China’s Tujia to take on Airbnb in global market with new partnership in Japan

Tujia, Airbnb’s biggest competitor in China, has formed an alliance with a company owned by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Group to better take on the US home-sharing giant on a global scale.

Beijing-based Tujia inked on Tuesday a partnership deal with Rakuten Lifull Stay, a Japanese vacation rental service company with 8 million properties, to further its expansion in Japan, a popular destination for China’s outbound travellers.

Under the agreement, Rakuten Lifull Stay and Tujia will share “resources”, giving Tujia’s Japanese listings a significant boost to 100,000 by 2020 and eventually to 200,000 by 2025. Airbnb reportedly has 52,000 listed properties in Japan .

“In terms of our expansion overseas, step one is to have more listed apartments. Step two is to offer more value-added services for China’s outbound travellers rather than just providing accommodation for them,” said Luo Jun, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tujia, adding that the company will actively look for more overseas partners to further its global expansion.

The move comes at a critical time for Airbnb, which has been targeting Chinese outbound travellers for years. The US company pledged earlier this year to make further investments in China, including a plan to quadruple its engineering team in the country over the next 12 months, to focus on affluent Chinese millennials who are increasingly enjoying independent travel in China and abroad.