Facebook recently fired one of its Chinese engineers for charging visitors for tours of the company's offices in California and for abusing employee benefits, according to the state-owned broadcaster China National Radio.
The engineer reportedly brought a group of 10 Chinese tourists with him inside the company premises, and charged them $20 each in return for a tour of the facilities and a meal in the staff cafeteria. The tourists were said to have been users of Chummy, a shared-economy platform that links Chinese travelers with Chinese expatriates.
According to the company's LinkedIn page, Chummy is "like Uber or Airbnb, but instead of rides or rooms, we help travelers (which we call youmi), and hire interesting locals (which we call banmi), to show them around their favorite places in their city." Tours of tech companies is one of the packages offered by the startup.
In the San Francisco Bay area, Chinese travelers who wish to visit offices of major tech companies, such as Google, Apple, Yahoo, or Twitter, can reserve a tour through Chummy and meet with Chinese expats who work for these companies, the Taipei-based Want China Times newspaper said in a report on Wednesday.
Facebook has contacted its lawyers regarding the incident, as Chummy's founder, Lisa Liu, is the former vice president of its Chinese competitor Tencent, the report said, adding that other Silicon Valley tech firms such as Google and Apple have begun internal investigations to see if Chummy users have illegally visited their companies and campuses.
In an open letter, Liu said that Facebook was right to fire the employee but should have given him an opportunity to explain himself. She also offered the fired employee assistance in resolving his visa and finding another job.
"We just want to change the world," Liu wrote in her letter. "It has nothing to do with maintaining safety and nothing to do with economic competition."