Priceline Invests $450 Million in Chinese E-Commerce Giant Meituan-Dianping
Photo Credit: Meituan-Dianping touches the travel business in several ways. One example is Hazelnut B&B, a bed and breakfast app offering thousands of accommodations in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other Chinese cities. Meituan-Dianping's Hazelnut B&B
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The deal shows the pragmatism of Priceline Group's new CEO toward China. Glenn Fogel chose to sync up with an additional local player rather than rely just on its existing partnership with Ctrip.
Meituan-Dianping, a Chinese e-commerce platform, aims to expand its other fast-growing lines of business in hotel reservations, ride-hailing, and restaurant bookings thanks to a fresh round of investment.
The Beijing-based company has raised $4 billion in investment, it said on Thursday. Past investor Tencent, the messaging-and-games giant, led the round.
Priceline Group participated in the round with a $450 million investment.
Our source said that there would be a commercial agreement where Priceline Group's Asia-focused Agoda brand would cooperate with Meituan-Dianping's Travel & Leisure division, one of four divisions at the company. The division sells lodging and transportation for domestic and international travel to Chinese consumers. It booked more than 18 million room nights of accommodation bookings in July alone.
The deal with Agoda will be similar to Booking.com's arrangement with Ctrip, according to the source. For reference, anywhere between 60 and 80 perc
