Airbnb's head of China is calling it quits after just 4 months

Airbnb is not having the easiest time in China.

The company's head of business in China is leaving the company after only four months in the role.

Hong Ge, an ex-software engineer at Google and Facebook, told colleagues he was leaving the role for another opportunity.

In an email, Ge didn't elaborate on his reasons for leaving, but emphasised how much Airbnb had grown over the past months.

"It's a very tough decision for me to leave behind all of what we have built together. But hey, it's a small world. I will still be in the internet industry," he said.

According to Bloomberg, the company had struggled since 2015 to hire a head of business, and in the end decided to recruit internally.

Ge's successor is yet to be named, but Airbnb's current regional director for the Asia-Pacific region, Siew Kum Hong, will be taking over the role in the interim.

An uphill battle against local competition

But it's not exactly a surprise that no one is flocking to fill his position.

Airbnb faces stiff competition in China, with local rivals Xiaozhu and Tujia having a strong grip over the home-rental market.

According to CNN, Tujia has some 430,000 listings in China. Airbnb has 80,000.

Airbnb has also reportedly struggled to innovate alongside some of its more aggressive competitors, which came out with services such as digital locks and personalised training for hosts before Airbnb did.

Furthermore, Airbnb faces tough regulations in China -- although to be fair, its competitors do, too.

Foreigners for example, are required to register temporary stays with the police.

A national cyber-law requires private user data to be stored locally, forcing the U.S. company to add equipment locally.

And it's had its fair share of disruptions.

The company, along with other home-sharing companies in China, was forced to remove its rental listings in Beijing earlier this month, ahead of a Communist Party congress that was held in the capital city.

Airbnb also had to officially split off from its main company and register under a separate firm in order to comply with local laws and regulations.

"Airbnb China has to comply...including privacy and information disclosure laws, and may be required by Chinese government agencies to disclose information," the home-sharing platform had written in an email to users last year.