets' eases anxiety about keeping pooch or moggie home alone

Chinese pet owners returning to their hometowns to celebrate the Lunar New Year are often forced to send their animals to cramped pet stores where dozens of pets are caged together and in often unsanitary conditions.

However, Goumin.com, which translates to Dog People Network, offers a service similar to home-sharing platform Airbnb that provides temporary homes for their animals with fellow pet owners nearby when they are away.

“Spring Festival is one of the busiest seasons for us. We’ve seen online orders pouring in to find reliable animal sitters since December,” said Jia Tong, founder and chief executive of Beijing-based Goumin.

Initially launched in 2006 as an online community for pet owners in China, Goumin started to offer pet homing services in January 2015 in an attempt to ride the growth of the sharing economy in China.

It was a time that saw global lodge-sharing giant Airbnb starting to persuade Chinese to stay in other people’s homes rather than hotels when travelling abroad and the rise of Uber Technologies as it competed with Chinese local rivals to attract people to pay for rides in cars other than taxis.

Goumin’s smartphone-enabled service is gaining in popularity as an increasing number of city-dwelling pet owners grow more sophisticated in consumption not just for themselves but also for their pets.