Shijiebang has raised around 10 million in Series A funding led by angel investors such as Jerry Yang (co-founder of Yahoo), Fosun Capital Group and Chinarock Capital Management.
Shijiebang also launched an itinerary assistant product that will help travellers organize their key travel needs, and connect travellers with local destination experts to create a customized itinerary.
Shijiebang says it has thousands of travel experts, 80% of them residing in their respective destinations.
Co-founder of Shijiebang, Xinyu Zhao, says:
"Over the past few years, we have seen strong demand of Chinese outbound travel. Chinese outbound travellers are increasingly interested in self-tours; at the same time, they are struggling with the scarcity of local travel information, high-cost of private tours, and the lack of customization in large tour groups.
"With the launch of our Itinerary Assistant, Shijiebang strives to become the one-stop, self-serve travel platform for Chinese outbound travellers. This product provides free itinerary customization and consulting services, creating a platform for travellers to browse and choose itinerary-specific travel products at a competitive price."
Shijiebang's competitor in China include other outbound focused players like Ukubang.com, Weego.me, Yiqifei, Tuniu.com (secured $60 million in Series D round), Aoyou.com, Uzai.com, and Lvmama.com.
Outbound leisure travel has become a major trend among Chinese tourists. The demand for outbound self-help leisure tours is on a fast trajectory.
Shijiebang was launched in 2012 with the mission to provide a customisable and self-service travel website for outbound travellers.
Currently, Shijiebang offers up to 16 categories of travel products including flight tickets, hotel reservation, visa application, insurance, cruise travel services etc. It has also signed agreement with hundreds of travel merchants across 20 countries across the globe.