Booking Holdings, the online accommodations and travel e-commerce firm previously known as The Priceline Group, has invested $500 million in a strategic partnership with a Chinese ride-sharing, A.I. and autonomous technology company.
Under the partnership, Norwalk-based Booking Holdings’ brands will have the ability to offer on-demand car service through their apps, powered by Beijing”™s DiDi Chuxing, and DiDi customers will have the option to book hotels through Booking.com or agoda.
“Through this partnership, the world’s largest online travel platform and the world’s largest mobility platform aspire to develop more customized travel solutions to build a more diversified travel ecosystem,” the companies said in a joint statement.
“DiDi has clear advantages in technology and scale in the shared-mobility industry,” said Booking Holdings Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Development Todd Henrich. “We believe that together we can offer smarter transportation services to our brands’ customers and help DiDi’s customers with seamless access to the products and services the brands in our company provide throughout the world.”
“Booking is championing a digital revolution of travel experience,” added DiDi Vice President for Strategy Stephen Zhu. “We look forward to seamlessly connecting every segment of the journey and improving everyone’s traveling experience through more collaborative innovation with the Booking brands on product, technology and market development.”
Booking Holdings serves users and partners in more than 220 countries and territories through its major brands, including Booking.com, agoda.com, KAYAK, priceline, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable. DiDi offers a range of app-based transportation services for over 550 million users across China, South America, Australia and Japan.
Notably, this partnership follows Booking Holdings’ recent acquisition of Australia-based HotelsCombined.
