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The firm said in an email sent to Chinese users on Tuesday that
personal data will be "transferred to, stored, used and
processed by Airbnb China… in accordance with Chinese laws and
regulations."
The comments follow a blog post last week in which Airbnb
announced the launch of a separate Chinese entity which will
oversee the management of local data from next month.
Along with the launch of the new Chinese entity, Airbnb also
announced a series of agreements with local city authorities,
including Shenzhen, Chongqing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
China has exerted increasing pressure on foreign tech companies
operating within the country over the past year.
On Monday the country's parliament held a second reading of a
draft cyber security law that could require foreign technology
firms to store certain "important business data" locally,
including personal data.
Airbnb is not the only company to proactively move user data to
local servers. Consumer electronics giant Apple began using
servers provided by China Telecom Corp Ltd <0728.HK> on Chinese
soil from August 2014.
Airbnb saw a fivefold increase in outbound Chinese customers in
2015, making it one of the company's fastest-growing such
markets.
Airbnb is facing a handful of highly-funded rivals in the local
Chinese market, including Tujia.com, which raised $300 million
in August 2015, valuing the home-rental site at over $1 billion.
Xiaozhu.com, often dubbed China's Airbnb clone, also raised
fresh funding in the third quarter of 2015, taking in $60
million at a valuation of over $300 million.
That is small compared with the fund raising for Airbnb in
September that give it a valuation of $30 billion.
Chinese short term rental services also include value added
services, including Tujia's cleaning services for high-end
listings.
Xiaozhu offers a service where users can have a staff member
visit individual houses and offer tips for improving listings.
(Reporting by Catherine Cadell; Editing by Keith Weir)
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