Xiaozhu rolls out face recognition to room tenants

China's Airbnb rolls out check-in using face recognition. Xiaozhu.com on Monday announced the use of face recognition technology as a verify solution ahead of the peak Lunar New Year holiday season. Beijing-based startup booking website for daily rentals and short-term rooms will begin testing to meet the government's laws.

"Xiaozhu hopes to use the power of technology to find common ground with the authorities. Regulators can wait, but we can not stem the speed of technology," said Xiaozhu CEO Kelvin Chen.

Xiaozhu founded by Chen in 2012 has raised funding of US$271 million and has more than 200,000 lists in China and is present in 80 cities abroad. Airbnb in valuation of US$30 billion has about 120,000 lists in China after expanding its operations over the past two years.

Face recognition technology is growing rapidly in China as part of a wider push in artificial intelligence for application use from suspect identification in law enforcement to authorization of payments for fast food purchases.