Alibaba Group announces strategic investment in Qyer, a Chinese outbound travel service provider.

Founded in 2004, Qyer.com is principally engaged in providing suggestions and information to outbound tourists. The company’s core products cover travel guide, forum, inquiry and tips, among others. The website now boasts nearly 10 million users and 5 million activated mobile app users.

Qyer Mobile Apps

Alibaba thinks Qyer.com will become a powerful complement to Taobao Travel, the tourism arm of the e-commerce giant, by enabling customers to balance various factors of price, time and destinations so as to find the optimal tickets and hotels. The acquisition of Qyer.com will help Taobao Travel to roll out services of travel sharing and tourism product reservation.

Alibaba Group established Travel Department in January this year by integrating relevant businesses. The turnover of Taobao Travel, a unit under the department, has surpassed one trillion yuan in 2011, according to Alibaba.

Alibaba has previously invested millions of dollars in 117go, a social travel app. Last week a travel search service was launched under ETao, Alibaba’s shopping search engine.

Emma Lee is Shanghai-based tech writer, covering startups and tech happenings in China and Asia in general. We are looking for stories related to tech and China. Reach her at lixin@technode.com. More by Emma Lee