Airbnb is reported to have made an offer to buy one of its largest Chinese competitors. In an effort to find more success in the country, Airbnb has been in talks with the home-sharing site Xiaozhu.com. Currently, Airbnb only has 75,000 listings, and just 30 personnel, in China. However, it hopes to grow that number to 300 staff in just two years, although this would still leave it well below the size of the country's largest travel site, Ctrip. The intended expansion will only work with a simultaneous growth in presence in the country, which will be assisted by the acquisition of Xiaozhu. This news comes as another Western travel business, Skyscanner, has been bought by Ctrip, for a reported 1.4 billion US dollars. Funding for the deal came from Baidu, whose subsidiary business Qunar merged with Ctrip in 2015.Â
