Booking Holdings has invested $500 million in mobility giant DiDi Chuxing and announced a strategic partnership, based around cross-selling each other's inventory.
This morning's statement said:
"Booking Holdings brands will have the ability to offer on-demand car service through their apps, powered by DiDi, 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 prepared comments from execs at both companies hint
Stephen Zhu, Vice President for Strategy of Didi Chuxing, said:
"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.”
Todd Henrich, SVP and Head of Corporate Development for Booking Holdings, said:
"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.”