Skyscanner Acquires Chinese Travel Search Start-Up Youbibi

Skyscanner has acquired Chinese metasearch company, Youbibi.

The acquisition will provide Chinese travellers with one place to search for all their travel needs, bringing together Youbibi’s mainland China expertise with Skyscanner’s comprehensive coverage of international flights.

Gareth Williams, Skyscanner’s Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Since we established our China team in 2012, the number of visitors to our site and apps across the country has grown tenfold, yet we’re still only at the start of the growth opportunity we see here. This acquisition brings the best of both worlds with Skyscanner’s international coverage and Youbibi’s domestic travel search and intimate knowledge of the Chinese traveller. The acquisition takes us from being a strong international travel specialist in China to a truly global travel service provider for Chinese nationals, domestically and internationally.”

Skyscanner continues to expand its business across China and the APAC region. Following the establishment of its China office, monthly visitors to the site have increased by over 10 times over the last three years, driven by its unbiased, free travel search functionality. The APAC region accounts for a rapidly growing proportion of Skyscanner’s business, with 20% of all visitors currently coming from the region.

Founded in 2010, Youbibi specialises in comparing flights, hotels and package holidays in China. Youbibi will continue to operate as a subsidiary of Skyscanner focused on developing the best search product for the Chinese traveller. Its team of specialist engineers will continue to be based in Shenzhen, China. Skyscanner’s commercial and marketing hub for China will continue to be based in Beijing.

Youbibi Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Steven Pang, said, “We built our website and app with the goal of making it as easy as possible for travellers across China to find their ideal holiday. We are proud of the technology that we have developed and, by bringing this together on our platform with Skyscanner’s global flight expertise, we believe we can create a really exciting travel search tool for all Chinese travellers. Our team is thrilled to become a part of Skyscanner and join their global travel journey.”

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.