Back in January we wrote about how Chinese search engine Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) was integrating more travel features into its ‘Box Computing’ services leading up to Chinese New Year. The company just gave its travel search yet another lift by partnering with Scotland-based Skyscanner, one of the leading online flight search companies.
With an office in Singapore, Skyscanner is already available in 25 different languages including Chinese. So when Baidu users look for flights they will be presented with an option as you see below for ‘Beijing – London’ query:
Check on Tianxun
Users can choose their desired date and then check using either Qunar, the travel site in which Baidu holds a majority share, or with Tianxun, which is how Skyscanner is known in Chinese.
The BBC reports that Skyscanner has announced the opening of a Beijing office, and cites the company’s Asia Pacific director, Ewan Gray, as saying:
The success of our strategy in China comes down to a few things, including our ability to localize website content for the Chinese user, optimizing search engine keywords, conducting online marketing campaigns and, not insignificantly, building relationships with China’s leading airlines and online travel agents.
Indeed this is sure to be a huge influx of traffic for Skyscanner, with Baidu users inbound via this quick and easy route. Skyscanner also has a popular mobile flight search app, so it will be interesting to see if the companies’ cooperation will extend across onto mobile devices or travel applications as well.
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