Airbnb will adjust the international market strategy

American House Rental website Airbnb

Beijing Time July 16 news, according to foreign media reports, people familiar with the situation, the U.S. online home rental website Airbnb recently slowed the pace of overseas recruitment, hoping to avoid business unrest caused by excessive expansion.

Airbnb, one of the most sought-after technology start-ups today, has a value of $2.5 billion trillion, with about 600 employees worldwide. People close to the situation said that in addition to slowing the pace of overseas recruitment, the company also adjusted the international market strategy. They put a lot of staff into new positions and concentrated some services into an undeclared European centre for unified Management.

These actions led to the resignation of some 10 employees. A person familiar with the matter said the European centre in Airbnb would probably be located in Dublin, where some staff would be able to adjust their workplaces. At the same time, some employees will receive additional training due to changes in job responsibilities.

The Airbnb spokesman has confirmed the adjustment to the international strategy, but said no layoffs have been made. The spokesman declined to comment on the plan to set up a new European centre.

Slowing the pace of international expansion seems counterintuitive to the 5-year start-up, after all, the company's business is global and not confined to the US. But Airbnb and his CEO, Brian Chesky, want to avoid the pitfalls of other ambitious tech start-ups. For example, Groupon, an American group-buying site, launched an ultra-high-speed overseas expansion in the early stages of its development, but faced a huge dilemma after listing.

For two years, Airbnb has been racing around the world, competing with European and Asian rivals for listings. Wimdu, one of Airbnb's biggest threats, won $90 million in the summer of 2011 and received the support of Somewhere (Samwer) brothers, who specialize in technology and are adept at cloning successful start-ups. The Somewhere brothers, who founded a citydeal company similar to Groupon and sold it in 2010, also supported a website called Eiges in China.

Faced with cash-strapped imitators, Airbnb quickly moved in 2011 to form a large international team that aggressively attracted potential landlords and encouraged them to release listings on Airbnb. In a very short period of time, the company established 12 international offices and recruited national or regional supervisors. The company's main goal is to attract more listings for its website. Unlike Groupon, the company is not prepared to buy WIMDU because management does not endorse the latter's culture and development strategy, according to people familiar with the matter. WIMDU spokesman hasn't commented.

After two years of regional expansion, Airbnb has covered 30,000 cities around the world by the end of 2012. With such huge tentacles, the company decided to basically stop contacting potential landlords and reorganize existing resources.

This spring, Airbnb divides the international team into two groups: a "user experience" that deals with users ' queries and a "localization" that deals with issues of high local relevance, such as the strategy for the upcoming Sao Winter Olympics in Russia.

Airbnb recently financed more than $150 million trillion, people familiar with the matter said. As a result, if the company decides to launch another big recruitment spree in the future, it will still have ample capital.