Airizu

Airizu operated as an online marketplace for short-term property rentals, positioned as a direct counterpart to Airbnb for the Chinese market. The company was established in 2011 and backed by the German incubator Rocket Internet, known for replicating successful business models in new markets. The founding team included CEO Adrian Li, a Cambridge and Stanford graduate and serial entrepreneur who had previously founded and sold idapted.com; CMO Alex Zhang, a Stanford graduate; and COO Ben Zhang, a Chicago MBA graduate who was part of the founding team of Gaopeng, Groupon's joint venture in China.

The platform connected property owners with travelers seeking accommodations, offering a range of options from apartments and single rooms to lofts. Its business model was commission-based, charging a fee for each room-night booked through the website. The company targeted a clientele of primarily 20-30 year-olds traveling in small groups, including both tourists and business travelers. A key part of Airizu's strategy involved tapping into China's unique property market, where a large number of apartments were owned for investment purposes and often sat empty. By partnering with property management companies overseeing these vacant units, Airizu was able to rapidly expand its listings. By late 2011, the platform reported having over 100,000 room nights booked and offered 40,000 apartments across 70 cities in China.

Despite its initial growth, Airizu faced significant challenges. The company's strategy, dictated by its primary investor Rocket Internet, was to build the brand quickly and sell it. However, acquisition offers from eLong and HomeAway for $20 million and $30 million, respectively, were rejected by Rocket Internet's founders, the Samwer brothers, as the prices were deemed too low. Facing intense competition from local rivals like Xiaozhu, Mayi, and Tujia, and reportedly suffering from poor cost management, Airizu struggled to maintain its footing. In 2013, reports emerged that Rocket Internet had cut off funding, leading to the layoff of approximately 80% of its staff. Shortly thereafter, in July 2013, the company officially ceased operations, with its website URL redirecting to Wimdu, another vacation rental site owned by Rocket Internet.

Keywords: Airizu, Chinese vacation rentals, short-term rentals China, online rental platform, Rocket Internet, Adrian Li, peer-to-peer accommodation, China property market, sharing economy, travel tech, Wimdu, Samwer brothers, accommodation booking, online marketplace, real estate tech, China startup, travel and tourism, apartment rentals, home sharing, defunct startups