As Airbnb Just Learned, It's Really Hard to Localize Your Brand Name for China
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Localizing a brand name for China is a mind-boggling challenge. Ideally, the name should convey the brand’s story, set out its local positioning and be memorable. It should sound similar to the original, and have a good ring to it. It shouldn’t evoke unintended meanings in Mandarin or major dialects.
That’s why brand consultancy Labbrand tested over 1,000 possibilities to come up with a Chinese brand name for Airbnb. The name the company settled on, Aibiying, involves three characters meaning “love,” “each other” and “welcome,” and it sounds vaguely similar to the original.
But there was a backlash on social media, with critics saying the new name is hard to pronounce and doesn’t make sense. Among the nastier commentary, one said the name sounded like a “copycat porn company.” (The second character of the name sounds similar to slang for a female anatomy part.) One user of microblogging platform Weibo wrote: “My god. Better to have no Chinese name at all.”
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