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Baidu Nuomi, the daily deal unit of Chinese search engine giant Baidu, has confirmed with tech blog 36Kr on November 14 that it has adopted hotel-booking and ride-hailing services operated by Ctrip and Qunar to replace its own services. The search company boasted that its Nuomi’s hotel-booking GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) rose 300% YoY during last month’s Chinese National Day holiday, far exceeding the average growth rate in the industry. It also marked its entry into the mid-ranged and upscale segments. Nuomi attributed the growth to its cooperation with Ctrip as the two companies have a mutually beneficial relationship and complement each other through operation and resources. Despite the stunning growth, the company opted to halt its hotel booking operation and connect similar service by partners Ctrip and Qunar. Nuomi explained that the move was based on the “consideration of concentrating on advantageous resources and further deepening the partnership with Ctrip”. An analyst said that Baidu’s suspension of its own hotel booking operation is to avoid internal competition between partners and support Ctrip’s war against group-deal giant Meituan-Dianping in the sector. Baidu earlier sold its Qunar stake to Qunar’s largest competitor Ctrip for 25% of Ctrip's aggregate voting interest and became Ctrip’s largest shareholder in October 2015. After Baidu acquiring a stake in Ctrip and Alibaba exiting its investment in Meituan-Dianping, the online travel market in China became dominated by a triumvirate – OTA giant Ctrip, Tencent-backed Meituan-Dianping and Alibaba’s travel arm Fliggy (formerly Alitrip). (Translated by Jerry) |
