China's Ctrip buys VC-backed Trip.com
Ctrip, China’s largest travel services provider, has made another outbound acquisition with the purchase of US-based Trip.com, which has previously received several rounds of venture capital funding.
Founded in 2010 and originally known as Gogobot, Trip.com offers personalized travel planning services that incorporate activities as well as flight and hotel bookings. Users join particular “tribes” based on their broad preferences and the company employs artificial intelligence (AI) technology to make smart recommendations.
Trip.com received $4 million in Series A funding from Battery Ventures in 2010 and a $15 million Series B round from Redpoint Ventures the following year, according to Crunchbase. In 2014, vacation rentals marketplace HomeAway provided a further $20 million in funding. Ctrip’s acquisition price has not been disclosed.
“Practically speaking, we’ll be working with Skyscanner, Europe’s largest flight metasearch and part of the Ctrip Group as well, on a daily basis to bring some of what you’ve known and loved about us to their killer app and audience,” Trip.com founders Ori Zaltzman and Travis Katz said in a blog post.
Ctrip acquired Skyscanner last November in a deal worth approximately GBP1.4 billion ($1.74 billion). Other overseas investments include a $180 million commitment to India’s MakeMyTrip, while the company has backed numerous domestic start-ups. Accommodation-booking platform Tujia is among the most significant; it raised $300 million at a valuation of more than $1.5 billion earlier this year.
Ctrip also agreed an all-share merger with Qunar, its primary domestic competitor, in 2015. Ocean Link – a travel and tourism-focused private equity firm backed by General Atlantic and Ctrip – then privatized Qunar in a deal worth $4.4 billion. Ctrip now holds a 45% stake in the company.
Customized travel activities are attracting increased investor interest on a global basis. In Hong Kong, Klook recently received a Series C round worth $60 million from Sequoia Capital China, Goldman Sachs and Matrix Partners, as it seeks to consolidate the space as the likes of Ctrip, Priceline and Expedia have done with flight and hotel booking.
Klook also wants to use AI to provide more targeted and curated recommendations to customers, leveraging the information it has on time of visit, destination, accommodation and in-destination activities.
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