Airbnb on Tuesday announced it will stop representing short-term rental properties in China and focus its business in the country on serving Chinese tourists looking for lodgings abroad.

The vacation rental firm joins a series of foreign internet companies, including Yahoo and eBay, that pulled out of the mainland after running into fierce local competition.

“We have made the difficult decision to refocus our efforts in China on outbound travel and suspend our homes and Experiences of Hosts in China, starting from July 30,” chief strategy officer of Airbnb China, Nathan Blecharczyk, said in a statement on its social media account.

Landlords represented by Airbnb have had more than 25 million guest arrivals since 2016, according to Blecharczyk’s statement.

Foreign tourists have been blocked from visiting the mainland since the pandemic hit in early 2020. (AP)