Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing platform, announced a strategic partnership with the US-based online travel platform Booking Holdings on July 17. Booking also invested $500 million in Didi for stock options.
According to the press release, with the help of Didi’s technology, Booking Holdings brands will be able to offer on-demand car services through their apps. However, what changes will be made to the existing Didi app to enable more access to services Booking provides have not been revealed.
Steven Zhu, Vice President for Strategy of Didi said that they look forward to seamlessly connecting every segment of traveling and improving the overall traveling experience through the collaboration with bookings. Todd Henrich, SVP and Head of Corporate Development for Booking also mentioned helping “Didi’s customers with seamless access to” Booking products.
Booking operates its business in more than 220 countries and territories through its major brands including booking.com, agoda.com, and KAYAK. Meanwhile, Didi provides services for over 550 million users and operates the business in overseas markets including China, South America, Australia, and Japan.
Didi was reported on July 16 that it was looking to spin off its car service unit to prepare for its rumored initial public offering, according to reports by local media. Didi was valued at more than $56 billion after recieving an $8 billion investment from Softbank in late 2017. Didi’s car service unit was launched in April 2018 and operates gas, car rental, maintenance and car sharing business. The unit was valued at $3 billion and expected to raise $10 billion to $15 billion.