Two of China’s leading travel companies are teaming up to make the most of a bright spot in the Chinese economy.
为抓紧中国经济的一大亮点,中国两家业内领先的旅游企业决定联手。
Ctrip.com International, the Chinese travel-booking company, agreed on Monday to a stock transaction with Qunar Cayman Islands, a travel search engine, and both companies agreed to cooperate across different services.
周一,中国旅游预订公司携程旅行网同意了与旅行搜索引擎去哪儿网的股票交易。两家公司同意在不同服务领域展开合作。二者的上市实体分别为携程国际有限公司(Ctrip.com International)和去哪儿开曼群岛有限公司(Qunar Cayman Islands)。
Baidu, which is the majority shareholder of Qunar, exchanged 178,702,519 Class A shares and 11,450,000 Class B shares for 11,488,381 newly issued ordinary shares in Ctrip.
去哪儿的大股东百度将178702519股去哪儿的A类股和11450000股去哪儿的B类股,置换为携程增发的11488381股普通股。
Baidu will now have a 25 percent voting interest in Ctrip, while Ctrip will have a 45 percent voting interest in Qunar.
百度将拥有携程25%的总投票权,携程则将拥有去哪儿45%的总投票权。
Four Ctrip representatives have joined Qunar’s board, including James Liang, the chairman and chief executive, and Jane Sun, co-president and chief operating officer.
携程的四名代表已加入去哪儿的董事会,包括携程董事会主席兼首席执行官梁建章(James Liang)和联合总裁兼首席运营官孙洁(Jane Sun)。
Robin Li, the chairman and chief executive of Baidu, and Tony Yip, the head of investments, mergers and acquisitions, have been appointed to Ctrip’s board.
百度董事长兼首席执行官李彦宏(Robin Li)和负责投资并购事务的叶卓东(Tony Yip)亦被任命为携程董事。
Qunar, whose name means “where to go” in Chinese, had taken a step toward integrating more tightly with Baidu in September. It gave Baidu another two seats on top of the three it already had on its board.The company has been pushing to broaden its offerings in the face of competition from groups backed by Alibaba and Tencent.
今年9月,去哪儿就为了更紧密地与百度整合而迈进了一步,把百度在该公司董事会的席位从三个增加到五个。面对由阿里巴巴和腾讯支持的企业所构成的竞争,该公司一直在争取扩大产品和服务的范围。
Despite fears about the health of the Chinese economy, the travel market is still growing. Ctrip’s second-quarter revenue rose 47 percent, to $408 million, from a year ago. Qunar’srevenue increased 120 percent, to $142.1 million in the second quarter.
尽管对中国经济的健康状况存在担忧,但旅游市场仍在增长。携程第二季度净营业收入25亿元,同比增长47%。去哪儿第二季度总营收8.81亿元,同比增长120%。
Kaiser Kuo, the international communications director for Baidu, said the agreement with Ctrip would give Qunar more opportunities to cooperate on mobile search and map-based products.
百度国际媒体公关总监郭怡广(Kaiser Kuo)表示,与携程达成的协议,将让去哪儿有更多机会在移动搜索和基于地图的产品上开展合作。
He also said the two companies would be able to benefit from each others’ strengths in different markets.
他还表示,两家公司都能通过对方在不同市场上的优势而获益。
“Ctrip is big on high end business travel, Qunar has been more leisure, personally booked travel,” he said. “We’re covering more bases, a broader demographic.”
“携程在高端商务旅游方面做得很大,去哪儿更休闲,是个人预订出行,”他说。“我们会覆盖更多客户群,扩大服务对象。”
The travel industry is not the only sector that is seeing companies team up amid steep competition.
竞争对手联合起来的现象不仅发生在旅游业。
Meituan, a group buying service, and Dianping, a consumer review site, agreed to join forces this month with the goal of creating an e-commerce juggernaut.
本月,团购网站美团网和消费者点评网站大众点评网同意合并,目标是创造一个电商巨头。