Airizu, the German Capitalists-backed Airbnb Clone, Found Closed
Airizu, the Airbnb clone backed by German capitalists Samwer brothers aiming to take on the China market, is found closed. The site, Airizu.com, now is redirected to Wimdu, the Europe-based travel rental site that is also built by Samwer brothers’ company Rocket Internet.
Less than two months ago we heard that Airizu had laid off 80% employees and Samwer brothers stopped funding the service. Airizu still has 20 employees who are managing accommodations for Wimdu, as reported (report in Chinese).
Airizuが80%の従業員を一時解雇し、Samwer兄弟が資金供給を停止したと聞いていから2ヶ月もたっていない。Airizuは現在も、Wimduの宿泊施設を管理する従業員20人を抱えているという。(中国語でのレポート)
2ヶ月ほど前にAirizuが従業員の80%をレイオフし、Samwer兄弟が同サービスへの資金提供を中止したといわれていた。報道によると(中国語)、Airizuにはまだ従業員が20名おりWimduに代わりユーザーの宿泊先に関する管理を行っているという。
Launched in 2011, Airizu was one of the earliest entrants in travel rentals in China. As founded by the notorious Samwer brothers, it was expected it would soon be sold to other players when it got traction and hype. ELong, one of the leading Chinese online travel services, and Homeway reportedly offered to buy it but were rejected by Samwer brothers. The rumored reason is the offered prices were lower than expected.
As for the local Airbnb-like services, it seems the game has just began. Mayi, the one spun off from Ganji the classified site, raised $10 million to start up. Core employees of Mayi left the company and built another one, Xiaozhu, claiming that it also had raised $ 10 million in funding. Tujia, a more ambitious one, has raised RMB 400 million ($65mn). Soufun, one of the largest online estate services, founded Youtianxia.
訂正
Airbnbのクローンで、ドイツ資本を後ろ盾に持つAirizuが閉鎖した模様