Beijing-based travel search engine Qunar, which sold a majority stake to Chinese search giant Baidu for $306 million last June, is reported to be considering an initial public offering in the US, says Bloomberg. The company, which launched a search services on mobile in 2010, expects to double revenues this year, said the report.
China’s travel industry is projected to grow annual revenues to $871 billion by 2020, according to industry estimates. Online travel spends currently accounts for about seven per cent of the market.
Qunar, which means ‘where to go?’ in Mandarin Chinese, was founded in 2005 and claims around 60 million monthly visits. Co-founder and CEO Chenchao Zhuang was earlier a core member of the World Bank’s system architechture team in Washington DC. The company makes money chiefly through pay-per-click advertisements, though its revenue numbers are not publicly available. Prior to the Baidu funding last year, Qunar had raised around $25 million in funding from venture capital firms Mayfield Fund, GSR Ventures, Tenaya Capital and GGV Capital over two rounds.
