Strategic Cooperation Announced Between Two Leading Online Players
BEIJING, Sept. 17 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Sina.com, China's largest portal with over 100 million monthly unique visitors, announced a strategic cooperation with Qunar.com, China's largest travel search engine and second largest travel media with over 8 million monthly unique visitors.
The two companies will launch "Free Talk Travel", a blog publishing platform that will allow Chinese travelers for the first time to share their travel experiences in an innovative and interactive way. "Free Talk Travel" is expected to be one of China's most popular blog platforms and an asset to online travelers everywhere in China.
"We feel that Qunar will provide us the right travel industry expertise and consumer insights to co-develop this exciting new project. Both the blog platform and travel e-publishing are sure to be well-received by our users," said Mr. Kevin Zhu, Life Channel Editor of Sina.com.
According to Ms. Denise Peng, VP of Product Development at Qunar.com, "Sina is the right partner for us as we expand our service offering into the realm of travel 2.0. We're looking forward to an outstanding cooperation!"
In addition to co-developing "Free Talk Travel", consumers will be provided with prizes for offering the most interesting, relevant or downright funny stories about their latest travel adventures. A few of the top prizes include roundtrip flights to Bangkok and Phuket and Sony W55 digital cameras.
About Sina
SINA Corporation (Nasdaq GS: SINA) is a leading online media company and value-added information service provider for China and for global Chinese communities. With a branded network of localized web sites targeting Greater China and overseas Chinese, the Company provides services through five major business lines including SINA.com (online news and content), SINA Mobile (mobile value-added services or "MVAS"), SINA Community (Web 2.0-based services and games), SINA.net (search and enterprise services) and SINA E-Commerce (online shopping). Together these business lines provide an array of services including region-focused online portals, MVAS, search and directory, interest-based and community-building channels, free and premium email, blog services, audio and video streaming, online games, classified listings, fee-based services, e-commerce and enterprise e-solutions.
About Qunar.com
Based in Beijing, Qunar.com is a vertical search engine that focuses on providing the most comprehensive and accurate pricing information for travel services. Qunar's users are able to search and compare prices for flights and accommodation - all the information that travelers need before making a purchase decision. Launched in May 2005, the web site has quickly become one of the top travel media in China and is recognized as the "new star" in the Chinese online travel space. Qunar offers an audience that represents China's upwardly mobile new generation of consumers who are frequent travelers, comfortable with online transactions and willing to spend a significant amount of their disposable income on traveling to new and exciting places. Qunar means "where are you going?" in Mandarin Chinese.
For more information, please contact:
Dixon Dai
Vice President, Marketing
Tel: +86-135-01274842
Email: dixon.dai@qunar.com
