Uber China has launched a new initiative, "Uber + Travel", which increases the number of travel options its Chinese customers can access, domestically and overseas.
It claims that it is working with its partners in China to "connect travellers with the travel services they need before, during and after their journey" and provide "a seamless and hassle-free travel experience."
Uber China is locally managed and funded. Uber itself is a stakeholder in Uber China and while there are crossovers between the two, the Chinese business can raise funds and strike partnerships independently.
Conglomerate HNA Group signed a strategic co-operation deal with Uber China this January. Over the next few months, the pair will work on integrating Uber’s API into HNA's Hainan Airlines app, with the idea that passengers using the Hainan app to check in can also book their Uber to the airport at the same time.
Uber users can also get a discount on their ride, while Hainan loyalty scheme members can also redeem points to pay for an Uber.
HNA said that it was "looking forward to creating more opportunities across our offerings". HNA's conglomerate portfolio includes airlines, hotels, airports and tour operators, as well as its proposed OTA joint venture with NetEase.
Uber China is also working with China Telecom to offer Chinese students in the US a discounted mobile phone plan with Uber rides also discounted. China Telecom said that it was looking to roll out a similar tie-up in Europe.
Other partners involved in Uber + Travel include Qunar, which will also integrate Uber into its app, as announced during Qunar's recent 2016 Q1 earnings call. JD.com, Baidu, TripAdvisor and ly.com will also get involved at some stage.
The statement said that Uber China users have taken almost one million Uber rides outside mainland China between January and May this year, taking in 374 cities in 68 countries. Bearing in mind that total Chinese outbound traveller numbers for 2015 came in at 120 million, 80 million of whom were independent travellers, there is room for Uber China and the +Travel initiative to grow,
However, the same can also be said of Uber's big rival Didi. While Didi operates exclusively in China, it was a founding member, with Lyft, of the Rides Everywhere partnership. This global initiative now includes Ola in India and Grab in South East Asia and proposes a global platform with interoperability between all the members' apps.
Uber China may have seen partnering with other travel sites as a window of opportunity and differentiation. Didi does not have any obvious and comparable similar tie-ups with travel suppliers, and the layers of integration required to aggregate the Rides Everywhere partners into a single app, and then make that app accessible via an API, are a challenge.
Uber China made its own API public last September.
However, there is an element of tit-for-tat at play in the former taxi app sector. So if Didi and/or Rides Everywhere wasn't thinking about getting deeper into travel, it is now.
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Apple pumps $1 billion into China’s Didi (May 2016)
Lyft and Didi confirm investment, launch Rides Everywhere partnership (Sept 2016)