China’s largest online travel agency Ctrip announced in a press release on Friday that it has integrated 10 ride-hailing services across the world into its own app to offer various mobility services such as private ride booking or a chartered van renting in 785 cities.
Lyft, which offers ride-hailing service in the United States, is on now Ctrip’s app. Grab, which is popular in Southeast Asia, is also linked up with Ctrip.
Ctrip also partners with Cabify, which covers Portugual, Spain, Mexico and other South American countries and ties with Careem, which operates in West Asia and North Africa. Gett, which covers Great Britain, Russia and Israel, is also linked up through Ctrip’s app now. Other partners are Liftago, which covers Czech and Slovakia, Germany’s Taxi Deutschland and Bolt, Belgium’s Taxis Verts, and the Netherland’s TCA.
As Ctrip’s app is mainly used by Chinese, this move is also mainly to facilitate Chinese tourists who travel overseas.
Ctrip’s app also provides online translation to help its users communicate with local drivers and also enables payment in RMB, according to the press release.
Last year, Ctrip teamed with ride-hailing aggregator Splyt, which allies with all these ten platforms, to offer pick-up and drop-off services, on Trip.com, the Chinese online travel agency’s Asia Pacific brand. Now, its Chinese app offers more options for mobility via this ride-hailing integration.
Ctrip’s alliance with these ten ride-hailers could pose a threat to Didi, China’s largest ride-hailing platform, which is expanding globally, such as in Mexico and some other startups that also target Chinese overseas tourists such as Guide. Guide just raised USD 50 million in its Series C+ round to connect more Chinese speaking drivers living outside the country with more outbound Chinese tourists, reported KrAsia in June.
