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Comment by throwaway4good | Hacker News Reader

There are plenty of US tech companies that have success in China.

For example I often use Agoda or hotels.com when I travel in China.

I think AirBnB will have plenty of competition in China and broader Asia from well-established players such as CTrip, Agoda or Rakuten.

The "social network" (rating your visitors etc.) aspect of AirBnB I think will matter less in those parts of the world ... but maybe I am wrong and things will change.

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The usage you're describing doesn't equate to success in China, you're still a customer outside of China even if they're working with businesses in China.

I'm not saying the two services you referenced do or do not do well with the Chinese market, but it's a different proposition to actually capture a massive distinct market vs expansive options for the existing customer base.

I don't have the numbers but my impression is that in particular Agoda is very popular.

I see Agoda as a competitor to booking.com, I can see they always have a price advantage against booking.com. All these services are not pleasant to use. People normally spend quite a bit time in searching for places to stay. I wish there is more personalized service. I find it is painful to go through reviews and list of properties.

Agoda is owned by booking.com.

Do you consider AirBnB to have more personalized service?

No. But if you go to Airbnb, you probably have already narrowed down your search, it makes the booking process a little bit easier. I find more options is always annoying. Say some reviews are more important than others, I wish sites like booking.com can discard listings when certain keywords appears in negative reviews. All I want is to have a few options to choose from. I personally don't use Airbnb any more.

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