Chinese online travel service provider Qunar has been hit with a RMB 3,250 ($513) fine by the Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau for requiring employees to work during official holidays, in the latest in a series of overwork scandals to hit Chinese tech companies. Qunar explained in a Monday response that it had obtained employee consent for the extra shifts which it said were necessary to address surging customer services demands during the pandemic. Chinese authorities rarely issue fines related to overwork, although the practice has drawn wide public ire following employee deaths at e-commerce giant Pinduoduo and streaming site Bilibili. [Sina, in Chinese]
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China’s AirBNB Tujia Merges Homestay Businesses Of Ctrip and Qunar
Tujia.com, which is often dubbed the AirBNB of China, announced Wednesday that it has entered into a strategic agreement with Ctrip and Qunar to merge vocation home rental businesses of the two Chinese online travel services. It represents another strategic move by Tujia after its purchase of the short-term rental platform Mayi.com this June. Through this acquisition, […]
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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 […]
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Market Expertise Still More Important Than Tech And Capital In China: Qunar Founder
Despite the fact that the Middle Kingdom is currently bursting with investment capital, the secret to successfully launching in China is still relationships and market knowledge, according to Qunar co-founder Frederick Demopoulos who spoke at TechCrunch Shanghai this Monday. Qunar, one of the country’s largest travel service websites, is among the most successful foreign co-founded companies currently […]
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Blacklane Car Service To Launch In Chinese On Baidu-Backed Qunar
German chauffeur service Blacklane will be integrated with Chinese travel site Qunar in mid January, allowing travellers to access the service in Mandarin. The partnership comes as Baidu makes a large strategic investment in US car-hailing giant Uber, as well as an investment in local Chinese car service YongChe this August. Despite their close proximity in the market, […]
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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 […]
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Qunar Joins Ongoing Open Platform Fight
Chinese online travel company Qunar launched a new cloud-based open platform recently, opening its data, access, resources, supply chain, customers, and capital to the entire travel industry. In terms of capital support, Qunar announced that it will provide a combined RMB1 billion (around US$161 million) incubation funding for projects under the platform. “We will offer RMB500,000 […]
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Chinese Travel Search Qunar Follows $15mn Series B Financing for Taxi-hailing App GrabTaxi
Chinese travel search Qunar (NYSE:QUNR) announced today it followed the $15 million Series B financing for GrabTaxi, a Singapore-based taxi-calling app targeting at Southeast Asia market. The round is led by GGV Capital with participation from existing investor Vertex Venture Holdings, which just invested an undisclosed amount of Series A financing a few months earlier. GrabTaxi is now operating in […]
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Ctrip CEO Talks About Frienemy Qunar: Service Quality Differentiates Us
Qunar, a travel search and service provider, went listed on the NYSE last week. Its shares soared 89% on the first day of trading. As Qunar became more than a search engine when it built a transaction system in 2012, it is believed it will eventually become direct competitors of existing online travel agencies such […]
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Travel Search Qunar Sets IPO Price Range to Raise up to $147 million
Qunar, China’s leading travel search and online travel booking service, has set price range at US$9.50 and US$11.50 per ADS that totals the funding to be raised in the initial public offering up to $146.9 million, according an updated file with the SEC. The number is higher than the previous, $125 million. The travel search filed for […]