Chinese online travel giant Ctrip has acquired Trip.com, a Silicon Valley-based travel planning and recommendation startup, which will allow Skyscanner to leverage Trip.com capabilities to launch in-trip content.
According to an announcement on the Trip.com website, the acquisition means “on a daily basis, we’ll be working with Skyscanner, Europe’s largest flight metasearch and part of the Ctrip Group as well, to bring some of what you’ve known and loved about us to their… app and audience”.
Skyscanner’s chief technology officer Bryan Dove commented: “Our aim has always been to make travel search as simple as possible, providing travellers everything they need in one single place.”
“Adding Trip.com’s content to Skyscanner’s offering represents the next step towards that goal. Trip.com is inherently social and mobile, and we’re hugely excited to learn from, and work alongside, their team.”
Trip.com’s team of 30 will continue to operate from their current office locations, alongside co-founders Travis Katz and Ori Zaltzman.
Founded in 2010 as Gogobot, the company has since raised US$39 million dollars in total funding from investors including Expedia, Battery Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe, Square CEO Keith Rabois and angel investor Oren Zeev.
