Vacation rental firm Airbnb said on Tuesday, May 24, it will shut down all listings and experiences in mainland China from July 30, joining a long list of Western internet platforms that have opted out of the China market.
“We have made the difficult decision to refocus our efforts in China on outbound travel and suspend our homes and Experiences of Hosts in China, starting from July 30, 2022,” Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder of Airbnb, wrote in the letter. Almost all major Western internet platforms including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook have ceased to provide services to end users in mainland China, citing reasons ranging from censorship to operation difficulties in the country.
Money is everything. Human rights takes a back seat.