Chinese search engine Baidu is wasting no time making the most of its $306 million investment in metasearch site Qunar, promising to soon incorporate hotel search.
Baidu CEO Robin Li told investors on an earnings call this week that the company would shortly be developing new search tools after securing its majority stake with Qunar - a deal seen by some as a significant marker in the development of online travel and wider ecommerce in China.
While initially the deal was said to be more about impriving the Qunar brand, especially in mobile and hotel search, Baidu clearly sees the benefit of bringing in some of the tools in the main search engine.
The plan, according to Li, is to provide users with a better user experience when searching for hotels (at this stage), especially as travel is one of its most popular verticals in terms of searches running through the system.
Hotel-related content will be added to Baidu shortly, Li says.
"When users search for hotels, we will serve Qunar information at the top of our results page if it is relevant. After clicking through to Qunar, they will be matched with the same high-quality information on the landing page."
An official at Qunar adds the deal is likely to more integration with Baidu in terms of product search, but further details are yet to be disclosed.