Baidu to buy stake in Qunar travel search engine
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Baidu, the leading Chinese-language internet search engine, has announced plans to make a US$306 million investment in Qunar, the Chinese travel search engine. The deal will make Baidu the majority shareholder of Qunar.
Founded in 2005, Qunar offers Chinese consumers real-time searches for air and rail tickets, hotels, and tour packages. According to iResearch, a China-based independent research firm, Qunar ranked number one among travel websites in China as measured by daily unique visitors in March 2011. Qunar has the widest coverage of any travel search engine in China, with more than 11,000 air routes and 102,000 hotels worldwide.
The closing of the agreement is subject to conditions, but the parties expect that the transaction will close in the third quarter of 2011. After the investment, Qunar will continue to operate as an independent company, while both companies will cooperate in certain areas of online travel search. Baidu plans to finance the investment through obtaining a third-party loan facility.
“Travel has long been one of the top categories on Baidu, and the number of travelers in China has been growing very rapidly, so this is a market of obvious strategic importance to us,” said Jennifer Li, Chief Financial Officer of Baidu. “Our investment in Qunar will create an even better search experience for users planning trips,” she added.
“Qunar provides Chinese travellers with the most comprehensive and accurate travel information online,” said Qunar’s newly appointed Chief Executive Officer, Chenchao Zhuang. Zhuang co-founded the company with Fritz Demopoulos, who will step down as Chief Executive Officer to pursue entrepreneurial business opportunities, while continuing to serve as strategy advisor to Qunar. “By working with Baidu, we can focus on enhancing our search technology and the quality of our products and services,” said Zhuang. “Together, we can enhance the user experience of hundreds of millions of Chinese travelers, whether they’re searching with their computers or their mobile devices. We believe that Baidu’s strategic investment in us will allow both companies to better capture exciting growth opportunities in our industry.”
“Qunar has developed top-notch travel search technology over the last five years and has built a leading brand name in the industry,” said Baidu’s Ms Li. “Under Mr Zhuang’s leadership, I have full confidence that the highly talented and experienced Qunar team will bring the company to a new level of success in collaboration with Baidu.”
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