Chinese P2P platform for tour guide services Nilai.com announced the completion of a 15 million yuan ($2.3 million USD) pre-A round of funding on Tuesday. The funding was led by Beijing Fuyuan and will be used to improve the app and enhance the marketing outreach to attract more local guides in overseas countries. Nilai.com, whose Chinese name translates […]
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Ctrip, Qunar End China’s Biggest Online Travel Rivalry With Multi-Billion Dollar Partnership
The spate of consolidations between Chinese tech companies continues as yet another industry rivalry is settled in a multi-billion dollar partnership. Ctrip.com International Ltd. and Baidu-backed Qunar Cayman Islands Ltd. have announced a matchup today that will have a valued worth of approximately $15.6 billion USD. Unlike other recent match-ups in the market, Qunar and Ctrip’s partnership involves a share […]
eLong Announces Privatization Bid From Tencent
ELong, one of China’s largest online travel services, today announced that its board of directors have received a privatization offer from existing shareholder Tencent, which hopes to acquire all remaining shares in the company. Tencent offered shareholders $18 per American Depositary Receipt (ADR), a 27 percent premium to Monday’s closing price in New York, according to […]
Priceline Group Announces Additional US$250M Investment in Ctrip
The overseas online travel service company Priceline Group Inc. today announced that it will invest an additional US$250 million in Ctrip.com International, Ltd. , China’s leading online travel company. This investment follows a commercial relationship established between the two companies in 2012, which was expanded in August 2014 along with the US$500 million investment by The Priceline Group. Immediately following issuance of the […]
Qunar or Alitrip: Which Will Be China’s Travel Taobao?
In yet another expansion into new markets, Alibaba launched Alitrip (or Qu’a (去啊) in Chinese) in late October. Like the e-commerce giant’s other market places, Alitrip is a platform for travel agencies big and small to set up online storefronts. Vendors on Alitrip have the same resources as Taobao and Tmall retailers, such as Alipay […]
China’s Ticketing Site LY.com Lands Nearly $1B USD Funding Led By Wanda Group
LY.com (formerly 17U.com or Tongcheng), one of China’s largest ticketing websites, has secured more than 6 billion RMB ($967 million USD) funding from a consortium led by Chinese real estate conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, Tencent Industrial Capital, CITIC Capital Holdings as well as other institutions. The company did not specify the stakes each investors are acquiring. The investment, which marks […]
Ctrip Invests $200 million in LY.com, Becoming Its Second Largest Shareholder
China’s leading online travel service Ctrip announced today it has invested more than USD200 million in cash in LY.com, one of its competitors, becoming the second largest shareholder in the latter. It’s undisclosed what a percentage Ctrip has taken in LY, but rumor says it’s about 30%. LY.com, formerly 17u.cn, wasn’t well-known in China’s online travel […]
Online Hotel Distribution Solution Developer DerbySoft Raises $9 million from DCM
DerbySoft Inc., a hotel distribution connectivity and caching technology service provider, has raised $9 million in Series D funding from DCM Ventures China Fund. DerbySoft connects central reservations systems (CRS) of hotels and third-parties to online booking and search services, such as Booking.com, Google, Kayak, Travelocity and Tripadvisor. Since it’s headquartered in Shanghai, China, the company also […]
Qunar Launches New Platform to Serve Partners
Chinese consumers have grown accustomed to the annual summer promotion buzz when major Chinese B2C sites like 360buy, Amazon, Dangdang and Taobao Mall tout to buyers with discounts, rebates. And now the buzz for the first time spread to the OTA sector with eLong, MangoCity and Ctrip successively announcing big money for the OTA price […]
Ctrip Liang Jianzhang:We’re not Giving Up Commission Model
After taking Ctrip to the NASDAQ in 2006, Liang Jianzhang, co-founder of the leading Chinese OTA chose to take a break and study Economics at Stanford. Now six years have gone, coming back as a PhD. in Economics with specialties in population studies, Liang took the reins of Ctrip once again, in a time when […]